BlogWells Fargo Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

I don’t know if anybody else is starting to feel like they are watching a Web.Com tour event these Sundays.  The leaderboard in New Orleans looked like one as only Keegan Bradley and Justin Rose were the only true marquee players in the top-ten.  How about CBS, gosh they have become completely unwatchable as it seems that they are just phoning it in.  Nick Faldo has been good but Jim Nantz has gotten so syrupy that you feel he is on the PGA Tour payroll.  In events like this they need to be better in telling us about these players and educate us on the course and doing a better job in showing the field instead of just a handful of players.  All we seem to get is a steady stream of shot after shot after shot, must of them on tape with the results already shown on PGA Tour.Com leaderboard.

Now if a week ago you would of asked me to rate the field, I would of put Seung-Yul Noh about 120th of the field of 156 with no chance of winning.  Can someone educate me on how Noh won?  Maybe it was the ferry accident in his home country Korea that got him rolling but since joining the tour in 2012 it’s all about making money for him.  Guess we have to give him some credit, it’s the first time he was in contention going into the back nine and he did hold on for the win.  Last year at this time he was missing his eight cut in his 12 starts and had such a poor season he has to participant in the Web.Com Tour finals just to save his card.  He did it in fine fashion winning the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship which help him regain his card for 2014.  For the year he has been better, in 13 starts before New Orleans he only missed one cut and had three top-25 finishes.  Still there was no indication of him winning and it’s been a big mystery on how half the players have done so.

The big problem I see is that this is our future, a lot more events with non-marquee names on the leaderboard over the weekend and more obscure winners like Seung-Yul Noh.  I for one is going crazy and it’s driving me to watch more LPGA events which have had fun Sunday’s in which marquee names are winning.  It seems I have a bigger rooting interest in that tour plus the Golf Channel does a much better job of covering tournaments than CBS does.  They don’t phone it in for the woman.

So what are some of the problems?  First of all and I think the number one problem, there is way too much money on the PGA Tour.  Already this year there are 47 players that have earned over a million dollars.  With 93 players winning over a half a million dollars I can see over a hundred players making a million dollars this year.  The purses are too big, the four players tied for 25th earned $54,230.  I see it so easy for players to just finish in the top-25 and earn after expenses more than most of the people that work hard as secretaries, nurses, teachers and policeman earn in a year.  I don’t mean to pick on him but I just saw a segment of Inside the PGA Tour on Pat Perez who lives high on the hog like the millionaire in Arizona.  He has played the tour now for 13 years and won only once but has earnings of $15.3 million and lives the life of Donald Trump.  I don’t mean to pick on these guys, yes they have worked hard to get at this level but I really feel it’s too easy for them.  20 years ago only about a quarter of the field that teed it up had a chance of winning, now it’s like 75%.  So there are no real heros anymore to root for week in and week out.  Making it even sadder the ones we do like to root for only seem to play majors, WGC events and a handful of PGA Tour events.  Last week Zurich had a terrible field, gosh even this week the field at Wells Fargo isn’t as stellar as past years.  So the reality is that the PGA Tour is becoming an important draw like one in four weeks.  This is the reason that outside of organizations like the PGA Tour nobody is making money in golf.  Without heros to watch week in and week out, the PGA Tour has become a part-time sport in which you only watch in big weeks when all the players deem it’s best to play.  Sure the tour is completely full of sponsors each week that are willing to fork over nine, ten and up to 12 million to sponsor events in which fans really don’t care.  On top of that you aren’t getting good TV  because they are just phoning it in and going from stop to stop to stop.  Now NBC does a much better job but frankly TV telecasts haven’t changed in years.  Yes every now and then NBC has a pro-tracker and some other innovations, but the graphics are the same old thing that was done 15 years ago and nothing has changed.  When I watch the Washington Nationals on MASN Sports, they seem to have more excitement and drive on each game than CBS does as we hear the same “Hello Friends” from Jim Nantz week after week after week.  That is the problem with having these ten year contracts it doesn’t give incentive to give not only good coverage but something that is innovative.  Even the Masters telecast was not very interesting, maybe that’s why the ratings were down.  I do know this, each year I look forward to hearing Mike Tricio do the British Open on ESPN, they do the best job of the year.  I can only hope that Fox is successful in their U.S. Open telecast and gives us something more to watch.  Now I am not ripping NBC who does a better job on Golf, they still can do a much better job, but they do work hard each week, something that doesn’t happen with CBS.

Sorry to waste your time on this, but I really feel it’s important because if I, the biggest golf fan in the world is struggling with this I can see why more casual golf fans are turning the sport off.

Things you need to know about the Wells Fargo:

• This is the twelve year of the Wells Fargo Championship, which is played at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.  The course was the site of the Kemper Open from 1969 through 1979 before it was moved to Washington D.C.  With the advent of Wachovia coming into the picture and Quail Hollow being used, the tournament gained instant recognition and has been one of the most popular events on tour, not only in player attendance but with spectators as well. For the ninth year in a row the event is sold out.
• In 2008 Wachovia was bought out by Wells Fargo and with the problems associated with banks sponsoring tournaments Wells Fargo decided to take the Wachovia name off the tournament.  Wells Fargo continued to sponsor the tournament after its purchase of Wachovia, but dropped it’s name and decided to be pretty hands off and more of a background player. In 2011 they put got more involved and put there name back into the event.  The owners of Quail Hollow seemed more interested in having a major, getting the 2017 PGA Championship.  But they are now just as excited about this event and it’s future looks good.

Course information:

• Quail Hollow Golf Club
• Charlotte, N.C.
• 7,562 yards     Par 36-36–72
• Quail Hollow features a course rating of 75.0 and a slope rating from the back tees of 140. The tees, fairway, and rough are 419 bermudaGrass with Perennial Ryegrass.  The greens were changed after last years event and are Mini Verde Ultrdwarf.
• The main reason that the players love this event is because of the course. Located in Charlotte, North Carolina it’s considered one of the most exclusive clubs in America and in the players’ eyes one of the best challenges. Many consider it a “U.S. Open-type” venue as it was the 10th hardest course on the PGA Tour playing to a 73.043 average which is 1.043 strokes over par.  Players loved the course so much that the word filtered down and help get more marquee players to come, but in the last couple of years that trend has changed as less marquee names are showing up.
• The property was originally a dairy farm owned by former North Carolina Governor Cameron Morrison. In the late 1950s, a group of affluent men decided to create a private club patterned after the Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta. George Cobb was recruited to design the course and it opened in June, 1961. In order to attract members, one of the founding members enlisted the help of a close friend, Arnold Palmer. Palmer liked the course so much, he was instrumental in bringing the Kemper Open to Quail Hollow. The event was played there from 1969-79, then abruptly moved to Washington, D.C. in 1980.
• Palmer didn’t forget Quail Hollow. When he began playing the Champions Tour in 1980, he worked to bring the Paine Webber Invitational to Quail Hollow, where it was played between 1983-88.  Palmer tinkered with the course in the late ’80s, but a major renovation was done by Tom Fazio in 1997.
• The average green size is 6,500, which is about average and the course is dotted with 62 bunkers.  Water comes into play on six holes (7, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18).  Along with the changing of the greens course architect Tom Fazio changed the 8th hole making it play straight and now is potentially a drive-able par 4.  He also made a major change to 16, adding 18 yards to the hole and bringing the lake into play.  This hole will be a brute and probably be one of the ten toughest holes on the PGA Tour in 2014.  He also changed 17, moving the tee to the right and adding 20 yards to the hole.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Wells Fargo Championship:

Key stat for the winner:

Since the course will play at more than 7,500 yards, the “experts” will say bombers hold an advantage. But as you will see length is not the only strength you need to play well at Quail Hollow.  Three of the eight winners (Jim Furyk, David Toms and Joey Sindelar) do not have the reputation as long hitters even though the 2005 winner Vijay Singh, Tiger Woods, Anthony Kim, Sean O’Hair, Rory McIlroy and last year’s winner Derek Ernst do.  So it’s a 50/50 proposition on if longer hitters have an advantage.

• This is one of those courses that will get you ready for a U.S. Open.  As a matter of fact it would be a perfect Open venue because of its length, tight fairways with three-inch plus rough, tree line and fast undulating greens.  It always ranks as one of the toughest courses on tour.
• Accuracy will probably again not be a factor if you look at the statistics of the 11 winners.  Last year Derek Ernst finished T13th in accuracy which is fourth best of all the champions in accuracy just above 2003 winner David Toms will was T2nd, 2012 winner Rickie Fowler who was T2nd followed by 2006 winner Jim Furyk who was 3rd.  Looking at this myth of driving accuracy on a course like Quail Hollow, things have changed.  Even though in past years fairways were very narrow and earned the reputation as narrowest on tour, of the 20 players that finished in the top-five in the tournament’s first three years, 15 of them finished in the top-20 of the driving accuracy category.  Things changed drastically in 2006 when only five players out of the top 21 finished in the top-ten of the driving distance category.  In 2007 it was even worse as only two of the top-20 finished high in fairway accuracy.  Things did improve in 2008 as five of the top-fifteen were in the top-ten in driving accuracy but with all of the rain the fairways were soft and help cause that.  In 2009 and 2010 only one player in the top-ten was in the top-ten in driving accuracy so it looked like just because you see tight fairways doesn’t mean you have to hit it straight. But the trend changed.  In 2011 and 2012 four of the top-ten were in the top-ten in driving accuracy, while in 2013 five of the top-15 were in the top-ten so maybe accuracy is becoming more important off the tee.
• Hitting greens will be at a premium, just like in a U.S. Open hitting lots of greens goes a long way in this event.  Look for the winner to hit globs of greens this week, in the first six years Anthony Kim was the only player out of the top-11 in this stat, he finished T17th in greens hit in 2008.  In 2009 Sean O’Hair was T3rd while in 2010 Rory McIlroy was T4th.  In 2011 Lucas Glover was T27th, Rickie Fowler was T5th in 2012 while Derek Ernst was T3rd last year.
•  Good putters should have a field day this week. Green speeds were lowered in 2008 and Anthony Kim was 2nd in total putts.  But it popped up in 2009 as Sean O’Hair was T47th, the worst of any champion.  In 2010 McIlroy was T38th in this category while in 2011 Glover was 3rd.  In 2012 Fowler was T40th while last year Derek Ernst was T34th.
• The course is demanding but as it goes into year 11 the pros are starting to learn it better and shoot lower scores.  In the first three years the winning score has come down a stroke a year except for in 2006 when it stayed the same at 276. In 2007 Tiger Woods broke the tournament record shooting 275, while Anthony Kim brought things even lower with his 272 total.  The next year McIlroy shot 273 the same score as Lucas Glover did in 2011.  But with the advent of the 2017 PGA being played on the course it’s had some changes as Rickie Fowler shot 274 in 2012 with Derek Ernst jumping up to 280 last year
• Lastly one of the keys to mastering Quail Hollow is playing well on the final three holes, which has been dubbed “The Green Mile”.  Showing the difficultly of this stretch, in 2013 16, 17 and 18 were all in the top-80 of the PGA Tour’s hardest holes.  With the changes done to 16 it could jump into the top-50.
• Now I don’t want to jinx the tournament, but weather in North Carolina should be picture-perfect for the four days of the championship, despite all of the bad weather in the mid-west and eastern seaboard and the bad weather the course will have on Tuesday and Wednesday.