Quail Hollow Key Fantasy Stats

Wells Fargo Championship

May 2nd – 5th, 2019

Quail Hollow Club

Charlotte,, NC

Par: 71 / Yardage: 7,554

Purse: $7.9 million

with $1,422,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Jason Day

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

Last year was the first year back at Quail Hollow after hosting the PGA Championship in 2017. This course has a lot of history in the last 16 years of hosting events in golf and it will continue hosting not only the Wells Fargo, but in 2021 the Presidents Cup and who knows, in future years it could hold another PGA Championship (maybe as early as 2025) and possibly a Ryder Cup down the road. One thing, for the PGA Championship the first five holes were altered with par being reduced from 72 to 71 with only a subtraction of 19 yards. For the PGA Championship, there were changes made to the course, first a new type of Ultradwarf Bermudagrass was planted. They also cut down several thousands of trees, so Quail Hollow is a lot sparser than before. They also have come up with four holes that will be totally different as the 1st and 2nd holes are now one long, 540 yard, par 4. The 5th hole was changed from a par 5 to a par 4 and a new second hole was built, it’s now a par 3. Also, major work was done to the 11th hole. The famous finish wasn’t touched, but the course is now a par 71 compared to it being a par 72. Even with the reduce par, the course only lost 19 yards and played at 7,554 yards. The one difference from last year’s Wells Fargo and when the 2017 PGA Championship was the dates, last year the course was played in the lush month of May compared to the PGA Championship in August when the course was bone dry and ran faster. Still, the character of the course is not changed, but yes it is harder at a par 71 than before.

So this week’s information is based on the most important stats for Quail Hollow, based on data from last years Wells Fargo Championship, and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2019. What we do is take their rank for each stat and then add up the four categories.
The scoring average of the field at Quail Hollow last year was 72.12, so with par being 71 (for that week) which meant the average score was just a bit over par, making Quail Hollow the 5th hardest PGA Tour course to score on in 2018.

From year to year Quail Hollow is demanding and tough, you look at the list of winners who are some of golf’s best ball strikers like Jason Day, Justin Thomas, Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Vijay Singh, and Lucas Glover. Yes, some weird winners like Derek Ernst, Joey Sindelar, and James Hahn have won They are on the list, but most of the time you’re going to get a quality winner, someone that plays well in major championships and WGC events. So in looking at our four categories, they are all related to ball striking, except for the last category which I think will be very important and that is scrambling.
First is driving accuracy, the field at last year’s Wells Fargo hit a total of 52.34% of the fairways and was the 6th hardest fairway to hit on the PGA Tour. When the Wells Fargo was played at Quail Hollow in 2016 it was the 5th hardest as only 51.01% of the fairways were hit. Last years winner Jason Day hit 48.21% of the fairways and ranked T-49th.
The course is also long, so players have to hit drivers off the tee and you don’t see many players lay back with a 3 wood or long iron. Our second category is proximity to hole, this is the cousin to greens in regulation which Quail Hollow was the hardest to hit for the PGA Championship in 2017 and was 3rd at 42 feet, 9 inches. For Day he was a bit of an anomaly as he ranked T-69th in Greens in Regulation and 59th in Proximity to hole, as for Thomas at the 2017 PGA Championship, he was T-29th. Our third category is strokes gained tee to green, again this gives an overall look at a player from the tee to the green, last year Day was 9th while at the 2017 PGA Championship Thomas was 22nd. Our last category is scrambling, last year the course was the 12th hardest on the PGA Tour while Day was the 2nd best for the week.

So the secret is that this week a ball striker or a very good putter will rule and take the championship. I go more towards ball striking because the course usually in the past is important.

*Driving Accuracy: Important because the fairways are close to U.S. Open length and if you drive it into the rough, it’s tough.

*Proximity to hole: Hitting greens is important, last year Quail Hollow ranked 10th, but in proximity to hole, which tells how close players get to the hole, Quail Hollow ranked 3rd as the players averaged getting it 42 feet, 9 inches.

*Strokes Gained tee-to-green: You need to hit it long and straight along with hitting lots of greens. Last year the course was 43rd in driving distance and 6th in accuracy. So this is important to find a player that will do this

*Scrambling: The percent of time a player misses the green in regulation, but still makes par or better. Last year Quail Hollow was 12th on the PGA Tour showing how tough it is to scrambling at Quail Hollow.

Here are the 137 of 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2019

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.

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