With World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler away as he and his wife Meredith remain on Baby Watch, seven of the remaining top 10 golfers on the Official World Golf Ranking will have a chance to win a PGA Tour Signature Event at this week’s Wells Fargo Championship—not to mention gain some momentum with the PGA Championship right around the corner. Rory McIlroy, Wyndham Clark, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland, Patrick Cantlay, Brian Harman and Max Homa are set to tee off at Quail Hollow, all trying to hit the highs
Winning by four strokes while setting a 72-hole record at 265, Clark claimed his maiden tour title a year ago in Charlotte before eventually going on to win the U.S. Open just over a month later. On Sunday last year, Clark went four under over his last 11 holes separating himself from the red-hot Xander Schauffele.
Like Clark, McIlroy is a big fan of this event as he set a scoring record of 21 under back in 2015; it’s also the only tournament that the Northern Irishman has won three times. His last victory came in 2021, so it might be time for that fourth Wells Fargo victory.
This week’s winner will receive 700 FedEx Cup points and a $3.6 million cut of the $20 million purse.
Few golf course projects had more national attention in recent years than Quail Hollow, mainly because its front nine was redesigned just a year before it hosted the 2017 PGA Championship, won by Justin Thomas. The par-4 first and par-3 second holes were completely torn up, replaced by a new long dogleg-right par-4 opening hole. Several acres of pines to the left of the fifth tee were removed to make room for a new par-3 fourth. (With its knobby green fronted by three traps, it proved to be the most frustrating hole for pros in the 2017 PGA.) More pines were removed to the left of the par-4 11th, replaced by bunkers, and even more trees chopped down on a hill left of the par-4 18th to make room for money-making hospitality boxes. There’s no question that this latest remodeling, rushed though it was, improved the course. The course was also rerouted for the 2022 Presidents Cup.
Golf Channel will carry live coverage Thursday and Friday from 2-6 p.m. EDT. On Saturday and Sunday, Golf Channel will start the coverage from 1-3 p.m. with CBS taking over with afternoon coverage from 3-6 p.m.
PGA Tour Live streaming coverage will air on ESPN+ from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday with four-stream expanded coverage that includes a main feed, a featured groups feed, a marquee groups feed and a featured holes (Nos. 4, 6, 14 aand 17) feed. Four-stream coverage will also take place Sautrday and Sunday from 7:15 am to 1 p.m.
