Tour Guide: Playing the Mile

It’s a signature event for the PGA Tour, while Nelly Korda returns to LPGA action in New Jersey. So we’re breaking down Quail Hollow quirks, taking a look at one player who might be able to stop Nelly, and flashing back to the PGA Tour’s surprisingly long David Toms Era.

Bombs Away

By Joseph LaMagna

Distance is an advantage on every golf course, but it’s particularly advantageous at Quail Hollow. Quail is a long golf course, with a plethora of beefy par 4s and three par 5s that are reachable for long hitters. It’s not shocking that Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark, two of the five speediest players on tour, have won the last two editions of the Wells Fargo held on this golf course.

As we’ve discussed before in Club TFE, a bomber’s biggest advantage doesn’t always come on the longest holes. Scoring on semi-drivable par 4s tends to be highly correlated with distance, and Quail Hollow has two of them (Nos. 8 and 14).

The eighth hole, a par four that typically measures between 325 and 350 yards, exemplifies the advantage bombers have at this golf course. Players who can get the ball up around this green have a significant edge over shorter-hitting competitors.

Tee shot dispersion and resulting scores on No. 8 at Quail Hollow (ShotLink/PGA Tour)

As you can see in the plot above, it’s much easier to score from around this green than from full wedge distance, as is generally the case on the vast majority of golf holes.

Architecturally speaking, Quail Hollow is not my favorite golf course on the PGA Tour, a position that often leaves me in the crosshairs of many social media users, especially those who reside in the Charlotte area. I don’t hate the golf course, and I’d much rather watch pros play here than at many other PGA Tour venues. But I think this is a prime example of a golf course with little intrigue once the golf ball hits the ground.

The seventh hole represents this concept in action. A 530-yard par 5, the seventh hole is both a strong test of professional golf and fairly one-dimensional.

Approach shot dispersion and scoring on No. 7 at Quail Hollow (ShotLink/PGA Tour)

Water lines the right side of the hole. Bunkers guard the front and left side of the green complex. Can you rip a drive down the left/middle of this fairway and launch a long iron into the green that stops as quickly as possible? If so, you’ll probably thrive at Quail Hollow.

Fortunately for players like Rory McIlroy and Wyndham Clark, the power advantage at Quail Hollow isn’t going to be any smaller this year than in previous years. Along with resurfacing the greens and other changes to the golf course, the long par-4 16th hole has been lengthened by 23 yards since last year’s tournament. Suffice to say, this isn’t the golf course you’d build if you were trying to give Peter Malnati the best chance of contending.

In summary, I don’t think the golf course is bad. I think some of the holes, like the seventh, are good tests for professional golfers. And it’s refreshing to watch the best players in the world swing with long irons in their hands. I would just maintain that despite some of its strong characteristics, Quail Hollow suffers a bit in the variety department while promoting a less than compelling style of play.

How Jin Young Ko Can Stop Nelly Korda’s Streak

By Meg Adkins

The LPGA is back this week with the Cognizant Founders Cup at Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, New Jersey. (The Garden State will be home to three of the next four LPGA events.) The player most excited to make her way to the East Coast? Jin Young Ko.

The Founders Cup has been a special event for Ko. She’s won it three times, including last year when she came from four shots back on Sunday to beat Minjee Lee in a playoff. It’s been an event she can count on, even as injury struggles in recent years have hampered her form.

She’ll need to gather all the good memories this week to grab her fourth Founders Cup win. There were signs of improvement in Los Angeles two weeks ago, as she posted a T-4 at Wilshire. Ko was outwardly pleased with that result during her post-round interview, especially coming off a frustrating missed cut the week prior at Chevron. More importantly, when asked about how her recurring wrist injury was feeling, Ko said it was not bothering her. Taking a page out of Nelly Korda’s playbook, Ko stayed in Korea after the Asian swing to rest in the lead-up to the first major.

Another good sign for Ko: this is only the second time Nelly has played Upper Montclair. Her first appearance was a missed cut in last year’s tournament. It’ll take much more than lack of course experience for Ko, or for that matter any other player, to stop Korda from making history by winning six in a row. If Nelly keeps doing Nelly things, a special performance from someone else will be needed. Ko will have to turn back the clock to her dominant stretch of play in 2021, when she rattled off round after round in the 60s, hit 63 greens in a row in regulation, and went nine months without shooting over par.

One aspect of Ko’s game that’s trending towards her 2021 peak is her approach game. While there’s not a huge sample size so far this year, she is currently 1st in SG: Approach, with her average proximity hovering right around 21 feet. Approach play is always crucial, and it was a large part of her win here last year when she finished 3rd in the category. Keep an eye on her driving, though. It’s going the wrong way this year, ranking near the bottom of the barrel at 123rd in SG: Off the Tee. In the past two years, she averaged 75th and 80th respectively in that category. The driver has never been her strength, but it has to improve this week if she’s going to take down Nelly.

Catching lightning in a bottle while hoping for a Nelly cooldown is a lot to ask for. That’s what it’s going to take, though, to stop the streak at five. Jin Young Ko’s got the resume, experience, and some momentum from Wilshire to take that challenge on. And this week just happens to be her favorite stop on the schedule.

Memory Lane: David Toms Nearly Loses It

By Jay Rigdon

Remember the David Toms Era? Remember the period in golf where if you turned on the action and one of Tiger, Phil, Vijay, Ernie, weren’t winning, there was a strong chance you were going to see Toms pop up in a beige polo and take home a win, or at least threaten to.

CBS leaderboard screenshot (via PGA Tour)

Toms finished 2001, 2002, and 2003 inside the OWGR top ten, a legitimately impressive run. But in 2003, David Toms won the very first Wells Fargo at Quail Hollow, though it was called the Wachovia then. He did so for 71 holes in typically boring (not really an insult) David Toms fashion before livening up proceedings on the 72nd hole. Holding a six-shot lead, Toms proceeded to blast a drive right, struggle to get out of the woods, duff another shot once he was out, and four-putt. He made a closing quadruple-bogey eight and still won by two strokes. Imagine Toms flailing around trying to get it across the line in the Twitter era. The Shotgun Start would have provided a must-listen Monday episode for that one.

Tour Guide is a weekly Club TFE feature looking at the world of pro golf, focusing on course details, players to watch, swing analysis, and the occasional light-hearted romp through golf history.