Here are some of our favorites items from the Wells Fargo Championship merchandise tent.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The merchandise shop at the Wells Fargo Championship was hopping Tuesday afternoon.
Fans milled through the tent sizing up shirts, trying on caps and seeing whether belts with the Quail Hollow Club were the right fit.
All the usual suspects were present with an emphasis on Peter Millar, Nike and LevelWear. The Wells Fargo Championship gear was about what you’d expect but the Quail Hollow-logoed gear showed off some more creativity in both the shirt and lid department and get your “Green Mile” gear before it goes.
The three-pack of a Wells Fargo Championship divot tool and ball marks featuring the Quail Hollow logo and Green Mile logo was a nice way to collect all three in one fell swoop. Here are some of our favorites items from the Wells Fargo Championship merchandise tent.
When the Commish is willing to speak, reporters want to listen.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When the Commish is willing to speak, reporters want to listen.
On Wednesday, Jay Monahan, the PGA Tour’s big cheese, stopped by the Ron Green Jr. and Sr. media center at the Wells Fargo Championship to discuss the state of the Tour.
Monahan and his team have been reinventing the Tour’s schedule for next season seemingly on the fly ever since a player-only meeting was held last August at the BMW Championship. While he conceded the changes still remain in rough-draft form and it’s too soon to get into the nitty-gritty details, he fielded dozens of questions during a scrum with reporters, and here are five things we learned from The Commish.
“He’s just a steady hand on the steering wheel. I know he’s been in every moment a caddie could be in and he’s just a good guy. So I’ve enjoyed the limited time that I’ve spent with him and feel confident that we’ll be a good team out there,” said Cantlay, who noted he hasn’t spoken with Woods about the move. “When I reached out to Joe, he said it was possible and ended up working out and I’m really happy about it.”
Cantlay split with veteran caddie Matt Minister, who was on the bag when he won the 2021 FedEx Cup and was named the PGA Tour Player of the Year, following last month’s Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
“Yeah, we accomplished a lot together and I’m really proud of all we accomplished,” said Cantlay. “He’s a great friend of mine and we had a lot of good finishes together and a lot of wins. So I’m incredibly grateful to him, just needed a change.”
LaCava, 59, had been on the bag for Woods since 2011, and the pair claimed 11 official wins, including the 2019 Masters (as well as the 2011 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event). He also subbed in as Cantlay’s caddie for the 2021 Northern Trust when Minister was out with COVID-19.
Patrick Cantlay looks on from the 16th tee during the first round of the Northern Trust, the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs, at Liberty National Golf Club on August 19, 2021 in Jersey City, New Jersey. (Photo: Sarah Stier/Getty Images)
When it comes to caddies on Tour, LaCava is as good as it gets. The same can be said for Cantlay, 31, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the world and has finished inside the top five three times this year, with an additional nine top-25 finishes in 11 starts. With that talent comes a spotlight, which illuminated his deliberate approach to the game that fans have had fun calling out over recent weeks.
Cantlay isn’t sure why more people are talking about slow play now, but he is confident that if there is a problem, it’s not because of him.
“If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour,” he explained. “When you get really tricky days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it’s going to take a longer time to play.”
“But like I’ve said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don’t think they’re going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds, you know, go a lot faster.”
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PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan is on hand this week for the Tour’s ninth designated event of the season, and he told Cantlay the Zurich Classic, a team event that featured an alternate-shot format for the final round, finished 24 minutes ahead of schedule.
“He said no one was complaining that they finished too early,” Cantlay quipped.
Cantlay isn’t concerned about whether or not he’s criticized for his pace of play, but he is rather concerned about the proposed rollback of the golf ball. A representative from the USGA reached out to get his opinion on the idea and the UCLA grad didn’t hold back: “I think it’s a bad idea.”
“I don’t think that it would help the game. I think bifurcation’s really bad for the game,” he explained. “I think one of the best things about our game is that all the people that play at my home club can play the exact same equipment that I do and that’s different than pretty much any other sport.”
“I imagine that the best players are still going to be the best players. If anything, it probably gives more advantage to the guys that hit it far,” said Cantlay. “If they dialed it back how they’re talking about, there’s a lot of guys that would no longer get to a number of par 5s out here, but the guys that can get to those par 5s are still — the guys that get there now with long irons are going to be able to get there with 5-woods or 3-woods. So I think if anything, if they roll it back, the guys that hit it far will get an increased advantage.”
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Fowler’s first PGA Tour win came at the 2012 Wells Fargo Championship.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Rickie Fowler chased a Masters berth to the finish line but came up short, marking the second straight year he’s had to watch the first men’s major of the year on TV from home.
“I ended up watching a decent amount as I think everyone does. I was out playing golf and I watched some of the live streaming stuff on my phone, but that was some motivation to be back,” Fowler said on Wedensday ahead of the Wells Fargo Championship. “We were close, but I put myself in a little bit too big of a hole to get back there.”
Fowler, 34, has climbed from No. 103 at the end of last year to No. 53 in the Official World Golf Ranking entering this week at Quail Hollow, one of his favorite hunting grounds, and has recorded seven top 20s in his last eight starts on the PGA Tour. He’s locked up a berth to the PGA Championship in two weeks and is on track to qualify for the U.S. Open in June if he can remain inside the top 60.
Fowler, who resumed working with instructor Butch Harmon late last year, said the struggle was real but he feels he has turned the corner and he actually benefited from persevering through his dark period.
“I wish it was shorter,” he said. “But it’s fun to see the reward of OK, we’re going to battle through this, keeping working on whatever it may be to ultimately be in this position.”
Could this be the week when all the pieces in the puzzle fit and Fowler returns to the winner’s circle for the first time since the 2019 WM Phoenix Open? Fowler returns to a place where he won his first PGA Tour title in 2012. He faced off with Rory McIlroy and D.A. Points in a three-way playoff. Having already overcome a three-shot deficit on the final day by firing a 3-under 69 to join a playoff when Points bogeyed the final hole of regulation, Fowler, then 23, returned to No. 18 and attacked a dicey pin with a creek hugging the green’s left side. Fowler’s gamble paid off as he stuffed the shot to four feet and made the birdie putt to claim his first of what has grown to five Tour wins.
Rickie Fowler holds the trophy after winning the Wells Fargo Championship golf tournament at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., Sunday, May 6, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)
“It was great to finally get the monkey off my back,” he said, noting that he was scheduled to share a flight to the Players Championship in Florida with Ben Curtis and Geoff Ogilvy, who sat and waited on the tarmac for Fowler to do his winner’s duties. “I think I ended up picking up the flight.”
How sweet will that next ‘W’ feel? “Nothing ever replaces the first but the next will be pretty special,” he said, “but I don’t think it will ever touch the first.”
Check out some of the best photos from the week in Charlotte here.
The ninth designated event on the PGA Tour’s 2022-23 schedule is in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. The event returns to its normal spot after it was moved to TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm due to the Presidents Cup last year.
Max Homa entered the week as the defending champion; Rory McIlroy is the last player to win at Quail Hollow Club. But it was Wyndham Clark who came out on top, earning a four-shot win over Xander Schauffele for his first PGA Tour victory.
Check out some of the best photos from the week in Charlotte below.
We’re less than 24 hours away from the start of round one at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, for the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship.
Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, the top two players in the Official World Golf Ranking, have decided to take this week off (all players are permitted to skip one designated event this season).
Max Homa enters the week as the defending champion, although his win came at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm after the venue changed to accommodate the 2022 Presidents Cup being staged at Quail Hollow later in the year. Rory McIlroy, a three-time winner of this event, is the last player to win in Charlotte.
If you’re looking for a fantasy lineup to use this week, you’re in luck. Here’s one of our favorite rosters for the Wells Fargo Championship.
StrackaLine provides hole-by-hole maps for Quail Hollow, site of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour.
Quail Hollow Club, site of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship on the PGA Tour, originally was designed by George Cobb and opened in 1961 in Charlotte, North Carolina. It has been renovated several times, including by Arnold Palmer and most recently by Tom Fazio.
Quail Hollow has been a regular stop on the PGA Tour or PGA Tour Champions since 1969. It hosted the 2017 PGA Championship, won by Justin Thomas, and also was the site of the 2022 Presidents Cup. It again hosts the PGA Championship in 2025.
Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the pros face this week.
He made equipment changes, he made several scouting trips to Augusta National and yet he missed the weekend. Little mistakes added up, and he fell short of the career grand slam once again.
The RBC Heritage was next up on the schedule, a designated event that boasted the best field the tournament had ever seen.
He received some backlash after his withdrawal because the event at Harbour Town Golf Links was the second designated event he skipped in 2023 — all players are allowed to miss one this season.
Now he returns to Quail Hollow Club, the site of his first Tour win in 2010, for the Wells Fargo Championship.
The three-time winner in Charlotte, North Carolina, spoke with Golf Channel’s Todd Lewis about his decision to spend some time at home instead of playing in Hilton Head Island.
“More for my mental and emotional well-being I needed to be at home for those few weeks … I think I’m in a better head space than I was,” he said.
After a few events with a Scotty Cameron in the bag, McIlroy has gone back to his TaylorMade Spider X putter. He lost .85 strokes with the Titleist wand at the Masters.
“I had my best ever putting year on Tour last year so no need to throw the baby out with the bath water,” he told Lewis.
In 2021, the Northern Irishman missed the cut at Augusta and went on to win the Wells Fargo in his very next start. In fact, since the start of the 2020-21 season, McIlroy has finished inside the top 10 five times in his next start following an MC (seven missed cuts during that span).
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Justin Thomas might give up one of his Wanamaker Trophies for a pepperoni or meat lover’s pizza.
“I want a pizza like you cannot imagine,” said Thomas, the reigning PGA Championship winner. “Like I would do some really messed up things for a pizza just doused in ranch.”
That’s because he’s three months into a commitment he’s made to eat a gluten-free diet for one year and to go dairy-free for six months.
“Last year I felt like I had a very odd year. The heat really got to me. I mean, the beginning of the week in Tulsa I was so sick. I mean, I had some kind of just atrocious like sinus infection, like I had no energy, it was terrible. I have no idea how I ended up playing well that week. It was right after Byron Nelson, which was incredibly hot,” Thomas said.
There were other events in Mexico and after the final round of the Tour Championship in humid Atlanta he threw up in the locker room after the round.
“It seemed like every time it gets hot, I’m so tired at the end of the day, I’m tired when I wake up in the morning,” he said.
So, Thomas decided to do some blood work and food sensitivity tests, and he’s been following a diet prescribed by Dr. Ara Suppiah, chief medical doctor for NBC Sports and Golf Channel. What are some of the foods he’s added to his diet?
“Sometimes I’ll just suck in and get a nice breath of fresh air,” he joked.
It helps that Thomas often shares a house with Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler and others and they usually have their own chef, Michael Parker, to fix meals.
“If it’s on the road or if you’re on a vacation, it’s definitely difficult, I have to be that guy that tells the waitress or waiter of what’s going on,” Thomas said. “A lot of steak, chicken, fish, rice, vegetables, I can have most salads, some dressings, just have to be careful of what’s in it.”
Thomas, who celebrated his birthday Saturday, said he wanted to have won 20 times on the PGA Tour before turning the big 3-0, but “settled” for 15. The new diet hasn’t paid quick dividends in the results department: Thomas has slipped to No. 15 in the world and missed the cut at the Masters last month. But the hardcore diet is just further proof that he’s willing to turn over every stone to get the most out of vast abilities on the golf course.
“Three months in and I definitely feel better and I feel like I have more energy when I wake up, my body’s been feeling great, I’ve been moving really well. I’m just one of those guys like if I don’t at least try it,” he said. “I’m hoping it works because it sucks not being able to eat anything good, but if I don’t try it, I won’t know if it works, you know what I’m saying?”
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Which prop or position play are you adding to your card?
The biggest stars on the PGA Tour have made their way to Charlotte, North Carolina, for the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club. The top two players in the world, Jon Rahm and Scottie Scheffler, have decided to take this week off.
Max Homa returns as the defending champion, although he won at TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm after the event was moved to accommodate the Presidents Cup being held at QHC later in the year.
Rory McIlroy, who is making his first start since missing the cut at the Masters, is the last player to win at Quail Hollow. McIlroy has won this event three times, including in 2012 for his first win on Tour.
If you’re looking for a few plays to add to your card for the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship, here are five of our favorite prop bets and position plays.
