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Wells Fargo Championship First Click: Course history, Signature Event studs and more
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The PGA Tour heads to Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in North Carolina this week for the 2024 edition of the Wells Fargo Championship.
This year, the event is again part of the Signature Event series on the PGA Tour. A limited field will compete this week for a purse of $20 million, with the winner receiving $3.6 million.
This week is the sixth signature event of the 2024 calendar. Here is a list of the winners of the previous five.
The Sentry: Chris Kirk
AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am: Wyndham Clark
The Genesis Invitational: Hideki Matsuyama
Arnold Palmer Invitational: Scottie Scheffler
RBC Heritage: Scottie Scheffler
Fortunately, for the rest of the field, World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler has chosen to sit out this week and let someone else win.
The next time we see Scheffler will be next week at the PGA Championship as he tries to claim the third major championship of his career.
But let’s stick to this week.
Join me as I highlight some notable stats and trends to help make your picks for this week’s Wells Fargo Championship while also sharing my first click of the week.
Quail Hollow Course History
Rory McIlroy is the king of Quail Hollow.
The 35-year-old and Lucas Glover have played more competitive rounds (46) at this course than anyone in the field.
In 2010, McIlroy won the PGA Tour for the first time, and that victory came at Quail Hollow. He has only finished outside of the Top 20 twice in 11 Wells Fargo Championships.
Quail Hollow Course History
| GOLFER | RDs | OTT | APP | BS | ARG | PUTT | SG | T2G | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy | 46 | 1.45 | 0.77 | 2.22 | 0.12 | 0.19 | 0.31 | 2.35 | 2.53 |
| Rickie Fowler | 41 | 0.51 | 0.34 | 0.85 | 0.54 | 0.58 | 1.12 | 1.39 | 1.97 |
| Jason Day | 24 | 0.87 | -0.16 | 0.71 | 0.61 | 0.57 | 1.19 | 1.33 | 1.9 |
| Justin Thomas | 22 | 0.68 | 0.78 | 1.46 | 0.37 | 0.13 | 0.5 | 1.83 | 1.96 |
| Justin Rose | 22 | 0.43 | 0.98 | 1.41 | 0.18 | -0.06 | 0.13 | 1.59 | 1.54 |
| Keith Mitchell | 16 | 1.31 | 0.39 | 1.7 | -0.61 | 0.43 | -0.18 | 1.08 | 1.52 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | 23 | 0.66 | 0.59 | 1.25 | 0.42 | -0.25 | 0.18 | 1.68 | 1.43 |
| Max Homa | 13 | 0.26 | 0.53 | 0.79 | -0.39 | 0.84 | 0.45 | 0.41 | 1.25 |
| Lucas Glover | 46 | 0.39 | 0.3 | 0.69 | 0.34 | -0.01 | 0.33 | 1.03 | 1.02 |
(OTT: Off-The-Tee / APP: Approach / BS: Ball-Striking (OTT +APP) / ARG: Around-The-Green / PUTT: Putting / SG: Short-Game / T2G: Tee-To-Green / TOT: Total)
One player that never had a chance to make this list was Ludvig Aberg.
The 24-year-old is making his debut at this golf course this week. However, Ludvig’s rise to the top of golf’s talent rankings had me thinking.
So I scrolled through RickRunGood.com and compared the 117-round sample size from Aberg to the first 117 rounds we saw from McIlroy.
Aberg leads in every category.
It’s obviously far too early to compare Aberg to McIlroy. However, the young Swede is off to as good a start as any young European we’ve seen on the PGA Tour.
SIGNATURE EVENTS STUDS
As I pointed out earlier, this is year two of the PGA Tour's signature/Elevated Event series.
Here is a list of the best players in those events in 2023.
SIGNATURE EVENTS STUDS (2023)
| GOLFER | RDs | OTT | APP | BS | ARG | PUTT | SG | T2G | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Patrick Cantlay | 38 | 0.88 | 0.59 | 1.48 | 0.27 | 0.21 | 0.47 | 1.74 | 1.94 |
| Wyndham Clark | 32 | 0.15 | 0.9 | 1.05 | 0.15 | 0.52 | 0.68 | 1.2 | 1.73 |
| Denny McCarthy | 29 | 0.1 | 0.23 | 0.34 | 0.24 | 1.06 | 1.3 | 0.58 | 1.64 |
| Xander Schauffele | 39 | 0.1 | 0.85 | 0.95 | 0.05 | 0.61 | 0.66 | 0.98 | 1.59 |
| Rickie Fowler | 35 | -0.04 | 0.69 | 0.65 | 0.28 | 0.62 | 0.89 | 0.92 | 1.54 |
| Rory McIlroy | 33 | 0.7 | 0.47 | 1.17 | 0.43 | -0.15 | 0.28 | 1.6 | 1.45 |
| Jordan Spieth | 31 | 0.1 | 0.74 | 0.84 | 0.53 | 0.02 | 0.55 | 1.41 | 1.43 |
| Jason Day | 29 | 0.47 | 0.06 | 0.53 | 0.26 | 0.6 | 0.86 | 0.79 | 1.39 |
| Ludvig Aberg | 8 | 0.51 | -0.3 | 0.21 | 0.3 | 0.76 | 1.06 | 0.51 | 1.27 |
| Max Homa | 31 | 0.09 | 0.43 | 0.53 | 0.07 | 0.68 | 0.74 | 0.58 | 1.26 |
| Sungjae Im | 39 | 0.43 | 0.32 | 0.75 | 0.22 | 0.29 | 0.52 | 0.96 | 1.26 |
| Justin Thomas | 34 | 0.34 | 0.65 | 1 | 0.4 | -0.16 | 0.24 | 1.39 | 1.23 |
| Tony Finau | 35 | 0.3 | 0.89 | 1.18 | -0.02 | 0.06 | 0.04 | 1.16 | 1.22 |
And here is that same list for 2024 (Sentry, Pebble Beach, Genesis, API, RBC Heritage).
SIGNATURE EVENTS STUDS (2024)
| GOLFER | RDs | OTT | APP | BS | ARG | PUTT | SG | T2G | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wyndham Clark | 17 | 0.65 | 0.19 | 0.84 | 0.22 | 0.72 | 0.94 | 1.06 | 1.57 |
| Will Zalatoris | 12 | 0.45 | 0.9 | 1.36 | -0.18 | 0.17 | -0.01 | 1.18 | 1.35 |
| Patrick Cantlay | 19 | 0.28 | 0.24 | 0.52 | -0.03 | 0.57 | 0.54 | 0.49 | 1.34 |
| Sahith Theegala | 19 | 0.2 | 0.22 | 0.42 | 0.16 | 0.81 | 0.97 | 0.58 | 1.34 |
| Justin Thomas | 13 | 0.25 | 0.45 | 0.7 | 0.33 | -0.13 | 0.21 | 1.04 | 1.02 |
| Jason Day | 19 | 0.18 | -0.17 | 0.01 | 0.47 | 0.47 | 0.94 | 0.48 | 0.97 |
| Tom Hoge | 19 | -0.09 | 1.25 | 1.16 | -0.07 | -0.03 | -0.1 | 1.09 | 0.97 |
| Xander Schauffele | 19 | 0.46 | 0.2 | 0.66 | 0.08 | 0.3 | 0.38 | 0.74 | 0.92 |
| Eric Cole | 19 | -0.33 | 0.39 | 0.06 | 0.26 | 0.56 | 0.82 | 0.32 | 0.82 |
| Collin Morikawa | 17 | 0.32 | 0.2 | 0.52 | 0.21 | 0.08 | 0.29 | 0.74 | 0.81 |
| Akshay Bhatia | 8 | -0.3 | 0.46 | 0.16 | -0.26 | 0.84 | 0.58 | -0.1 | 0.73 |
| JT Poston | 19 | -0.02 | -0.21 | -0.23 | 0.59 | 0.36 | 0.95 | 0.37 | 0.71 |
Wyndham Clark has had a pretty remarkable 12 months.
Last year at this event, he held off Xander Schauffele for the first win of his professional career.
Since then, he has added a U.S. Open, a Ryder Cup appearance and a win at Pebble Beach to his resume.
If it weren’t for Scheffler’s dominance, Clark might have added a Players Championship or Arnold Palmer Invitational win to his total with runner-up finishes at both events.
Over the last two seasons, Patrick Cantlay is the only player in this field who has been better than Clark in these elevated / signature events.
BEST IN THE FIELD
If course history and recent form in signature events isn’t your cup of tea, allow me to present the ten best players in this field for 2024 according to the strokes gained data.
Best in the field
| GOLFER | RDs | OTT | APP | BS | ARG | PUTT | SG | T2G | TOT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xander Schauffele | 40 | 0.56 | 0.59 | 1.15 | 0.39 | 0.42 | 0.82 | 1.54 | 1.78 |
| Ludvig Aberg | 39 | 0.63 | 0.56 | 1.18 | -0.09 | 0.32 | 0.22 | 1.09 | 1.43 |
| Rory McIlroy | 40 | 0.92 | 0.4 | 1.32 | 0.02 | 0.13 | 0.14 | 1.34 | 1.42 |
| Wyndham Clark | 35 | 0.54 | 0.48 | 1.02 | 0.14 | 0.34 | 0.48 | 1.16 | 1.37 |
| Billy Horschel | 34 | 0.12 | 0.21 | 0.33 | 0.17 | 0.57 | 0.74 | 0.5 | 1.27 |
| Christiaan Bezuidenhout | 43 | -0.12 | 0.5 | 0.38 | -0.03 | 0.72 | 0.69 | 0.35 | 1.21 |
| Matthieu Pavon | 41 | 0.32 | 0.36 | 0.67 | -0.15 | 0.55 | 0.41 | 0.52 | 1.18 |
| Sahith Theegala | 42 | 0.42 | 0.37 | 0.79 | -0.12 | 0.66 | 0.54 | 0.67 | 1.18 |
| Akshay Bhatia | 41 | 0.35 | 0.51 | 0.87 | 0.07 | 0.36 | 0.43 | 0.93 | 1.12 |
| Si Woo Kim | 47 | 0.57 | 0.49 | 1.06 | 0.23 | -0.33 | -0.1 | 1.29 | 1.01 |
Wells Fargo Championship First Click
When it comes to a first click, I like chasing volatility, and Will Zalatoris has been just that in 2024.
The young American has played in 10 events this year.
He has three Top 10s. He also has finished outside of the Top 30 six times and has three missed cuts.
Two of Zalatoris’ Top 10s have come in signature event starts. The third came at the Masters.
When Zalatoris had to miss extended time last year due to a back injury, many of us wondered if he would be able to find his elite form again.
The early returns on 2024 lead me to believe he has a big win coming soon.
Let’s hope it’s this week.
I’ll end this with a second click—shh, I know we’re only supposed to do one—by backing Aberg at +1200.
The Swedish stud might be this generation's Rory McIlroy, so why not follow in his footsteps and win his first time at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club?
Who’s your first click this week for the Wells Fargo Championship? Let us know on X @TSN_Edge.