Quail Hollow Championship 2009 Preview
This week is the halfway point of the PGA Tour regular season (16 weeks into the year) and the tour heads to North Carolina for the Quail Hollow Championship. Formerly known as the Wachovia Championship, the tournament has been held at the Quail Hollow Club since 2003.
There may been no headline sponsor but there is no shortage of top golfers. Seven of the world’s top ten players are in attendance, the winners of 14 tournaments so far this year on the PGA Tour and 19 major champions with a combined 40 major victories.
In 2008 Anthony Kim earned his first PGA Tour title, taking a four-stroke lead into the final round and rolling to a five-stroke victory over Ben Curtis. Kim finished with a tournament record 16 under par 272 and was the youngest winner on the PGA Tour last year aged 22 years, 10 months and 15 days.
Quail Hollow is a demanding golf course and ranked 20th most difficult course on tour in 2008 and 11th in 2007. It is an old fashioned style tree lined golf course with narrow fairways and multiple doglegs. No player has recorded four rounds in the 60’s.
The greens are some of the most sloping the players will ever come across and their putting strokes will undergo a rigorous examination on the bent-grass greens. There are a few greens out there that are maybe a little too undulating for my taste, and I’m sure if you asked a lot of the players they would say the same thing said Todd Hamilton.
The 17th, ranked the most difficult hole, is the signature hole at Quail Hollow. The tee shot requires a 200 yard carry over water and the green slopes back to front and right to left. It was the toughest par three hole on the PGA Tour in 2008 (average score 3.418). The 18th, ranked the second most difficult hole, has a creek that meanders along the left hand side of a narrow fairway. There is a hazard on both sides of the deep sloping green. Last year, it was the fourth toughest finishing hole on the PGA Tour (average score 4.367).
With less rough than in previous years and rain forecast players will need to make a lot of birdies to win. Three of the last six winners have been major champions so expect the highest ranked players to feature at the top of the leader board. For more, check out the video above featuring Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk, Anthony Kim and Vijay Singh amongst others.
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