I like Quail Hollow. I’ve enjoyed my visits there for the annual PGA Tour event sponsored by at least three different megabanks.
Great golf course. Love the Green Mile. I hope the PGA Tour’s signature event never leaves the Charlotte club.
But I hope the PGA Championship never comes back. Quail Hollow just isn’t a major championship venue. It’s a PGA Tour stop. Rarely, can a golf course effectively be both.
Though most of the focus of a major championship is the competition and other compelling story lines involving the players — albeit, this past week Scottie Scheffler didn’t get arrested outside the gate and Rory McIlroy had already completed the Grand Slam — the host course is part of the appeal.
The USGA knows this. The R&A knows this. The PGA of America, the organizing body behind the PGA Championship either hasn’t figured it out, or it doesn’t have enough juice to secure an appropriate course for the No. 4 major championship.
At the Masters, the mystique and beauty of exclusive Augusta National Golf Club, where golf fans from around the world are willing to spend small fortunes in order to make pilgrammages to attend practice rounds and buy lawn gnomes, the course and the grounds take front stage.
The USGA picks the nation’s top courses — private, public and resort — for the U.S. Open. The regular rotation includes historic and cherished venues such as Shinnecock Hills, Oakmont, Olympic, Merion, The Country Club, Winged Foot, Pinehurst No. 2, Bethpage Black and Pebble Beach.
The R&A opts for the world’s most historic and classic links layouts such the Old Course at St. Andrews, Troon, Prestwick, Birkdale, Muirfield, Lytham & St. Annes and St. George’s — all but Muirfield and St. Andrews officially designated as “Royal.”
Golf fans relish the opportunity to see Augusta National and the U.S. and British Open courses on television and imagine playing them.
The PGA Championship lacks historic venues needed to make a major championship a reason for golf fans to watch on TV rather than spend the weekend on the course themselves.
Quail Hollow Club has a great course in a rapidly growing market with headquarters of huge banks. It’s been a great host for the Wachovia, Wells Fargo and Truist tournaments. The world can see it every May on TV. To be fair, I’d feel the same way about Muirfield Village. Pebble Beach is an exception.
But there’s no mystique. It lacks the history. Most of the U.S. and British Open sites had held several major championships before Quail Hollow opened in 1961.
The PGA Championship has been held at some great historic venues — Oak Hill, Southern Hills, Baltusrol, Oakland Hills, to name a few. But they aren’t Shinnecock, Oakmont and Merion, are they? Valhalla probably wouldn’t be in the rotation had the PGA not bought it (and since sold it). TPC at Harding Park, Crooked Stick, and Sahalee? Come on.
I will give the PGA some credit. The Ocean Course at Kiawah Island and Whistling Straits are special, modern resort courses that golf fans want to see.
Nobody’s tuning in to watch Quail Hollow. In its rankings that came out in December, Golf Magazine’s expert panel ranked Quail Hollow as the 10th best course in North Carolina. There’s nothing compelling enough about Quail Hollow for it to host a major championship, not even the consensus No. 4 among the majors.
