What To Look For...Wells Fargo Championship

The Tour plays the 14th annual Wells Fargo Championship this week in Wilmington, NC. The tournament has been played at Quail Hollow in Charlotte, but since Quail Hollow is hosting the PGA Championship this year, they moved the event to Wilmington and will move back to Quail Hollow the following season.

I am a bit surprised that they are having the PGA Championship at Quail Hollow as the course gets a lukewarm reception from players due to their funky green designs. It also tends to favor the bombers as witnessed by Rory McIlroy’s domination there. And August weather in Charlotte isn’t exactly fun, but they have had the event at Atlanta Athletic Club before as well.

On a side note from last week, we saw Cameron Smith and Jonas Blixt win. Typically TPC Louisiana favors the longer hitters and especially the better Red Zone players. But once again, the twosome pairings (alternate shot) showed a favoritism towards short game around the green players as Blixt and Smith are a couple of the best out there. It was hard to tell if that would apply at the Zurich because it’s no Ryder Cup, but Blixt and Smith showed the importance of being able to recover from when you miss greens in the alternate shot format.

Back to the Wells Fargo Championship…

Since the Tour has never played Eagle Pointe, I would generally favor the Red Zone players. Especially since the Tour has a tendency to find very Red Zone heavy courses when they opt for a replacement golf course. The field is pretty barren this week since The PLAYERS Championship is going on next week. That’s the biggest purse event of the year, so players are more apt to get some rest for that event especially since anybody from a short hitter to a bomber is a style that can win there.


3JACK’S FAVORITES

Dustin Johnson +450
Jon Rahm +1,100
Paul Casey +2,000
Kevin Kisner +2,200
JB Holmes +5,000


3JACK’S DARK HORSES

Hudson Swafford +6,000
Lucas Glover +6,000
Shane Lowry +6,600
Jason Kokrak +12,500
Smylie Kaufman +17,500




3JACK