The 156 professionals, including 20 Corebridge Financial Team members, competing in this year’s Championship will en counter a par-71 layout measuring 7,626 yards, not much longer than they found in 2017 when it was 7,600 yards and Thomas was the last man standing at 8-under 276. But they will find it subtly more challenging and with improvements ranging from new grass and softened contours on the greens (to accommodate tougher hole placements) to the rebuilt bunkers and laser-leveled teeing grounds reoriented to square up to fairway landing areas.
The club grounds, the clubhouse, the practice facility and infrastructure have received similar attention.
“I remember seeing Fazio before the (2022) Presidents Cup, and I asked him, ‘What are you doing?’ And he said, ‘I don’t know. It’s always something.’ But it wasn’t like there was anything wrong; it was about making something better,” says Love, who was made an honorary member following the Presidents Cup, as was International Team Captain Trevor Immelman.
“The thing about Johnny Harris is that he’s not afraid to always improve the golf course. He’s not afraid to have a big tournament. He’s not afraid to push the limits. I mean, they don’t build cart paths at Quail Hollow, they build roads through it.
“There are a lot of great golf courses and a lot of great clubs, but there’s not that many that when you pull in, you get that, ‘Oh gosh, this is really cool’ feeling. There’s something different about going through the gate at Augusta or at a Seminole, Pine Valley or Medinah that makes you feel like you’re a part of history. It’s unique and special. And Quail Hollow gives you that same sense of arrival.”
A two-time PGA Champion, Rory McIlroy has won the tour event at Quail Hollow four times. He’s part of the club’s history. He likes the feeling. He likes Quail Hollow.
“It’s one of my favorite places in golf,” says the native of Northern Ireland, who captured last month’s Masters to achieve his career Grand Slam. “I’m always going to have a certain feeling about Quail Hollow because it was my first tour win (in 2010). And then Johnny Harris was the first person that took me to play Augusta. I’ve missed other tournaments, but I won’t miss an event at Quail. Being there is always special.”
That was certainly the case in 2017. PGA President Don Rea Jr. was on hand as a member of the PGA Board of Directors and was struck by the turnout of the Charlotte community and the welcoming, congenial nature of the club’s roughly 350 members.
“I think what I noticed the most is that all of the members, they just show southern hospitality at its best,” says Rea, PGA Owner and Operator of Augusta Ranch Golf Club in Mesa, Arizona. “They are out there to make sure that everybody’s having a good time and they’re all over the place. They’re very proud of the facility they have, but they also want to make you feel at home.
“And that’s true with how they treated the 200,000 people we brought in over the course of the Championship. I think that’s why the PGA of America loves coming back – certainly because of the course, but it’s also the people.”
Rea also remembers the riveting conclusion, how the vaunted three-hole closing stretch, the Green Mile, proved the perfect crescendo to an eminently fair but formidable test of golf and the warm reception for the champion.
“I was thinking, ‘There is no other sporting event like this.’ You could just feel the energy around the final hole, the mass of people there cheering, giving Justin high-fives,” Rea recalls. “Watching it on television is great, but it is way better in person.”
Thomas, who won a second Wanamaker Trophy in 2022 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Oklahoma, would have to be considered one of the favorites, along with McIlroy, of course. Three-time PGA Champion Brooks Koepka, whose most recent title came in 2023 at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, never can be overlooked, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler certainly is expected to be in the mix – as he always seems to be.
Having made a comeback from a rib injury that sidelined him for eight weeks early in the year, Xander Schauffele, the defending PGA Champion and reigning British Open Champion, seeks to make history as only the seventh player to win the PGA Championship in consecutive years, joining Koepka, Tiger Woods, Denny Shute, Leo Diegel, Walter Hagen and Gene Sarazen.
“I didn’t like it at first, but I’m starting to love it,” Schauffele says of Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut in the 2017 Championship but has finished runner-up the last two years in the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club behind McIlroy and Wyndham Clark.
Around the club, members and staff alike talk about the “Quail Hollow way.” There is another saying that circulates throughout the property: “Greatness has a home.” It is not a proclamation. Neither is it bluster. It speaks more to intention, to the persistent mandate to exceed the club’s own lofty expectations. It harkens back to Palmer’s sage words – greatness is always under construction.
“It’s commendable how they always look for ways to improve the experience, for the players, for their members and for fans and guests during whatever tournament they host. It’s just continual improvement,” Sprague says. “That’s a good trait for any club to have. Even though they had a very successful PGA Championship in 2017, they don’t rest on their laurels.”
And Quail Hollow Club won’t rest in seeking to bring another PGA Championship or other event while continuing to host one of the PGA TOUR’s most popular stops.
“We are not just a golf club,” Harris says. “We are a club that is firmly in the fabric of the game. We are committed to the game, to the fellowship and the friendship and the integrity in it. We want to be part of the game for a long time to come.”