With a final-round 3-under-par 68, Justin Thomas won the first of his two PGA Championship titles with a two-stroke victory over Francesco Molinari, Louis Oosthuizen and Patrick Reed at the 2017 PGA Championship. Thomas, son of PGA of America Master Professional Mike Thomas and whose grandfather Paul Thomas was a longtime club professional in Ohio, completed 72 holes in 8-under 276 in what many players gauged as the year’s toughest major. The field scoring average was a healthy 73.47 – this after heavy rains the week prior softened up the place.
“It was kind of the U.S. Open we didn’t have earlier that year,” says 2024 PGA Champion Xander Schauffele, who missed the PGA Championship cut in 2017 at 13-over 155 in what was then only his second major championship start.
Thomas remembers well the effort required to emerge with the title during a taut final round when five players held a share of the lead at one point. “I did everything well, but I didn’t do anything unbelievably,” he recalls. “The big thing was that mentally I was in a really great place.”
Kerry Haigh, Chief Championships Officer for the PGA of America, was neither elated nor dismayed by the stinginess Quail Hollow exhibited in 2017, and he isn’t concerning himself with any particular target score this time around, either. As the man responsible for course set-up, Haigh’s objective is to test the field, not try to trick it.
Tinkering isn’t really his thing. It’s not necessary, anyway.
“Our philosophy is to present the golf course in the best way possible and to showcase everything that is exciting and challenging about it,” Haigh says. “We want the story to be how the best players in the world handle a course that’s difficult, but that allows them to showcase their skills. The weather, obviously, dictates how we approach that, but Quail Hollow offers an opportunity for an interesting Championship with some wonderful bunkers, some deep bunkers and some roll offs and false fronts around the greens. It has it all.”
Haigh says the goal for this year’s championship was to look at Quail Hollow with “fresh eyes” and not rely too heavily on the set-up from 2017, particularly as it relates to hole positions. There will be some carryover, with rough set at about four inches – though buttressed with a ryegrass overseed (all of the course, in fact, will be overseeded with various ryegrasses). A mowing pattern that ties in fairways all the way to the edge of bunkers will be reprised.
Players who competed in the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship, a signature event on the PGA TOUR, already have seen a more recent set of alterations. A 2023 “housekeeping renovation” resulted in several changes, starting with replacing the Champion Ultradwarf Bermudagrass on the greens with Tif Eagle Bermudagrass. Slopes on 12 putting surfaces were softened to accommodate higher speeds – 1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 15, 16, 17 and 18.
New tees at the ninth and 16th holes have stretched those par 4s to an official yardage of 530 and 529 yards, respectively. Keith Wood, Director of Green and Grounds, said the ninth “is now a monster hole.” Meanwhile, the opening par 4, second most difficult in 2017, has been ratcheted back 19 yards to 505 yards. The most dramatic change is the shifting of the teeing ground at the par-3 13th hole to the right of the 12th green, changing the orientation of the tee so that the hole runs parallel instead of perpendicular to the creek. It comes in a smidgen shorter than before at 205 yards.
“Thirteen’s a much better hole and a more interesting hole, but it’s also more playable,” says Scott Davenport, PGA of America Head Professional at Quail Hollow since 1999. “That green is so challenging. I don’t know if the angle’s necessarily easier, but it makes more sense as far as the shot required.”
Trees were strategically added to seven holes, including two near the lake to the left of the landing area at 16, the entryway to the exacting finishing stretch known as the “Green Mile.” While scoring opportunities exist with three reachable par 5s and a drivable par 4 on each side – the 346-yard eighth and 344-yard 14th – the eventual PGA Champion will have to successfully navigate one of the most perilous closing sequences anywhere.
No. 16 was the third most difficult hole in 2017, while the 223-yard par-3 17th, where Thomas memorably birdied to all but lock up the title, ranked fifth. That leaves the pernicious par-4 18th, 494 yards of potential disaster with a narrow fairway framed by a creek running down the entire left side of the hole and trees and a bunker guarding the right side. The field averaged 4.414 eight years ago, making it the most difficult of the week.
“It’s the kind of challenge you want for the end of a championship,” Davenport explains.
Imagine having to play that stretch again late Sunday. It could happen if a three-hole playoff is required to determine the 2025 PGA Champion. A tie after that would send contestants back to the 18th tee yet again for sudden death. And then 16 and 17 repeated. Gulp.
“The canvas is there for us to showcase what a great golf course Quail Hollow is, and let the players show how good they are,” Haigh says. “That’s all you can ask for and, hopefully, it all makes for a great Championship.”