Charlotte’s Quail Hollow will wait to host golf’s Presidents Cup. But Wells Fargo returns

Wednesday’s announcement that the Ryder Cup has been postponed from this fall to 2021 will have an immediate and direct impact on the golf calendar at Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club:

▪ The Presidents Cup, a major international team competition like the Ryder Cup, has been shifted from its 2021 date at Quail Hollow until Sept. 19-25 2022.

▪ The Wells Fargo Championship, which had been moved from Quail Hollow to the TPC Potomac in Maryland for 2021, will remain at Quail Hollow next May, go to Potomac in 2022 and return to Charlotte in 2023.

The Presidents Cup, a match-play event contested between the United States and a team of non-European international golfers, was scheduled for Quail Hollow from Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 2021.

“The Presidents Cup, like all businesses and sports around the globe, has clearly been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Presidents Cup executive director Adam Sperling said in a statement. “Postponing for a year to create space for other elements of golf’s global calendar is the right thing to do and will allow us additional runway as we plan and execute what will be the biggest and most successful Presidents Cup to date.

The Ryder Cup, golf’s top international event that pits the U.S. against Europe, moves to Sept. 21-26 2021 at Wisconsin’s Whistling Straits, where it was scheduled to be played from Sept. 22-27 this year.

“We completely understand why these decisions were made,” Quail Hollow president Johnny Harris said. “There was great unity among all the folks involved and we’re thankful for how things worked out.”

The two international competitions are held during alternate years, with the Ryder Cup being played during even years and the Presidents Cup during odd years. That sequence changed in 2001 after the events were postponed for one year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“This was the right decision for the Ryder Cup, therefore it’s the right decision for the Presidents Cup,” said PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan. “We were excited to host the (Presidents Cup) next year and we’re equally excited to host it in 2022.”

The PGA Tour recently resumed without fans in attendance. The Memorial, scheduled for next week, was to be the first tournament to have fans in attendance, but those plans were scrapped due to increasing coronavirus concerns in Ohio.

Golf’s four major tournaments have also been impacted by the coronavirus. The British Open has been canceled, while the U.S. Open, PGA Championship and Masters have been postponed to later dates this year.

The Wells Fargo Championship, a fixture in Charlotte since 2003, was among the earlier tournaments canceled because of the pandemic. It’s now set to return to Quail Hollow from May 3-9, 2021.

“We literally never left the market, so to speak,” Wells Fargo tournament director Gary Sobba said. “I talked to about 40 of our clients (Wednesday), and people are excited, especially after missing a year.”

Sobba also said the tournament had already begun preparing to play at Potomac, and that will all remain in place when the tournament goes there in 2022.

“We’d already put together an advisory board and had multiple clients,” Sobba said. “So it will be quite easy to pick that back up when we go there in ‘22. We’ve already done a lot of homework there, so that will pay dividends for us.”

The change of tournaments and dates means Quail Hollow will be the host of the Wells Fargo in ‘21, the Presidents Cup in ‘22, the Wells Fargo in ‘23 and ‘24 and the PGA Championship in ‘25.

“We’ve got a great run going,” Harris said. “We’re very pleased we can continue to bring the best players in the world to Charlotte. That’s always been our goal.”

Harris said that some of the improvements being made at Quail Hollow for the Presidents Cup in the fall of 2021 — including a new entrance along Gleneagles Road — are fast-tracked to be ready for May’s Wells Fargo tournament next spring.

“We’ll get it done,” Harris said. “We’ve been know to work hard before and we’ll do it again.”

This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 10:53 AM.