At Presidents Cup, Quail Hollow’s famed “Green Mile” will greet golfers more quickly

It’s going to be weird watching Presidents Cup matches that come down to a climactic 18th hole — however many actually do — and feel like they’re being played somewhere other than Quail Hollow.

It’s those famous finishing holes, the so-called Green Mile, that made Quail Hollow famous and have decided so many tournaments, from the 2017 PGA Championship to the Wells Fargo on an annual basis. Every round at Quail Hollow builds toward that climax as the back nine winds its way from the back edge of the property toward the lake that threatens the final holes and the perilous creek down the left side of the 18th.

But that signature won’t be at the end of the Presidents Cup rounds this week. It’ll be in the middle, with the 9th hole serving as the final decider if need be. Which may still be a great golf course, but it isn’t the Quail Hollow the world has come to know over the years.

The decision to take Quail Hollow’s three most famous and dangerous holes and move them to the middle of the back nine to ensure as many Presidents Cup matches as possible play them makes pragmatic sense — especially in a year when defections to the LIV Tour have decimated the International roster, creating the specter of a lot of 4-and-3 decisions that never reach the 16th tee — but it also tinkers with the very DNA of what makes Quail Hollow special.

The best golf courses are never 18 holes that exist in isolation; they flow from one to the other. The truly great ones tell a quiet story, and Quail Hollow certainly does that. From the moment the water starts coming into view on the back nine with teasing glimpses, its presence dominates every shot, creating a tension that makes that seemingly innocuous burbling creek a demonic presence after surviving the delicate, dangerous approaches to the 16th and 17th greens (or not surviving…)

That’s the spirit and challenge and the adventure of Quail Hollow, that big finish. It’s going to be more than a little jarring when that arrives in the middle of the back nine instead of the end.

It’s a decision that has been presented as a no-brainer, but there’s a gamble inherent in it. How much can you tinker with a course’s signature characteristics before it becomes something else entirely? If a great number of matches are decided on those holes, it will unquestionably have paid off.

Of course, Frankenstein layouts are nothing new to golf, especially at venues with multiple courses. The last Presidents Cup was played on a composite 18 of Royal Melbourne’s 36 holes.The U.S. Open at Brookline this summer was played on a mish-mash of The Country Club’s three nine-hole loops — the tournament course television viewers have come to know over the years is mostly foreign to members.

Congressional uses holes from both of its courses, and even took what was once the 18th hole on its tournament routing, a par-3 over water, and flipped the tee and green while making it the 10th hole, turning the dramatic par-4 17th into a worthy finishing 18th. But even that’s different from taking an existing 18 and altering the routing of its most famous holes strictly for match-play purposes.

Most courses, especially seaside courses that have hosted the Ryder Cup like Kiawah’s Ocean Course and Whistling Straits, don’t have the geography to lend themselves to such rerouting, other than flipping nines, the way a more compact layout like Quail Hollow does.

So the PGA of America and Quail Hollow have taken the opportunity the layout presents, opting in some respects for quantity over quality when it comes to the Green Mile.

It’ll be different, that’s for sure. Whether it’s better for this format remains to be seen.

Never miss a Luke DeCock column. Sign up at tinyurl.com/lukeslatest to have them delivered directly to your email inbox as soon as they post.

Luke DeCock’s Latest: Never miss a column on the Canes, ACC or other Triangle sports

This story was originally published September 16, 2022 at 5:55 AM with the headline "At Presidents Cup, Quail Hollow’s famed “Green Mile” will greet golfers more quickly."

Luke DeCock

The News & Observer

Luke DeCock is a former journalist for the News & Observer.