Wells Fargo to remain at Quail Hollow Club, but for how long?

The Wells Fargo Championship, a Charlotte sports institution for nearly 20 years, will remain at Quail Hollow Club through at least 2024.

Wells Fargo and the PGA Tour announced a five-year extension of their partnership Tuesday. The tournament will move for one year to the TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm in suburban Washington in 2021 when the Presidents Cup comes to Quail dsHollow.

The extension solidifies the Wells Fargo as a top PGA Tour destination. The tournament, which begins Thursday, routinely sells out and has become one of the top events on tour that’s not a major. The tournament has contributed tens of millions of dollars over the years to charity through its primary beneficiary, Teach For America.

The event is still dealing with the impact of recent changes in the PGA Tour’s schedule. The goal of the changes: to keep interest percolating by having a major championship (plus the Players Championship) played each month, and for the season to wrap up before the NFL gears up in September.

That meant moving the Players from May to March, to be followed by the Masters in its traditional spot in early April. The other significant change came when the PGA Championship was moved from August to May, now followed by the U.S. Open in June and the British Open in July. The season wraps up with the Tour Championship in August.

The changes have had a ripple effect — neither necessarily good or bad — on other tournaments, including the Wells Fargo, as well on how players prepare for major tournaments that will now be routinely just around the corner. It’s probably too soon to say how the new schedule will affect future fields at Quail Hollow, but fewer of the worlds Top 25 are in town this year compared to 2018.

“Yeah, it’s different, for sure,” said Justin Rose, the world’s second-ranked player who is playing in the Wells Fargo for the first time since 2016.

So, after having just competed in the Players and the Masters, Rose knows the PGA Championship beckons in two weeks at Bethpage Black in New York.

“There was a big focus on (the Masters), and then you had until the U.S. Open,” said Rose. “So you could forget about major championship golf for at least a few weeks. I feel like now it’s on your mind, for sure.”

The biggest impact the schedule change likely had on Charlotte’s tournament is the absence of 2007 champion and recent Masters winner Tiger Woods. There’s been speculation about why Woods, 43, opted out of the Wells Fargo, but it seems clear now he needed to rest and recuperate before preparing for the PGA Championship. Woods hasn’t said if he will play in next week’s tournament in Dallas, although that’s doubtful.

“Nobody should lose their mind over this,” Woods’ agent Mark Steinberg told ESPN. “He requires some down time and he doesn’t feel he has enough time to get ready (for the PGA).”

The Wells Fargo isn’t hurting for elite players. The field includes nine top-25 players, including Rose, No. 4 Rory McIlroy, No. 10 Rickie Fowler, No. 14 (and 2018 champion) Jason Day and No. 23 Phil Mickelson. Some players who seldom or ever play in Charlotte – including Dustin Johnson, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth – aren’t at Quail Hollow this week.

In 2018, 14 of the top 25 — as well as Woods — teed it up in south Charlotte.

If the Wells Fargo holds its spot on the calendar — two weeks after the Masters and two weeks before the PGA Championship — there will be the chance each year that players like Woods won’t play. For others, like Rose, Quail Hollow might continue to provide an opportunity to prepare for the next major on one of the tour’s top courses against a high-quality field.

“Obviously, everyone would have probably liked Tiger to play this week,” said Rose, who won the U.S. Open in 2013. “But with a major coming up so quick and especially after the win, there’s not a lot of time to compartmentalize everything or to go through that natural cycle of peaks and troughs.

“I think we all understand it’s hard to keep a level of performance at the top. You’re always trying to peak at the right time. With everything coming so thick and fast at the moment, I think we’re all trying to adjust on how to be our best on specific weeks.”

This story was originally published April 30, 2019 at 3:02 PM with the headline "Wells Fargo to remain at Quail Hollow Club, but for how long?."