A shorter one today (it’s football season). Still, I do enjoy the tour adding new stops, even if it’s a fall-season event. It’s always a challenge, but the way this track is set up likely lends itself to the usual suspects when it comes to key stats.

Anyway, an excerpt from Ron’s excellent course preview, as well as a link to read the whole thing:

The Cliffs at Walnut Cove

The Cliffs at Walnut Cove is a very different test from the typical PGA TOUR venue. The Jack Nicklaus Signature course sits in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains at more than 2,000 feet of elevation, with the surrounding ridges creating a natural amphitheater. The routing follows the contours of the property rather than fighting them, producing rolling fairways, elevation changes, and long views of the Southern Appalachians from throughout the course. Nicklaus summed up the setting himself: “Walnut Cove provides an extraordinary natural setting for golf. Areas on this course make you feel as if you are playing through a natural forest.”

The front nine and back nine have distinctly different personalities. The opening nine moves across open fields that were once farmland, with the holes following soft ridges and using bunkers to create different risk and reward options from the tee. The back nine moves into native woodland and repeatedly crosses or follows mountain streams. The course has wider playing corridors than many mountain layouts, but the fairways are generally long and narrow, and the surrounding slopes, woods, and water can make a missed target considerably more costly.

At 7,249 yards and par 71 for the PGA TOUR, Walnut Cove is not exceptionally long by modern standards, but the elevation and terrain will be an important part of how it plays. The routing includes significant changes in elevation between tee boxes, fairways, and greens, while the sloping ground can produce uneven lies and different angles into the small green complexes. Unlike some mountain courses, however, Walnut Cove does not rely exclusively on forced carries and severe visual intimidation. Nicklaus gave players multiple ways to attack many holes. “We’ve given players a lot of options with this course; if they prefer not to take a shot that carries over water, they will have other shots they can take. The course is designed so players will have a lot of forced carries.”

The fairways and tees are bentgrass, the greens are a Bentgrass/Poa annua blend, and the rough is Kentucky bluegrass. For the tournament, superintendent Steve Shand has allowed the rough to grow to nearly six inches, considerably longer than the normal playing conditions for members. “The biggest thing that we’re doing leading up to the event is growing our rough a little longer, and that’s going to add some challenges for the players if they get out of position,” Shand said. That should make driving accuracy more important than the relatively generous corridors might suggest, particularly when longer rough is combined with the uneven lies created by the mountain terrain.

Bunkering is another important part of the design. There are 75 bunkers in total, and Nicklaus placed a number of them around the expected landing areas. The bunker complexes were also recently upgraded with Better Billy Bunker technology. The improvements proved particularly effective during Hurricane Helene, when the course received roughly 30 inches of rain without significant bunker washouts.

Model

Fairly simple this week based on what we hope will be predictive. No short game this week (it still matters, but I’ll focus more on scoring opportunities).

• SG: APP heavy

• Par 3 scoring, filtering out easy par 3s

• Par 5 birdie-or-better rate, as that’s where a lot of the scoring needs to happen

• SG: tee to green

Build your own (50,000 unique models on the site so far!), or check out the expert models from our staff.

Don’t forget that you can still get a full 365 days of access for just $10!

Betting

Small card, small stakes. It’s a new tournament with a lower-tier field, and while I’d love to find a few more long shots, I’m mostly sticking with a couple of guys who modeled well in my Rabbit Hole build this week. Maybe some live betting on Friday if the weather gets weird.

Ben James +2500
Blades Brown +5097
Ben Kohles +8035

How to Watch

Television

• Thursday, September 17: 3 pm - 6 pm (Golf Channel)

• Friday, September 18: 3 pm - 6 pm (Golf Channel)

• Saturday, September 19: 1 pm - 4 pm (Golf Channel)

• Sunday, September 20: 1 pm - 4 pm (Golf Channel)

Streaming

• Thursday, September 17: 7 am - 6 pm (ESPN+)

• Friday, September 18: 7 am - 6 pm (ESPN+)

Featured-group, marquee-group, and featured-hole coverage streams on PGA Tour Live (ESPN+), with four separate feeds each day starting hours before the television window opens. Weekend PGA Tour Live start times had not been posted yet, so check ESPN+ on Saturday and Sunday morning.

All times ET.

Weather

Not much in the way of winds this week. It's hot, in the upper 80s, and storms roll in most afternoons, so the greens will be soft, and guys can fire at pins, which makes this a birdie-fest where I'd probably want the PM/AM wave, but who knows with the possibility of delays on Friday as well.

News and Notes

The Euro Schedule arrives:

And of course, yesterday the PGA laid out the rules for the two-tiered system that fires up in 2028

finally, it’s never too early to start thinking about next fall (and the likely Euro three-peat…)

As always, bet responsibly, have fun, and welcome to the fall swing.

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