A massive six-week stretch starts now. Two Majors, two signature events, the RBC Canadian, the Chuck Schwab, and even a new event down in Myrtle. Getting pretty pumped for the PGA next week, hopefully we see some of the best getting tuned up and playing well in Charlotte (like we saw with Brooksie in Singapore).

While this tournament has had to move a couple of times over the past decade in preparation for a major and the President’s Cup, there’s still a decent sample size of rounds here for most of the top guys. Justin lays out some of the golfers with the best course history, at least from a strokes-gained perspective:

I have some Myrtle Beach content as well down below, but we’ll start with the main course and look at the Wells Fargo via Ron’s preview article from BetspertsGolf.com.

Quail Hollow

Measuring 7,558 yards, Quail Hollow is a tree-lined parkland par-71 layout. Similar to courses like Torrey Pines and Bay Hill, it presents a challenging combination of length and difficult scoring conditions. It is both the third longest and fifth toughest scoring course in the annual Tour rotation. It also has the sixth longest combined par 4s and par 5s on Tour.

There are five scoring holes at Quail Hollow – the three par 5s and the two semi-driveable sub-350 yard par 4s. To have success on this course, players will need to birdie as many of those as possible and then hold on for dear life on the other 13 holes which all average over par.

The course features tree-lined fairways, rolling terrain, strategically-placed water hazards, and firm undulating greens on approach. Though there are only 61 bunkers (12th fewest), they are well-utilized being laid out near landing zones along the fairways and often in the direct line of approach shots around the greens.

With a SubAir system below the greens, tournament officials gradually firm up the greens throughout the week so that by Sunday it becomes very tough to hold the green surface. This is another reason why long drivers of the ball have an advantage at Quail Hollow. More distance off the tee equates to higher-lofted and softer landing approach shots into firm, tricky pin positions.

From an agronomic standpoint, the base turf at Quail Hollow is 100% bermudagrass. In the fall of each year, groundskeepers seed the course with Bermuda, a warm-weather grass, and with rye, a grass meant for colder seasons. Right after the conclusion of the Wells Fargo Championship, a herbicide is used to kill the ryegrass and let the Bermuda grow for the summer.

With Charlotte being in the mid-Atlantic region, the beginning of May is still too cool for the Bermuda to completely break through the overseed. According to the Director of Green and Grounds, Keith Wood, the greens, approaches, tees, and fairways are around a 50/50 mix of overseed and the underlying Bermuda. The rough is 90% overseed.

Thus the rough this week is ryegrass measuring at 2″ while the greens are overseeded Poa trivialis. The greens are typically on the faster side, starting at around a 12 on the stimpmeter and increasing to a speedy 13 by Sunday’s final round. Greens are on the larger side, averaging over 6,500 square feet, bringing in scrambling and three-putt avoidance as other key stats this week.

Betting

Went over everything like we do every week with Noonan over on the new YouTube Channel.

We built out a model on the show. Our top ten isn’t too far off the betting odds and further convinced me that I should try to catch a Xander win while Scottie is off for the week.

In the matchup bet, Hubbard over Power was a winner last week, so that was nice. I had some long shots on the younger big hitters, so I at least had a bit of a sweat with Knapp heading into Sunday. Alas, he didn’t have it.

Matchup bets YTD at 10-6-1, +3.36u

For this week:

Will Zalatoris > Tony Finau +110 (DK)

I’m just not a big believer in the “injury.” All things being equal, I would have Zal as a slight favorite in this one based on his irons and how well he’s played in tougher events. He’s elevated his game a number of times in his short career when presented with a tough field and difficult scoring conditions. There's not a ton I can say negatively about Finau; I just think this is value at the price.

Weather

The Myrtle forecast is fairly similar; they aren’t that far away from each other. It does look like the rain may be sporadic and hopefully later in the day, but with the small field, the tee times are so compressed that it’s not like we’ll be finding a wave advantage either way. There is only about 2 hours difference from the first and final tee times.

Myrtle Beach Classic

While I don’t have bets (just yet), I did watch several flyover videos and put together my thoughts on the course, how I think it’ll play, and some key stats I’m looking at for the alt event this week. I also made a model on the site and saved it for users to view if they would like.

News and Notes

I have no idea what’s going on in the Rory/Board saga. This always happens to me. Big news breaks right before I send out a newsletter, and I don’t fully understand the depth of it yet.

I’ll spend some time digging in, but there are some wild quotes and takes flying already from this whole ordeal:

Still no news on Baby Scheffler, but confirmation that Sam Burns is no longer on high alert for childbirth.

This is probably pretty big, honestly. These golfers have been playing on LIV long enough that the invites would likely be strictly based on their performances on the break-away tour. Might be the first step towards some global unification. It was later confirmed that Oosty WAS invited as well but declined, still trying to figure out what is going on there.

Lastly: Big game hunter stats:

As always, bet responsibly, have fun, and enjoy a double dose of golf.

Twitter | YouTube | Website | The Rabbit Hole