New tee at Quail Hollow’s 16th brings more bite to Green Mile

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Green Mile might be even more difficult.

The final three holes at Quail Hollow Club, which is hosting this week’s Wells Fargo Championship, form one of the most famous, and difficult, closing stretches on the PGA TOUR. Now, the course’s par-4 16th hole is even longer. A new tee was added to No. 16 that can add another 20 yards. The new tee brings the fairway bunker on the hole’s right side back into play for long hitters who used to carry it with impunity. In recent years, the TOUR’s biggest hitters could carry the trap and access an even wider landing area, giving them an exponential advantage on the 506-yard hole.

“I'm hopeful now the long guys can't fly the right bunker because that was a problem with the old tee,” said Max Homa, who earned his first PGA TOUR victory five years ago at Quail Hollow. “If you could fly it 320 (yards), that fairway is double the size and you're hitting way less club in. So you could swing way harder and be kind of bailed out left and right a little bit. Now … I don't think anybody can fly it. I say that and Wyndham (Clark, the defending champion) will probably carry it.

“I think it is one of those rare positive changes of moving a tee that far back and actually continuing to give the long guys an advantage but kind of making them hit into a similar-width fairway that the rest of us are.”

The 16th hole now has a scorecard yardage of 529 yards, though it plays shorter because the hole runs downhill. No. 16 precedes the 190-yard, par-3 17th and 494-yard 18th hole. All three holes are made more difficult by water that surrounds the greens.

The lengthening of Quail Hollow’s 16th hole was one of multiple changes made while the course was closed for nearly four months after Clark won last year’s Wells Fargo Championship. The greens were resurfaced with Tif Eagle Bermudagrass and slopes were softened on 12 of the greens to better showcase hole locations at higher green speeds. The tees also were resurfaced and the bunkers were rebuilt with new drainage, bunker liners and sand. A new tee also added 10 yards to the par-3 13th, which now plays 205 yards.

The changes were made in part to prepare Quail Hollow to host the 2025 PGA Championship. The club also hosted the 2017 PGA won by Justin Thomas and the 2022 Presidents Cup.

The new greens are firm but should be softened by the rain that was forecast to hit Charlotte on Wednesday night and Thursday evening. “(Approach shots) take a massive bounce,” said Homa. “Brian Harman’s not super tall, but it would bounce clear over his head. It’s going to be a bit tough with the new greens, but they’re in good shape, they roll great, so you just somehow have to get the ball to stay on there.”

Quail Hollow’s 16th hole already was one of the 50 hardest par-4s on the PGA TOUR last year (out of more than 600 par 4s played on the PGA TOUR in 2023). The hole played to a 4.27 scoring average last year, which made it the second-hardest hole at Quail Hollow. Only the 18th hole, which played to a 4.33 average, was more difficult.

Whether the new tee is used this week remains to be seen. The soft conditions at Quail Hollow after recent rain make the hole play longer, which may keep the TOUR’s setup team from stretching the hole to its maximum length. But the option is there, allowing the Green Mile to be even more difficult.

“It puts more emphasis on the Green Mile being the toughest three-hole stretch in golf,” said Webb Simpson, who lives at Quail Hollow. “If you get to 16 tee with any kind of lead, it’s still anyone’s golf tournament.”