Five Things to Know: TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm

As Quail Hollow Club gears up for the Presidents Cup this fall, TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm has stepped in to host the 2022 Wells Fargo Championship.

If the latter course rings a bell, that’s because this staple of Washington, D.C. area golf has seen plenty of PGA TOUR action. It’s going to play long. It’s going to play thick. And if we’re lucky – really lucky – maybe we’ll see a repeat of one of history’s most mind-boggling feats.

1. HISTORY LESSON

The Wells Fargo Championship has looked not to a rookie, but to a proven TOUR venue to host this year’s tournament. While TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm spent the last three years off the TOUR schedule, it was a stalwart for much of the previous three decades.

In 1987, the Kemper Open (later known as the Booz Allen Classic) moved to TPC Potomac after seven years at Congressional Country Club down the road in Bethesda. The tournament would stay at TPC Potomac through 2006, with the exception of 2005, when it made a one-year return to Congressional while TPC Potomac underwent renovations.

In 2007, the Quicken Loans National, hosted by Tiger Woods and the TGR Foundation, replaced the Booz Allen in the Washington D.C. area and set up shop at Congressional. The tournament would shift to a variety of locations, including two stops at TPC Potomac in 2017 and 2018.

The course also hosted the Bridgestone Senior Players Championship in 2010 and the Korn Ferry Tour’s Mid-Atlantic Championship in 2012 and 2013.

In the Booz Allen Classic era the winners at TPC Potomac included Tom Kite, Lee Janzen, Steve Stricker, Justin Leonard, Rich Beem, Rory Sabbatini and Adam Scott. In the Quicken Loans era, Kyle Stanley knocked off Charles Howell III in a 2017 playoff, and Francesco Molinari shot a final-round 62 and cruised to an eight-stroke victory, his maiden PGA TOUR title, in 2018.

Woods handed Molinari the trophy that day, and it was a sign of things to come. Three weeks later, Molinari won The Open Championship in the same group as Woods at Carnoustie. Two months after that, Molinari beat Woods three times at the Ryder Cup.

Six months later, Tiger got some revenge at Augusta, winning the 2019 Masters.

2. A NEW LOOK

Rory Sabbatini is part of the bridge from the old TPC Potomac to the new TPC Potomac. The 2003 Booz Allen Classic champion will play a different track in his 40s than he did in his 20s.

After the competition left TPC Potomac, then called TPC Avenel, in 2006, a sweeping renovation of the course modernized the layout. The Rock Run Stream Valley, one of the main tributaries of the Potomac River, had become badly eroded by the end of the Booz Allen tenure and caused frequent flooding. As part of the renovation, 5,000 linear feet of the main stream and 2,250 linear feet of eroding stream banks were restored, enhancing the presence of water on the course while leading the way to a new, modern irrigation system.

The renovation also brought the addition of 15 acres of trees, the restructuring of the course to a 7,124-yard par 70, and a re-building of bunkers to their intended Mid-Atlantic style, while adding some Scottish-themed traps. Greens, tees and fairways were rebuilt with Bentgrass.

The 2006-08 renovation also dramatically altered the middle of the course. The par-5 sixth hole was turned into a long par 4. The par-3 ninth hole was rebuilt, while the 10th and 11th holes were combined into a par-5 10th hole playing around the restored creek. The 12th hole became the 11th hole, and the par-5 13th hole was split into a par-3 12th hole and short par-4 13th.

TPC Avenel was now TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm. This name was intended to pay tribute to the history of Avenel Farm, once Maryland’s largest short-horned cattle farm, while also ushering in a new era for the PGA TOUR’s TPC Network venue.

3. ARNIE'S ACES

TPC Potomac at Avenel Farm made its 1986 debut by way of a couple of legends. It served as the first site of the Chrysler Cup, a senior team event featuring a U.S. squad captained by Arnold Palmer and an international roster captained by Gary Player. This would serve as a precursor to the Booz Allen Classic’s arrival in 1987.

On the Tuesday before the event, Palmer, one week before his 57th birthday, was playing a practice round when he hit a 5-iron on the 182-yard par-3 3rd hole and watched the ball land and roll right into the cup – the first hole-in-one at one of golf’s newest competitive tracks.

The next day, on the same hole, with the same club, Palmer hit another beautiful iron shot at the pin. “Don’t go in the hole again,” he yelled. “Don’t do that!” It did.

Palmer’s amazing two-fer marked his 12th and 13th career aces, and a commemorative plaque was promptly installed on the third tee. He would credit his hole-in-one theatrics as important for publicizing the Chrysler Cup in its first year. A TV camera had caught the Wednesday (second) hole-in-one, and while the world was still 20 years from Twitter, local TV news would pick up the clip while newspaper writers worldwide gushed about the unlikely feat.

4. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

By the final years of the Booz Allen, TOUR pros had figured out TPC Potomac. Adam Scott won with a 21-under total in 2004. Ben Curtis followed with a 20-under score to win in 2006.

But after the renovation, scores cooled off. Mark O’Meara shot 7 under to win the 2010 Senior PLAYERS at TPC Potomac. On the Korn Ferry Tour, David Lingmerth shot 8 under to win there in 2012, as did Michael Putnam in 2013. When the PGA TOUR returned in 2017, Kyle Stanley knocked off Charles Howell III in a playoff with both players finishing 72 holes at 7 under.

Francesco Molinari was the exception to the rule, shooting a post-renovation record of 21 under to win here in 2018. But to be fair, runner-up Ryan Armour was all the way back at 13 under. And as history now shows, Molinari was about to play lights-out golf for the next few months.

This Wells Fargo Championship probably won’t be a birdie-fest. The new TPC Potomac features more water hazards, more tree trouble, and more distance at a lower par. It’s no pushover.

5. A TOUGH 5

Most weeks on TOUR, the par 5s are players’ four best friends.

At TPC Potomac, there are only two, and they’re beasts.

The first, No. 2, is scheduled to play 641 yards this week, already making it a three-shot hole by distance. The tough decision on the second shot is not about taking aim at the green, but whether players feel comfortable carrying a dry gulch two-thirds of the way down the fairway. Around the green, a deep bunker awaits on the left side, hoping to gobble up any approach shots that miss left. Hit the bunker and par becomes an outstanding save.

The par-5 10th hole, a combination of the old 10th and 11th holes, plays to 591 yards, and the greater challenge here is the angle. A slight dogleg left requires a player to hit a long enough tee shot down the right side of the fairway – away from the hole – to have an angle into the green. A narrow landing area short of the green and a sea of bushes, plus no shortage of thick rough short and left of the green, present all sorts of stress for the second shot.

This explains much of the challenge at TPC Potomac. Without gettable par 5s, and two-putt birdies rare, birdies must come the old-fashioned way on the grounds of the old Avenel Farm.