Wells Fargo Championship 2024 Preview, Picks & Analysis

Rory McIlroy returns to one of his favourite venues this week as he prepares for the PGA Championship at Valhalla. 

McIlroy’s first victory on the PGA Tour came here in 2010 when he narrowly made the cut at the Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow and then fired rounds of 66 and 62 at the weekend to defeat Phil Mickelson by four shots.

He also won it in 2015 and 2021.

The tournament is one of the PGA Tour’s signature events. It features a limited field and there is no 36-hole cut for the strong field. Wyndham Clark is back to defend his title, one of three he has won in the past 12 months. Of course he crowned it all by holding off McIlroy to win the US Open.

Clark and McIlroy are not the only former champions in the field. They will be joined by a resurgent Lucas Glover (2011), Rickie Fowler (2012) and Open champion Brian Harman (2017). Clark's success here look him from relative obscurity and he has now established himself as one of the best golfers on the planet.

He finished the week on 19 under par, beating Xander Schauffele by four strokes. His 72-hole score of 265 was the lowest in the tournament’s history, edging Rory McIlroy’s 267 in 2015.

It was Clark’s first win and he joined McIlroy, Fowler, Max Homa, Anthony Kim and Derek Ernst as players who earned their first tour victories at Quail Hollow Club.

(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)

Clark was born in Denver on December 9, 1993 and has been a professional since 2017. He lives in Scottsdale, Arizona.

He attended the University of Oregon and finished ninth at the US Amateur championship in 2012. While he was at university, his mother died of breast cancer and he has said that he wants to start a breast cancer foundation. He is an excellent table-tennis player.

He was twice Colorado state amateur champion before turning professional in 2017. Was a teammate of Bryson DeChambeau in the 2014 Palmer Cup match at Walton Heath between the top college players of the United States and Europe, whose line-up included Jon Rahm. They faced each other in the concluding singles with Rahm coming out on top 4&3.

He qualified to play on Web.com Tour for the 2018 season, making 24 starts and achieving four top-10 finishes. He finished the season in 16th place on the money list, securing his card for the PGA Tour.

After missing two cuts early on in the 2023 season, he finished tied 10th at the RSM Classic and Phoenix Open, fifth at the Valspar, sixth at the Corales Puntacana Championship, third at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and 12th at The Memorial.

His first PGA Tour victory came at the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship. Prior to that, his best finish came at the 2020 Bermuda Championship, where he lost in a playoff to Brian Gay. His win at the Wells Fargo came in his 134th start. And he followed it by winning the US Open, beating Rory McIlroy by a single shot as he held on for his first major title. His win at the US Open moved him from 32nd to 13th in the world rankings. 

Earlier this year he won the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, which took him to third place in the FedEx Cup standings and 10th in the world rankings.

Homa will be looking to join McIlroy as a three-time winner and after a quiet start to the year he finally hit top gear at The Masters. Homa is a hugely underrated golfer.

He was born in Burbank, California in November 1990 and the 2023 Farmers Insurance Open was his sixth PGA Tour victory. 

As an amateur he qualified to play in the US Open in 2013. He represented the USA in the Walker Cup that year and then turned professional. 

A decent year on the Web.com Tour saw him earn his PGA Tour card for 2015 but he lost his privileges after just one season. 

He regained his card but lost it again before returning to the PGA Tour in 2019, when he won the Wells Fargo Championship. In the 2021-22 season he won twice and earned a place in the U.S. Presidents Cup team, where he starred as they defeated The Internationals.

In 2023 he won the season-opening Fortinet Championship and followed it with victory at the Farmers Insurance Open in January. He finished second at the Genesis, tied sixth at the FedEx St Jude, tied fifth at the BMW, tied ninth at the Tour Championship and tied seventh at the 2023 Fortinet. He also won the Nedbank Challenge on the DP World Tour.

He was a member of the US Ryder Cup team that lost to Europe at Marco Simone Golf Club. He finished the regular season in ninth place in the FedEx Cup standings and eighth in the world rankings. 

Tournament Winners:

It was won in 2015 and 2021 by Rory McIlroy, in 2016 by James Hahn, in 2017 by Brian Harman, in 2018 by Jason Day, in 2019 and 2022 by Max Homa and last year by Wyndham Clark. There was no tournament in 2020 because of the pandemic.

The Course:

Quail Hollow is a par 70 measuring 7,160 yards. It is tree-lined, features plenty of bunkers and a couple of water hazards, most notably at the reachable par-four 14th and 221-yard par three 17th.

Form Guide:

If you believe in horses for courses then you will want to have a flutter on Rory McIlroy, who has won three times here. But the real form horse is defending champion Wyndham Clark, who has consistently proved himself to be a world-class performer.

To Win:

Wyndham Clark. Truly world-class

Each Way:

Rory McIlroy. Loves Quail Hollow

Each Way:

Sahith Theegala. Enjoying a superb season

Five to Follow:

Wyndham Clark. Will fancy his chances

Rory McIlroy. Having a strange season

Sahith Theegala. Exciting player

Max Homa. Course specialist

Brian Harman. Magical short game