Wells Fargo Championship Notes 2014

Dates: April 28 – May 4, 2014
Where: Quail Hollow Club, Charlotte, NC
Par/Yards: 72/7,442 yards
2013 champion: Derek Ernst
2013 Purse: $6,900,000/$1,242,000
FedExCup: 500 points to the winner
Format: 72-hole stroke play
Field: 156
Twitter: @WellsFargoGolf

A look back at the 2013 Wells Fargo Championship

• Derek Ernst defeated David Lynn with a par-4 on the first playoff hole (No. 18) to win his first career PGA TOUR event.
• Ernst came from two shots behind third-round co-leaders Nick Watney and Phil Mickelson to win in his first start at the Wells Fargo Championship. He got a spot in the field off the alternate list on Monday when Freddie Jacobson withdrew.

  More on Derek Ernst

• Ernst won the sixth playoff in tournament history and third consecutive (2004, 2005, 2006, 2011, 2012,
  2013).
• Ernst joins Jim Furyk (2003) as the only first-round leaders/co-leaders of the Wells Fargo Championship
  to go on to win.
• Ernst played the “Green Mile” (Nos. 16-18) at 2-under for the week last year.
• Ernst earned his way on TOUR this season after finishing T17 at the 2012 PGA TOUR Qualifying Tournament. He is one of four players who successfully navigated all four stages (pre-qualifying, first stage and second stage) to earn a spot on TOUR.

  A look at the field

• Thirteen of the top 30 in the current FedExCup standings, including No. 1 Jimmy Walker, a three-time winner in 2013-14.
  • Just six months ago, Walker began his eighth season on the PGA Tour with no wins in 187 attempts.
  • With three victories in his first eight starts of 2013-14 at the Frys.com Open, Sony Open in Hawaii and AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Walker became just the fourth different player in the last 20 years to win three times in his first eight starts, joining Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson and David Duval.
  • In his last start, Walker finished T8 in his Masters debut and holds a 206-point lead over Bubba Watson in the FedExCup standings.
• Twenty-one of the top 50 in the Official World Golf Ranking.
• Nine of the 20 different PGA TOUR winners in 2013-14.
• Two of the four major champions from 2013 – Justin Rose (U.S. Open) and Phil Mickelson (Open Championship).
• In total, there are 21 major championship winners in the field, representing all four majors: Rose, Mickelson, Ernie Els, Padraig Harrington, Vijay Singh, Angel Cabrera, Retief Goosen, Rory McIlroy, Stewart Cink, Darren Clarke, Ben Curtis, Jim Furyk, Trevor Immelman, Zach Johnson, Davis Love III, Y.E. Yang, Geoff Ogilvy, Lucas Glover, Martin Kaymer, Webb Simpson, Mike Weir.
• Seven former Wells Fargo Championship winners: Jim Furyk (2006), Vijay Singh (2005), Sean O’Hair (2009), Rory McIlroy (2010), Lucas Glover (2011), Rickie Fowler (2012) and Derek Ernst (2013).
• The Wells Fargo Championship has a history of young winners. Below are the youngest winners in tournament history:
  • 2010 Rory McIlroy 20 years, 11 months, 28 days
  • 2008 Anthony Kim 22 years, 10 months, 15 days
  • 2013 Derek Ernst 22 years, 11 months, 19 days
  • 2012 Rickie Fowler 23 years, 4 months and 23 days
• Among those in the field with Charlotte connections: Webb Simpson, Brendon de Jonge, Robert Karlsson, Johnson Wagner, Harold Varner III, Davis Love III, Bill Haas and Jason Kokrak.
• Phil Mickelson at the Wells Fargo Championship
  • Mickelson has played 31 of 40 competitive rounds at Quail Hollow at par or better.
  • Mickelson holds the Wells Fargo Championship record for the most top-10 finishes with seven in 10 appearances. Along with his solo second in 2010, he finished T5 in 2004, T7 in 2005, T3 in 2007, T5 in 2009, T9 in 2011, 3rd in 2013.
  • Mickelson has played No. 17 at Quail Hollow Club 40 times and is 14-over-par on the hole. He has only birdied the hole three times (R4/2007, R2/2010 and R4/2012). He made a bogey in the final round in 2013.
  • Of the stroke-play events on TOUR in which Mickelson has competed more than 10 times, the BMW Championship (16 starts), WGC-Bridgestone Invitational (15 starts), the Memorial (13 starts), The Barclays (12 starts) and the Wells Fargo Championship (10) are the only ones to have never surrendered him victory.
  • Mickelson made his 15th start on the PGA TOUR in the state of North Carolina in 2013, where he remains in search of his first win. In addition to 10 starts at Quail Hollow, he played the Wyndham Championship at Forrest Oaks CC in Greensboro in 1993 (T50), 1997 (T9) and 1998 (T6). In the U.S. Open at Pinehurst, he finished runner-up in 1999 and T33 in 2005.

    Wells Fargo Championship notes

  • The 54-hole leader has won just three of 11 Wells Fargo Championships (David Toms-2003, Jim Furyk-
    2006 and Anthony Kim-2008).
  • Lucas Glover (2011) is the only player in the history of the Wells Fargo Championship to post all four rounds in the 60s.
  • With a start in the 2013 Wells Fargo Championship, four players will have competed in all 12 tournaments at Quail Hollow Club since the tournament’s inception in 2003: J.J. Henry; Stuart Appleby; Charles Howell III; and Rory Sabbatini.
  • Derek Ernst’s winning 72-hole score of 8-under is the highest in tournament history. The previous high 72-hole winning score was 10-under by David Toms in 2003.
  • The last four winners of the Wells Fargo Championship have missed the cut (36-hole or 54-hole) the following year (Sean O’Hair, Rory McIlroy, Lucas Glover, Rickie Fowler-MDF).Wells Fargo extension

    In March, Wells Fargo, the PGA TOUR and tournament host organization Champions for Education announced that Wells Fargo will continue its sponsorship of the Wells Fargo Championship through 2019 after signing a five year extension. In addition to the extension, officials also announced the 2017 Wells Fargo Championship will be held at Eagle Point Golf Club in Wilmington, N.C., when its regular host site, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, hosts that year’s PGA Championship.