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2017 Wells Fargo Championship: Odds, Picks, and Prop Bets

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The PGA Tour heads up to North Carolina this week for the Wells Fargo Championship. There’s a strong field this week; six of the world’s top-20 players will be in attendance.

World No. 1 Dustin Johnson headlines the field and is joined by Jon Rahm, Adam Scott, and Alex Noren. This will be Johnson’s first start since his freak injury in Augusta. He’s had a few weeks off at this point so he should be well rested and the rust will be minimal. Also among the storylines this week is Phil Mickelson’s quest for a W at the Wells Fargo Championship. Lefty has finished in the top-12 in 11 of his 13 starts but is yet to capture the trophy.

  • Tournament Record – 267 by Rory McIlroy (2015 at Quail Hollow)
  • Single-Round Record – 61 by Rory McIlroy (2015 at Quail Hollow)

The Course

The Wells Fargo Championship has moved to Eagle Point Golf Club for the year as Quail Hollow preps for the PGA Championship. The par-72 course will play more than 7,400 yards including an additional 500 yards that were added specifically for this tournament. The course plays like a classic coastal course with slight elevation changes and undulating bent grass greens. It also features large, perfectly placed bunkers awaiting errant tee shots. Driving length and accuracy will be placed at a premium this week.

Odds

Past Champs in the field:

  • Vijay Singh +35000
  • Jim Furyk +8000
  • Lucas Glover +6600
  • Derek Ernst +30000
  • JB Holmes +4000
  • James Hahn +12500

Favorites:

  • Dustin Johnson +450
  • Jon Rahm +1200
  • Adam Scott +1800
  • Paul Casey +1800
  • Phil Mickelson +2000
  • Kevin Kisner +2500
  • Bill Haas +3300
  • Daniel Berger +3300
  • Webb Simpson +3300
  • Wesley Bryan +3300

Picks

My Pick – I’m not exactly coming in with a hot take on this one. I’m going with Dustin Johnson (+450) this week. I don’t love the odds, but until he loses, I’m going with DJ every time he’s in the field. Sticking with the hot hand is the way to go this week. DJ hasn’t played in four weeks so he may have cooled off a bit, but he’s won his last three starts, he’s the No. 1 player in the world and he’s separated himself from everyone else. I just can’t pick against that.

Value Pick – I’m going with Wesley Bryan this week at +3300. Bryan hasn’t been the best off the tee this year, but the rest of his game has been firing on all cylinders. Bryan got his first Tour win a few weeks ago at the RBC Heritage and I think the floodgates might open. After he got his first top-10, he followed it up with two more in his next two starts. Now that he knows he can win, his confidence will be through the roof.

Long Shot – Alex Noren at +5000 is my long shot pick this week. Alex Noren is the No. 12 ranked player in the world. Going off at +5000 is close to a slap in the face. He hasn’t had the best year so far, but if he can put it all together, he has the game to win any given week. I can’t pass on these odds.

Props

Will there be a playoff – Yes (+275) No (-400); I’m going with “no” this week. I’d be surprised if we got to see playoffs in back-to-back weeks. There have been four playoffs in the last six years, but the event is at a new venue so I don’t think history will come into play this week. And I have a feeling Johnson is going to run away with it.

Reed (-150) v. A. Noren (+115); I have to take Noren here. As I said before, he’s the No. 12-ranked player in the world and is getting absolutely no respect this week. Reed hasn’t played well at all this year; he’s missed the cut in three of his last four starts and his only top-10 finish came at the Tournament of Champions back in January.

Hole-in-One – Yes (-115) No (-115); I’m going with “yes” this week. I don’t love the odds on this one, but with this many great players in the field, somebody is bound to get an ace. No. 2, a short par-3, plays well under 200 yards and with no room to bail-out, players are forced to take dead aim at the pin.

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Twitter @NickRitaccoGolf

2 Comments

2 Comments

  1. Tom1

    May 3, 2017 at 5:30 pm

    7400 yards! wouldn’t see that twenty years ago.

  2. ooffa

    May 3, 2017 at 9:17 am

    Does each competitor get an account at Wells Fargo, even if the don’t want it?

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Photos from the 2024 Wells Fargo Championship

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GolfWRX is live this week at the Wells Fargo Championship as a field of the world’s best golfers descend upon Charlotte, North Carolina, hoping to tame the beast that is Quail Hollow Club in this Signature Event — only Scottie Scheffler, who is home awaiting the birth of his first child, is absent.

From the grounds at Quail Hollow, we have our usual assortment of general galleries and WITBs — including a look at left-hander Akshay Bhatia’s setup. Among the pullout albums, we have a look inside Cobra’s impressive new tour truck for you to check out. Also featured is a special look at Quail Hollow king, Rory McIlroy.

Be sure to check back throughout the week as we add more galleries.

General Albums

WITB Albums

Pullout Albums

See what GolfWRXers are saying about our Wells Fargo Championship photos in the forums.

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SuperStroke acquires Lamkin Grips

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SuperStroke announced today its purchase of 100-year-old grip maker Lamkin Grips, citing the company’s “heritage of innovation and quality.”

“It is with pride and great gratitude that we announce Lamkin, a golf club grip brand with a 100-year history of breakthrough design and trusted products, is now a part of the SuperStroke brand,” says SuperStroke CEO Dean Dingman. “We have always had the utmost respect for how the Lamkin family has put the needs and benefits of the golfer first in their grip designs. If there is a grip company that is most aligned with SuperStroke’s commitment to uncompromised research, design, and development to put the most useful performance tools in the hands of golfers, Lamkin has been that brand. It is an honor to bring Lamkin’s wealth of product innovation into the SuperStroke family.”

Elver B. Lamkin founded the company in 1925 and produced golf’s first leather grips. The company had been family-owned and operated since that point, producing a wide array of styles, such as the iconic Crossline.

According to a press release, “The acquisition of Lamkin grows and diversifies SuperStroke’s proven and popular array of grip offerings with technology grounded in providing golfers optimal feel and performance through cutting-edge design and use of materials, surface texture and shape.”

CEO Bob Lamkin will stay on as a board member and will continue to be involved with the company.

“SuperStroke has become one of the most proven, well-operated, and pioneering brands in golf grips and we could not be more confident that the Lamkin legacy, brand, and technology is in the best of hands to continue to innovate and lead under the guidance of Dean Dingman and his remarkably capable team,” Lamkin said.

Related: Check out our 2014 conversation with Bob Lamkin, here: Bob Lamkin on the wrap grip reborn, 90 years of history

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Tour Rundown: Pendrith, Otaegui, Longbella, and Dunlap soar

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Take it from a fellow who coaches high school golf in metro Toronto: there’s plenty of great golf played in the land of the maple leaf. All the greats have designed courses over the USA border: Colt, Whitman, Ross, Coore, Mackenzie, Doak, as well as the greatest of the land, Stanley Thompson. I’m partial to him, because he wore my middle name with grandeur. Enough about the architecture, because this week’s Tour Rundown begins with a newly-minted, Canadian champion on the PGA Tour. Something else that the great white north is known for, is weather. It impacted play on three of the world’s tours, forcing final-round cancellations on two of them.

It was an odd week in the golf world. The LPGA and the Korn Ferry were on a break, and only 13/15 of the rounds slated, were played. In the end, we have four champions to recognize, so let’s not delay any longer with minutiae about the game that we love. Let’s run it all down with this week’s Tour Rundown.

PGA Tour: TP takes TS at Byron’s place

The 1980s was a decade when a Canadian emergence was anticipated on the PGA Tour. It failed to materialize, but a path was carved for the next generation. Mike Weir captured the Masters in 2003, but no other countrymen joined him in his quest for PGA Tour conquest. 2024 may herald the long-awaited arrival of a Canadian squad of tour winners. Over the past few years, we’ve seen Nick Taylor break the fifty-plus year dearth of homebred champions at the Canadian Open, and players like Adam Hadwin, Corey Conners, Adam Svennson, and Mackenzie Hughes have etched their names into the PGA Tour’s annals of winners.

This week, Taylor Pendrith joined his mates with a one-shot win at TPC Craig Ranch, the home of the Byron Nelson Classic. Pendrith took a lead into the final round and, while the USA’s Jake Knapp faltered, held on for the slimmest of victories. Sweden’s Alex Noren posted six-under 65 on Sunday to move into third position, at 21-under par. Ben Kohles, a Texan, looked to break through for his first win in his home state. He took the lead from Pendrith at the 71st hole, on the strength of a second-consecutive birdie.

With victory in site, Kohles found a way to make bogey at the last, without submerging in the fronting water. His second shot was greenside, but he could not move his third to the putting surface. His fourth was five feet from par and a playoff, but his fifth failed to drop. Meanwhile, Pendrith was on the froghair in two, and calmly took two putts from 40 feet, for birdie. When Kohles missed for par, Pendrith had, at last, a PGA Tour title.

DP World Tour: China Open in Otaegui’s hands after canceled day four

It wasn’t the fourth round that was canceled in Shenzhen, but the third. Rains came on Saturday to Hidden Grace Golf Club, ensuring that momentum would cease. Sunday would instead be akin to a motorsports restart, with no sense of who might claim victory. Sebastian Soderberg, the hottest golfer on the Asian Swing, held the lead, but he would slip to a 72 on Sunday, and tie for third with Paul Waring and Joel Girrbach. Italy’s Guido Migliozzi completed play in 67 strokes on day three, moving one shot past the triumvirate, to 17-under par.

It was Spain’s Adrian Otaegui who persevered the best and played the purest. Otaegui was clean on the day, with seven birdies for 65. Even when Migliozzi ceased the lead at the 10th, Otaegui remained calm. With everything on the line, Migliozzi made bogey at the par-five 17th, as his principal competitor finished in birdie. To the Italian’s credit, he bounced back with birdie at the last, to claim solo second. The victory was Otaegui’s fifth on the DP World Tour, and first since October of 2022.

PGA Tour Americas: Quito’s rains gift title to Longbella

Across the world, superintendents and their staffs will do anything to prepare a course for play. Even after fierce, nightime rains, the Quito TG Club greeted the first four groups on Sunday. The rains worsened after 7 am, however, and the tour was forced to abort the final round of play. With scores reverting to Saturday’s numbers, Thomas Longbella’s one-shot advantage over Gunn Yang turned into a Tour Americas victory.

64 held the opening-day lead, and Longbella was not far off, with 66. Yang jumped to the top on day two, following a67 with 66. He posted 68 on day three, and anticipated a fierce, final-round duel for the title. As for Longbella, he fought off a ninth-hole bogey on Saturday with six birdies and a 17th-hole eagle. That rare bird proved to be the winning stroke, allowing Longbella to edge past Yang, and secure ultimate victory.

PGA Tour Champions: Dunlap survives Saturday stumble for win

Scott Dunlap did not finish Saturday as well as he might have liked. After beginning play near Houston with 65, Dunlap made two bogeys in his final found holes on day two, to finish at nine-under par. Hot on his heels was Joe Durant, owner of a March 2024 win on PGA Tour Champions. Just behind Durant was Stuart Appleby, perhaps vibing from his Sunday 59 at Greenbrier on this day in 2010. Neither would have a chance to track Dunlap down.

The rains that have forced emergency responders into action, to save hundreds of lives in the metro Houston area, ended hopes for a third day of play at The Woodlands. Dunlap had won once previously on Tour Champions, in 2014 in Washington state. Ten years later, Dunlap was the fortunate recipient of a canceled final round, and his two days of play were enough to earn him TC victory number two.

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