Players gorge on birdies before facing Quail Hollow’s Green Mile.
The final three holes at Quail Hollow Club, site of this month’s PGA Championship in North Carolina, are notoriously known as the “Green Mile”, a reference to the colour of the floor that death row inmates walk on the way to the electric chair in the Stephen King novel and movie of the same name. Many PGA Tour professionals sympathise with the analogy when trying to complete their rounds during the annual stop at Quail Hollow: their fate can often feel inevitable as strokes melt away on the unforgiving par-4/par-3/par-4 trilogy that can measure a combined 1,270 yards with water hazards nestling against each green.
The feeling only intensifies under the pressure of a major, as it did in 2017, the first time Quail Hollow hosted the PGA Championship (the club was also the site of the 2022 Presidents Cup). It was the most difficult course the tour played that year, beating Augusta National, Erin Hills and Royal Birkdale – the other major-championship venues, and the players collectively leaked an average of more than a stroke a day over the distance of the Green Mile. That scenario is likely to play out again on the 7,558-yard, par-71 design that’s been remodelled several times by Tom Fazio since 1996, including an extensive alteration in 2016 that included three new holes and most recently in 2023 when the greens, bunkers and tees were rebuilt.
Knowing that the most difficult and defining stretch of golf comes at the end makes it imperative the players grab as many strokes as they can on the holes that come before it. That’s very possible when the conditions are right – if 16 to 18 are the Green Mile, holes 13 through 15 are the prisoner’s last meal, a chance to fatten up before the gallows. Played well, competitors can pick up two or even three shots on this middle section of the second nine that includes two enticing half-par holes.
The run begins with the par-3 13th and a relatively straightforward iron shot. The hole plays anywhere between 170 and 220 yards over a creek to a green set against an opposing slope. The putting surface is relatively large, and the only real concern is the severe false front that will shuttle any shot that comes up short ten to 15 paces back down the fairway. Deep bunkers on either side also demand caution, though the sand-save percentage during the past five Wells Fargo Championships is 60 percent, close to the tour’s year-to-year average. No matter where the hole is cut, the middle of the green is a good target for a low-stress par or chance to roll in a putt for two. The 13th played to a respectable scoring average of 3.19 during the 2017 PGA Championship, but since then the average score is 3.08.
The fun begins with the par-4 14th, one of the PGA Tour’s best short par 4s tilting slightly downhill with water running the length of the fairway on the left and continuing along the edge of the green. When original architect George Cobb built the course in 1960, he constructed the large reservoir and routed holes 14 to 17 around it. The greens at 14, 16 and 17, however, were located on higher ground, away from the water. When Fazio’s team remodelled the course in 1996, they pushed the 14th and 17th greens tight against the lake, making it much more of a threat (they did the same to the 16th green in 2013). Shifting the green changed the calculus of the 14th.
The listed scorecard yardage of 344 yards is merely a suggestion – the tour typically varies the distance between 300 and 350 yards, and in the 2017 PGA Championship the tees were moved all the way up to 289 yards for the second round. The measure of a good driveable par 4 is if it strikes a balance between temptation and caution, which the 14th does. Each player stands on the tee with the same expectation, to make a 3 with an outside chance for a 2.
The question is, what’s the best tactic? Most players in the field can get home with driver or 3-wood, but going for the green isn’t the answer for everyone. For some, the threat of the lake is too extreme, so they’ll consistently club down to an iron off the tee for safe positioning. Others will lean into statistics and try to hit it on or near the green each day (erring right) and trust they can get up and down if they miss.
Hole location can also influence the decision – when flags are set on the front of the 52-yard-deep green, players can be more aggressive because the recovery options from short and the two greenside bunkers are more routine. Hole locations at the back leave less room to miss and typically play a quarter to half a stroke more difficult, so more players will opt to lay up and approach with a wedge to control the spin to these tight pins. The 14th has averaged 3.75 strokes in the past five Wells Fargo events, so this is a critical, gettable hole where par feels like a bogey.
The run continues at the par-5 15th, an even greater scoring opportunity. The fairway continues along the reservoir that’s not really in play for the professionals, then proceeds past the water before climbing uphill towards a green set in a grassy amphitheatre. If players can fit their drives somewhere between a cluster of oaks on the left and two fairway bunkers on the right, they’re in the ‘go’ zone. That leaves them with a semi-blind approach that requires a carry of between 220 and 270 yards to cover the bunker fronting a green that has several accessible hole locations.
The bunker arrangement around the green was altered in 2018 with the addition of two new hazards set into the slope 10 paces to the right of the green, but these don’t generally bother the professionals. Players know they must make a 4 here, and those odds increase in proportion to how close they get to the green with their second shots.
During the Wells Fargo, three-quarters of the field typically attempt to hit the green in two, and over the past five tournaments 131 second shots have found the putting surface yielding 35 eagles to just 135 bogeys. The result is that the 15th has played to a stroke average of 4.59 (as it did during the 2017 PGA), making it the easiest on the course and usually one of the most favourable scoring par 5s on the PGA Tour.
This penultimate stretch of holes before the difficult finish will have a critical impact on how players fare during the PGA, as it does during the regular tour event.
During Rory McIlroy’s 2024 five-stroke victory, he played these three holes in four-under-par on Sunday and six-under overall, compared to two-over-par through the Green Mile. In 2023, winner Wyndham Clark took seven strokes off his score on 13, 14 and 15 before playing the final three holes in even-par overall.
McIlroy also won in 2021, and needed all of the five birdies he picked up over the “last meal” holes to offset playing 16 through 18 in one-over-par in beating Abraham Ancer by a stroke.
Every player knows what’s coming when they head into the Green Mile, but when they stand on the 13th tee, the only colour they’re seeing is red.
Main Image: Quail Hollow’s infamous Green Mile begins at the 16th, but the previous three holes offer a chance to score. Carlos Amoedo
