The tune-up for the season’s second major championship is at a major tournament host in its own right—Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, N.C., where Justin Thomas claimed the PGA Championship in 2017. Rory McIlroy opened as the Wells Fargo Championship odds favorite this week, an event the Northern Irishman has won three times.
McIlroy won the tournament most recently in 2021, part of a torrid run in the Queen City that’s also seen him finish second, fourth, fifth, eighth (twice) and 10th in 12 career appearances. McIlroy’s most recent PGA Tour start was a victory two weeks ago in the Zurich Classic, although he won that team event along with partner Shane Lowry.
2024 Wells Fargo Championship Odds
| Golfer | Odds |
|---|---|
| Rory McIlroy | +700 |
| Xander Schauffele | +900 |
| Wyndham Clark | +1600 |
| Patrick Cantlay | +1800 |
| Max Homa | +2100 |
| Collin Morikawa | +2400 |
| Tommy Fleetwood | +2500 |
| Justin Thomas | +2500 |
| Cameron Young | +2500 |
| Viktor Hovland | +2700 |
| Sahith Theegala | +2700 |
| Si Woo Kim | +3300 |
| Hideki Matsuyama | +3300 |
Odds as of May 7
Defending champion Wyndham Clark looks to continue a strong early-season run that’s so far netted victory at Pebble Beach, runner-up finishes at both the Arnold Palmer and Players Championship, and a T3 at the RBC Heritage. This Signature Event will be lacking world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler (awaiting the birth of his first child) and phenom Ludvig Aberg (knee soreness)—presumably, we’ll see them both at the PGA Championship next week.
Wells Fargo Championship PGA Tour Best Bets
Xander Schauffele To Win (+900)
Schauffele was the runner-up to Clark last year in Charlotte, and he also went 3-1 at Quail Hollow in quarterbacking the U.S. team to a victory over the internationals in the pandemic-delayed Presidents Cup of 2022.
Not known as a big bomber, Schauffele has the type of precision needed to navigate all the water on Quail Hollow’s back nine, and his solid 2024 so far has included a T2 at the Players, a T3 at the AMEX, a T4 at the Genesis, and an eighth at Augusta.
Rory McIlroy Top 5 Finish (+180)
How can you not? There’s perhaps no place on tour where McIroy has been as consistently good, with his three career Wells Fargo victories each coming five years apart. He’s missed the cut in Charlotte just once, in his second appearance back in 2011. And his positive mindset these days—as evidenced by a raucous celebration with Lowry after winning in New Orleans—seems miles away from last season, when his bomb-out at the Masters put him in a funk for weeks on end.
Matt Fitzpatrick Top 10 Finish (+315)
Fitzpatrick finished second behind Max Homa at Charlotte in 2022, his first of just two career appearances so far at Quail Hollow. The Englishman’s finishes in 2024 have been good, but not great—a fifth at The Players, a T10 at the Texas Open, a T11 with his brother Alex in New Orleans. But like Schauffele, Fitzy is known more for his accuracy than his length—evident in his 2022 U.S. Open triumph and in his four rounds in the 60s this year at Sawgrass, and absolutely necessary this week.
Wells Fargo Championship PGA Tour Betting Tips
Quail Hollow looks like an absolute beast, with its tree-lined, contoured fairways and its three finishing holes collectively known as the “Green Mile.” Yet Clark torched the place last season, firing a third-round 63 and then finishing a tournament record 19-under. And he’s not the only one to go that low—McIlroy went 21-under en route to his 2015 victory, though that no longer counts as a record since par has been reduced from 72 to 71.
Two-time Charlotte winner Max Homa finished T8 there last season, and was outstanding in a T3 performance at the Masters last month. Quail Hollow has historically been a great course for Rickie Fowler, who shot 14-under to win there in 2014 and has also twice tied for fourth. Fowler’s struggles in 2024 translate into solid value even for a top-10 finish this week (+440), especially given that he’s coming off a season-best finish (T18) at the Heritage.
Thomas, winner of Quail Hollow’s 2017 PGA, owns a best finish of T7 in the Wells Fargo. Clark, whose average score this season is 68.8, is absolutely capable of going back-to-back given the form he showed at the Players and Heritage, like this week's Signature events with loaded fields. And there are a few longshots to watch—Harris English shot three rounds in the 60s on his way to a T3 at Quail Hollow last year, while Adam Scott owns three career top-10s in Charlotte, a T5 last season among them.
