Quail Hollow Named Site Of 2017 PGA Championship

Charlotte’s Quail Hollow Club has been chosen as the site of the 2017 PGA Championship, PGA officials announced Tuesday.

Quail Hollow will be the third venue in North Carolina to host the event, joining Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, which held the event in 1936, and Tanglewood Golf Club of Winston-Salem, which hosted in 1974.

“It is with great pleasure that we bring the PGA Championship back to North Carolina, and to make our first visit to Quail Hollow Club, a venue and a community that has demonstrated its skill in hosting premier golf,” said PGA of America President Jim Remy.

Gov. Beverly Perdue and Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx were at the club for the announcement on Tuesday morning and said the event is great news for the state and the city.

The championship is expected to bring in about 50,000 people, and Perdue said the state is hoping it will net between $150 million and $200 million. The championship will also bring a lot of media exposure to the Charlotte area. At least 700 media outlets are expected to attend.

“The videos, the montages they do about the state leading into the playoffs are incredible. You can't buy this amount of good press," Perdue said.

Foxx said the city will be ready for the worldwide attention.

“We just had (the NRA) convention with 72,000 people in the city. We've gotten used to lots of people coming in for contained periods of time,” he said.

Quail Hollow Club, founded in 1959 and designed by George Cobb in 1961, was renovated in 1997 and 2003. Beginning in 1969, Quail Hollow has hosted Tour events in four of the past five decades, including the Kemper Open (1969-79); the World Seniors Invitational (1980-89); and the Quail Hollow Championship (formerly the Wachovia Championship), which began in 2003.

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“We have 50 years of rich history here at Quail Hollow Club that has helped prepare us for an opportunity such as this,” said John W. Harris, president of the Board of Governors of Quail Hollow Club. “To those who came before us and helped make this possible, we owe our thanks as we look back on a half century of great moments and look toward many more. We’re especially proud to host an event that has the history and tradition of the PGA Championship. It is one of America’s truly great championships.”

Quail Hollow’s 7,469-yard, par-72 layout has been praised by Tour professionals for its blend of a demanding and risk-reward layout. The final three holes, known as “the Green Mile,” have consistently been ranked the toughest finish on the PGA Tour the past seven years. No other event has had holes 16, 17 and 18 ranked among the top three finishing holes on the Tour during that same period.

The PGA Championship will visit the following venues in coming years:

• 2011 – Atlanta Athletic Club (Highlands Course), Johns Creek, Ga. • 2012 – Kiawah Island Golf Resort (The Ocean Course), Kiawah Island, S.C. • 2013 – Oak Hill Country Club (East), Rochester, N.Y. • 2014 – Valhalla Golf Club, Louisville, Ky. • 2015 – Whistling Straits (Straits), Kohler, Wis. • 2016 – Baltusrol Golf Club (Lower), Springfield, N.J. • 2017 – Quail Hollow Club