Golf

Presidents Cup 2022: Why Quail Hollow Club’s Famous ‘Green Mile’ Holes Are Being Played Out of Order

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2022 Presidents Cup signage at Quail Hollow Club

Quail Hollow Club is no stranger to championship golf.

Located just south of downtown Charlotte, North Carolina, the club hosted the PGA Tour’s Kemper Open from 1969-79 and is now the regular home of the Wells Fargo Championship. It was the site of Justin Thomas’ 2017 PGA Championship victory and is set to host the lone professionals-only major championship for the second time in 2025.

Quail Hollow also serves as the setting for this week’s Presidents Cup, the biennial match-play event in which a team of players from the United States squares off with an international group representing the rest of the world minus Europe.

But these 24 players won’t be playing the same Quail Hollow layout we’re used to seeing.

The Quail Hollow Club layout was changed for the 2022 Presidents Cup

2022 Presidents Cup signage at Quail Hollow Club
Signage displays images of the United States and International Teams prior to the 2022 Presidents Cup at Quail Hollow Club on September 19, 2022 | Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images

While there are plenty of fantastic holes at Quail Hollow (there’s a reason it typically ranks as one of the most challenging courses on the PGA Tour), it’s best known for Nos. 16-18, the famous closing stretch dubbed the “Green Mile.”

The 16th is the longest par-4 on the course at 506 yards and features a peninsula green with a bunker on the right and water left and long. The 17th is a daunting 223-yard par-3 with water in front and down the left side of the green. And the treacherous 18th is a 494-yard par-4 with a creek down the left side of the fairway that has swallowed countless golf balls over the years.

But just for this week, those holes will play as Nos. 13-15 as the routing of Quail Hollow was altered to ensure the “Green Mile” factored in more matches. This way, the only way the stretch can be avoided is if a match is won 7&6 or better, which is an absolute rout if that happens.

At the most recent Presidents Cup in Australia in 2019, all 30 matches reached the 15th hole, but 18 were decided before reaching the 18th hole at Royal Melbourne. Hence the decision to reroute Quail Hollow.

Holes 1-8 remain unchanged, but the regular 456-yard, par-4 12th is now No. 9. The normal 13-18 stretch will serve as holes 10-15. And this week’s 16-18 will be No. 10 (par-5, 592 yards), No. 11 (par-4, 462 yards), and No. 9 (par-4, 505 yards).

Easy enough, right?

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