It’s all change for the sake of change at Quail Hollow

Eighteen months ago, Quail Hollow club president Johnny Harris phoned PGA CEO Pete Bevacqua and Kerry Haigh, chief championships officer, and invited them to visit to discuss a few changes he had in mind for the course in advance of hosting the 99th PGA Championship this week.

“I think Pete and I, in honesty, assumed it was maybe tweak a bunker or add a tee. But Mr. Harris and (architect) Tom Fazio came down and laid out these plans on the table and said, ‘Well, we want to replace the grass on the greens. And oh, by the way, while we want to do that, we want to build three new holes and a fourth new green on 11.’

“So after Pete and I fell down and got back into our chairs, we really challenged them extremely hard. Well, how are you going to do this? What’s the time line? You know, we wanted the golf course, all 18 holes, to play the same, consistent.”