The Wells Fargo Championship at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, resumes this week after getting canceled in 2020 due to Covid 19. It takes place over the challenging 7,521 yards, par 71 layout that hosted the 2017 PGA Championship and will be the site of the 2022 Presidents’ Cup while the PGA returns again in 2025.
The 2021 PGA Championship will be contested less than four hours away in Kiawah, South Carolina in a couple of weeks, and between the close proximity and the challenging Quail Hollow course, the tournament has attracted a strong field of PGA Tour players. Max Homa, who won in 2019 for his first career Tour win, is the defending champion.
One player who should be entering a comfort zone this week despite recent problems is Rory McIlroy at +1800 odds, two-time Wells Fargo winner at Quail Hollow, and the 2012 PGA champion when he won by eight shots at Kiawah Island for his second of four major championships.
Abraham Ancer is at +3300 and has been busy in 2020-2021 with 17 starts, three top tens and 11 top twenty-five finishes and only two missed cuts.
Betting Odds Favorites
Justin Thomas, after a tie for 13th last week at the Valspar Championship, moved into the lead in the FedEx Cup standings and is at +800 odds, just ahead of Jon Rahm at +900, who is winless this season but has nine top-ten finishes in 13 starts. The player Thomas supplanted at the top of the FedEx Cup race is Bryson DeChambeau, who is at +1400 in the odds this week.
Xander Schauffele, who seems to be a fixture near the top of the odds listings every week, is at +1600, while Viktor Hovland, who rallied with a final round 65 last week to finish tied for third, has odds of +1800. Local native Webb Simpson, looking for his first win in his hometown event, is also at +1800.
Underdog Picks at the Wells Fargo Championship
Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson has been showing some signs that he is returning to form with four top-ten finishes this season and a tie for 13th last week at the Valspar. Watson, who has odds of +5500, demonstrated some of his old magic on the greens during his rounds of 67 and 68 on Friday and Saturday to get himself into range of the leaders before a disappointing one over par 72 on Sunday.
Rickie Fowler has had good success at Quail Hollow, including a win in 2012 and fourth-place finishes in 2019 and 2016, but he is looking to break out of a multiple-season slump and has not had a top ten finish since the American Express in January of 2020. The five-time PGA Tour winner showed some progress in his last outing, rebounding from an opening-round 76 to climb to a tie for 21st in the Valero Texas Open and has odds of +7000.
Abraham Ancer is at +3300 and has been busy in 2020-2021 with 17 starts, three top tens and 11 top twenty-five finishes and only two missed cuts. The 30-year-old out of the University of Oklahoma is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory but is coming off an encouraging fifth-place finish in last week’s Valspar Championship.
