This article is part of our FantasyDraft PGA series.
Wells Fargo Championship
Charlotte, North Carolina
Quail Hollow Club - Par 71 - 7,554 yards
Field - 156 entrants
Purse - $7.7M
The Preview
We transition from walk-up music and two-man team play at the Zurich Classic to the Wells Fargo Championship, which returns to Charlotte after a one-year hiatus with the PGA Championship being played at Quail Hollow in 2017. A relatively strong field will tee it up as over half of the Official World Golf Rankings' top 10 make their way to North Carolina, but the spotlight will unsurprisingly be on Tiger Woods, as he plays this event for the first time since 2012. Moving on to the course itself, Quail Hollow will play 46 yards shorter than it's usual 7,600-yard setup, as a chunk of yardage is expected to be removed from holes one and four. Usually you will see wider fairways and potentially less penalizing rough on a course that measures over 7,500 yards, but that's not the case here. Total driving -- a combination of driving distance and accuracy -- is one of our key statistics this week, as just 51 percent of fairways were hit at the event in 2016. Additional areas of focus include the usual SG: Tee-to-Green and proximity, but scrambling should also be taken into account after plenty of pros struggled around the greens at last year's PGA Championship. Temperatures could reach the high-80s during the first couple rounds in Charlotte, and there is a slight chance of precipitation throughout the weekend when both temperatures and the wind are slated to drop off.
Past Champions
2017 - Brian Harman (played at Eagle Point GC)
2016 - James Hahn
2015 - Rory McIlroy
2014 - J.B. Holmes
2013 - Derek Ernst
2012 - Rickie Fowler
2011 - Lucas Glover
2010 - Rory McIlroy
FantasyDraft Value Picks - based on $100,000 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Rory McIlroy - $18,400
The two-time Wells Fargo Championship winner set the course record with a third-round 61 at Quail Hollow en route to his 2015 victory. What may be even more impressive is the fact that McIlroy has finished outside of the top 10 just once in seven attempts at the event. He placed T5-1 in his last two stroke-play events -- at The Masters and Arnold Palmer Invitational, no less -- adding to the recipe that makes him the clear betting favorite this week, according to (golfodds.com).
Rickie Fowler - $17,500
Fowler won this event back in 2012 at 14-under-par, and he has also finished top-5 in each of his last two trips to Quail Hollow, at the 2017 PGA Championship and 2016 Wells Fargo event. The No. 6 player in the OWGR will be making his first start since a runner-up effort at The Masters, where he played his final two rounds in a whopping 12-under-par. He sits top-10 on Tour in both GIR percentage and birdie average.
Phil Mickelson - $15,700
A horse for the course, Lefty owns nine career top-10s at the Wells Fargo and a trio of top-fours since 2013 alone. Mickelson's T36 at The Masters was his first finish outside of the top 25 in seven starts dating back to the Waste Management Phoenix Open, so he's working with that favorable combination of recent form and course history. He sits top-5 on Tour in SG: Approach, SG: Putting and birdie average despite hitting less than 50 percent of his fairways in regulation.
Glue Guys
Tony Finau - $14,600
The sprained ankle that caused discomfort for Finau during his week at Augusta didn't keep him from placing T10 at The Masters, which he followed up with a sixth-place finish at last week's Zurich Classic with a struggling Daniel Summerhays as his teammate. The bomber ranks second on Tour in driving distance, 11th in SG: T2G and 23rd in proximity from 150-175 yards. Finau has also finished among the top 45 in all three of his career starts at Quail Hollow.
Ryan Moore - $14,300
Moore has impressed since the Arnold Palmer Invitational, with finishes of 7-T16-T28-T5 in his last four starts to climb inside the top 50 of the FedExCup standings. This will be his 11th career appearance at Quail Hollow for the Wells Fargo, and his time in Charlotte has been highlighted by back-to-back top-6 results at the 2012 and 2013 editions. Moore has done a solid job of finding the fairway this season, ranking seventh on Tour in driving accuracy. Maintaining his discipline off the tee could be key this week, but he's also top-20 in scrambling.
Brian Harman - $14,100
The 2017 champion won this event at Eagle Point Golf Club down the road in Wilmington last year, but Harman has also placed top-35 in three of his past five trips to Quail Hollow, including a T13 at the PGA Championship last August. As someone who ranks top-25 in both the OWGR and FedExCup standings, Harman feels like a steal at this deflated price. He's sixth on Tour in SG: Putting, seventh in GIR percentage, 12th in driving accuracy and 16th in birdie average.
Bargain Bin
Kevin Streelman - $13,700
Streelman finished T6-T14-T9 at the Wells Fargo Championship from 2013-2015, but has most recently posted top-8 results in each of his past two starts at the Valero Texas Open and RBC Heritage. He's all the way up to fourth on Tour in GIR percentage, 17th in driving accuracy and fifth in scrambling through 15 starts this season.
Keegan Bradley - $12,700
Bradley has failed to make the cut in each of his first two career Wells Fargo Championship starts, but he finished T33 at last year's PGA Championship to end his brief spell of misfortune in Charlotte. The 42nd-ranked player in the FedExCup standings ranks fourth in SG: Approach, seventh in SG: T2G, third in total driving and eighth in proximity. Bradley's price has dropped due to a lousy putter, but the long game is certainly there.
Vaughn Taylor - $11,100
The 42-year-old sharpened his resume at Quail Hollow with results of T35-T10 in his past two appearances at the venue, which followed a stretch of four consecutive missed cuts from 2009 to 2012. Taylor, who's looking like a worthy dart throw this week, is coming off a T16 in his previous start at the Valero Texas Open and ranks 19th on Tour in driving accuracy, 31st in proximity and 36th in scrambling.
