Pro golfer Hunter Mahan used an unconventional analogy to describe the course ahead of this weekend’s PGA Championship.
“I guess I would say Quail Hollow is like a Kardashian,” Mahan, 42, told The Athletic in a story published on Tuesday, May 13. “It’s very modern, beautiful and well-kept. But it lacks a soul or character.”
The 2025 PGA Championship begins Thursday, May 15 at Quail Hollow Golf & Country Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The private country club at Quail Hollow opened its doors in 1959, with the golf course opening in 1961. The course previously hosted the 2017 PGA Championship and 2022 Presidents Cup before its shining moment this weekend.
In addition to six-time PGA Tour champion Mahan, the stacked PGA Championship field includes Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Bryson DeChambeau, Justin Thomas and Xander Schauffele.
Quail Hollow lacks the modernity and panache of some of the more popular stops on the Tour, but Webb Simpson said that’s what makes it so fun.
“The golf course is very challenging, but it’s not tricked up,” seven-time PGA Tour winner Simpson, 39, told The Athletic. “Guys love being challenged in the right way. Not tricked up, but real tough golf holes and Quail has a great variety of them.”
Davis Love III, winner of the 1997 PGA Championship, said the atmosphere at the tournament this weekend will far outweigh whatever structural inadequacies Quail Hollow boasts.
“If we pick the top 20 architecturally significant places to host a PGA Championship, well yeah, maybe Quail Hollow doesn’t make that top 20,” Love, 61, told The Athletic. “But if you pick the top 20 places to host a big tournament, it’s in the top 5.”
McIlroy, 36, who is looking to follow up his 2025 Masters victory last month with a strong showing this weekend, won his first-ever PGA Tour title at Quail Hollow in 2010.
“I wasn’t even supposed to play this tournament in 2010,’’ McIlroy told reporters on Wednesday. “I had missed the cut at the Masters and I was struggling with a bad back. I got an MRI scan when I went home and it showed some stress around L4-L5, and the doctor told me it’s probably better if you rest for a few weeks and not play.”
Still, the 21-year-old McIlroy played through the pain and used a sensational final round to secure the victory.
“I went out and played one of the rounds of my life and won my first PGA Tour event,” he recalled. “It was an amazing day. It feels like such a long time ago, but at the same time I can remember that.”
