A Bomber's Paradise: Explaining Quail Hollow's Correlation With Distance

In case you haven’t heard, Quail Hollow is a long golf course. The 2025 PGA Championship host is also often described as one of the most bomber-friendly courses on the professional golf calendar. Is that characterization accurate? And if so, why? 

Measuring 7,626 yards, Quail Hollow is one of the longest courses in professional golf. You can probably imagine that total scorecard yardage and power are connected; however, there are more factors that go into a golf course’s correlation with distance than the total yardage. 

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Distance gains are not worth an identical amount of strokes on every hole. Specifically, an additional 5-10 yards on a tee shot is most valuable on reachable par 5s and reachable, or nearly-reachable, par 4s. For instance, having a 225-yard approach shot is much easier than 235 yards, largely because scoring is heavily predicated on hitting the green. Players are not only more accurate with a shorter, higher-lofted iron in hand, but shots with those clubs also reach a higher apex and have a better chance of holding the green.

Similarly, having a 15-yard pitch shot into, for example, a short par 4 is much easier than having a 25-yard pitch shot. In this case, the scoring difference is not due to the 15-yard shot having a better chance of staying on the green, but instead because you have a much better chance of hitting a shot inside 5-10 feet from 15 yards than 25 yards. Once you get inside 10 feet on the green, each foot closer to the hole exponentially drops your expected score.

On the other hand, the difference between a 160-yard shot versus a 150-yard shot is not nearly as significant. Players will tend to hit the green from both distances without stuffing the shot close to the hole consistently. A 150-yard shot is still easier than a 160-yard shot; it’s just that the 10-yard difference is more significant at other distances. This excellent visualization from DataGolf illustrates the value of distance across yardages on Tour.

The part of this analysis that sometimes gets overlooked is that many of the longest-hitting players in professional golf are often also the best long-iron players. These are correlated skill sets. Why? If you’re one of the longest hitters off the tee, you likely hit your irons longer than your peers, too. In other words, if you both had 220 yards into a hole, you might be able to hit a 5-iron while your opponent hits a 4-iron. That’s a big advantage. Add in the fact that you’re going to have shorter approach shots than your shorter-hitting opponent on par 4s and par 5s, the advantage is only further reinforced.

At Quail Hollow, virtually all of the holes are at distances that benefit long hitters. The three par 5s – the shortest of which measures 546 yards – can all play as reachable depending on conditions. Three of the four par 3s measure over 200 yards, and the shortest measures 184 yards. As you can surmise, Quail features many more approach shots from over 200 yards than the average professional golf venue, which plays into the hands of the powerful players. And crucially, even on holes that don’t feature long approach shots, distance is still highly valuable. Two of the par 4s, Nos. 8 and 14, can both be set up as drivable. As we discussed above, these types of holes are among the most advantageous to long hitters. 

A final important piece that solidifies a bomber’s advantage over the field is the dimensions of the golf course, which encourages smashing driver repeatedly. Fairways do not narrow at driver length, nor are wide misses penalized enough to discourage players from ripping driver.

Contrast those dimensions with golf courses like Le Golf National or TPC Sawgrass, where fairways pinch at long distances and wide misses find either thick grass on moguls, areas with dense trees, or penalty hazards.

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Long hitters also have multiple opportunities to take shortcuts over trees and eliminate fairway bunkers, like on Nos. 1, 2, and 16. 

Putting the pieces of the puzzle together, pro golfers blast away repeatedly at Quail Hollow on holes that are heavily distance advantageous. At the 2024 Truist Championship, removing par 3s and the reachable par 4s (Nos. 8 and 14) where he can often reach the green without maxing out his speed, Rory McIlroy hit just one tee shot with a ball speed under 183 miles per hour, a 182-mph tee shot during his first round on the 11th Hole. A whopping 98% (47/48) of his measured tee shots were over 183 mph. Full send. 

That’s a stark difference from his speed numbers at TPC Sawgrass just two months earlier, where only 35% (17/32) of his measured tee shots eclipsed a 183-mph ball speed, once again removing the holes that can be set up as drivable – No. 12 in this case. McIlroy is one of the longest-hitting players in the world. At Quail Hollow, he’s able to capitalize on that advantage much more so than at other venues. 

So yes, Quail Hollow’s reputation for being a bomber’s paradise is correct and supported both by data and theory. That doesn’t mean a short hitter cannot contend this week. Kevin Kisner finished T-7 at the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow. However, it does mean that long hitters are starting the tournament on first base, and to keep up with the most powerful players in the field, short hitters will need to have a magical week on and around the greens.

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