The Starter: Round 1, Quail Hollow Championship
The first round of the Quail Hollow Championship is set to begin. Here's a look at Thursday's round:
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COURSE REPORT: The top players at the Quail Hollow Championship offer their opinions of the layout in Charlotte, N.C.:
Not only is the field of major-championship quality this week, but Quail Hollow Golf Club also measures up to the top venues in golf.
Just ask the world's best. Three-time Masters champion Phil Mickelson compared it to Augusta National.
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"The greens are very similar," said Mickelson, who's playing his first tournament since his latest Masters win. "They're the same grass, very similar speed, very similar slope. ... Last year we had first-cut rough like we had at Augusta, so you had a lot of recovery shots, and I thought with the trees being similar, I thought it had a very similar feel to Augusta."
Lee Westwood said the infrastructure and facilities at Quail Hollow are of major quality, but the course itself could be made even tougher.
"I can imagine the rough gets to 4 or 5 inches around here and it firms out, then you're playing later on in the year when it's hot and the ball is running maybe a little bit more -- because it's a little bit soft out there at the moment -- this would be a really, really tough test," the Englishman said.
Tiger Woods, the 2007 winner at Quail Hollow, thinks it's already plenty tough enough.
"It's very similar to a major championship, especially right now the greens speeds are up, the fairways are running, even though they had rain," Woods said after his Wednesday pro-am. "It's hard to believe the golf course is still playing this fast."
INSTRUCTOR'S CORNER: Todd Jones, head instructor at TOUR Academy TPC Sawgrass, offers insight to playing Quail Hollow.
The Quail Hollow Championship is a player favorite, in no small part because the Quail Hollow Club is a great golf course. The course not only challenges the players off the tee but also around the greens. The green complexes are designed to fit the appropriate approach shots and have a tremendous amount of slope.
The players that have done their homework around the greens will be prepared to score well in Thursday's opening round. That homework takes place during practice rounds early in the week. If you are truly looking to learn more about playing the game, you would do yourself well to visit an event on a Tuesday as this is the most popular day for on-course practice.
A player to watch because of his meticulous preparation is Tiger Woods, who makes his second start of the season this week. Of course, Tiger's prep work is no big surprise but something that can be overlooked as we tend to get caught up in his ability to hit shots.
We forget that each shot has a specific purpose as dictated by the game plan that he has established during his practice rounds. With complex green complexes such as these, players at the top level will establish their strategy to play the hole from the green back to the tee. This allows them to select the proper tee shot (club and placement) in order to control the ball into the green. This is something that every player can do to shoot lower scores.
Take some unspoken advice from the best players in the world, do your homework, look at the every hole from green to tee, and establish a game plan that allows you to control the ball into the greens. -- Todd Jones
For more on the TOUR Academy and its instructional programs, click here.
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