Quail Hollow is the site for the PGA Championship, running from May 15-18.
Rory McIlroy has dominated Quail Hollow in the past, and he’s on a pretty serious tear this season. McIlroy shot a pretty insane 61 – the course record – back in 2015 too, so he’s got the edge this year, on paper at least (a tough +3 on Thursday might have changed that though). Can Rory roar back at +3 and with his odds sitting at +2000?
While we have all the bets ready and all the PGA Championship odds at Bovada, let’s get pumped with a tour of the PGA’s toughest tracks over the years.
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What Are The Toughest PGA Championship Venues?
Quail Hollow
Leading the list of the PGA Championship’s toughest courses over the years, we’ll tee things up with this year’s host, Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. It’s picturesque setting lends itself to being called North Carolina’s Augusta National, but the beauty hides a beast of a course.
One of the newer golf courses on this list (and to host a golf major), Quail Hollow is famous for its “Green Mile”, the finishing stretch of holes including 16, 17 and 18 that can make a golfer green with nausea.
Hole 16 is a 529-yard Par 4, a length that is normally reserved for Par 5’s only. It ends with a peninsula green, with water and bunkers in play. And it’s here that McIlroy just ate a double bogey in his opening round for the 2025 tournament.
Hole 17 is a 223-yard Par 3, not a crazy distance for pro golfers, but it’s all over water. McIlroy considers it the most intimidating tee shot on the Green Mile, and many golfers have had their title hopes extinguished here. Justin Thomas finessed a birdie here on his way to the 2017 title, however, showing that a clutch shot on the Green Mile can make all the difference.
The finishing 18th has a creek snaking along the entire fairway, which is narrow to begin with.
Overall, Quail Hollow is also playing over 7,600 yards for the 2025 PGA Championship, making it one of the longer courses in majors in recent years.
Whistling Straits
With over 1,000 bunkers, the Whistling Straits golf course in Wisconsin is a weekend hacker’s nightmare, and even the pros can struggle with it sometimes.
It’s a windy, links-style course that doesn’t match a lot of the courses that players play on most weekends on the PGA Tour.
Vijay Singh won the first major here with the 2004 trophy, and he said “It looked ugly” out there as he hit a shocking 76 on the final Sunday but still walked away with the trophy.
Medinah Country Club (Course No. 3)
With a length of over 7,400 yards, Medinah is another course that makes the amateurs nervous and keeps the pros honest.
Medinah’s slope rating of 152 ties it with Whistling Straits as the second-toughest PGA Championship course on our list.
The course ate up Canadian Mike Weir during the 1999 event, as he opened the final round tied with Tiger Woods but proceeded to shoot an 80 to knock himself way back.
Woods went on to win the 1999 PGA Championship, but he was challenged by Sergio Garcia on Sunday – it was that famous shot by Garcia followed by his running and leaping look at where it ended up that also made Medinah famous.
Oak Hill Country Club
With narrow fairways and punishing rough, Oak Hill offers PGA Championship golfers a complete challenge.
The course was founded in 1901. Basically, before mobile phones, planes, and hybrid 5-woods were a thing.
Like Medinah, Oak Hill is close to 7,400 yards after renovations were made in 2019.
The latest PGA Championship held at the course was just two years ago. Brooke Koepka took the trophy that year, and his final round 67 was clutch. It was his opponent that morning who got eaten up by the tough layout. Corey Conners started the day just one shot back of Koepka, but Oak Hill forced Conners into making seven bogeys on his way to a 75.
It was a better story for Shaun Micheel, the 2003 winner of the PGA at Oak Hill. He was ranked 169th in the world going into the event, and while the course humbled major golf stars like Tiger Woods (+12) and Phil Mickelson (+8), Micheel was one of only 3 players to shoot under par for the tournament.
Valhalla Golf Club
With a name like Valhalla, it can live up to its heavenly reputation on easy days. At the 2014 tournament, won by McIlroy, 19 of the top 23 finishers scored below 70 on the final day.
But Valhalla Golf Club in Louisville, Kentucky, with its 152 slope rating, can be hell for some pro golfers if the conditions line up. Just last year, Tiger Woods ended up missing the cut with two triple bogeys and a bogey in the opening four holes in the second round of the PGA Championship.
Designed by none other than Jack Nicklaus himself, Valhalla has hosted four PGA events and a Ryder Cup. It includes a monster 570-yard Par 5 18th that finishes in an amphitheater-like setting, and it was here that Tiger Woods battled unknown Bob May in a 3-hole playoff to win the 2000 tournament.
Woods and May took advantage of soft conditions to score well under par, but Valhalla can make it very tough for players to score well. The greens are its main feature, averaging just 5,000 square feet, which makes them among the smallest of any PGA course. Players need to bring their short game to Valhalla to have any chance of winning.
We’ll see what the rest of the weekend at Quail Hollow looks like for Rory and the rest of the field at the 2025 PGA Championship… No matter what, we’ve got all the ways to wager and live betting too.
