Wells Fargo Championship Picks and Predictions: Look for Sam Burns and Hayden Buckley to Find Success

Wells Fargo Championship Picks and Predictions: Look for Sam Burns and Hayden Buckley to Find Success

Another week, another designated event on the PGA Tour! This week’s Wells Fargo Championship is being held at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina. This week will feature the newly increased $20 million purse with the top golfers on the PGA Tour.

2023 Wells Fargo Championship Start Time and Where to Watch

• Dates: May 4 - May 7, 2023
• Where: Quail Hollow Club - Charlotte, NC
• Where to Watch: Golf Channel, CBS, ESPN+, Paramount+

Wells Fargo Championship Prediction

The two best golfers in the world, who have dominated the designed events thus far, will be absent this week. With Rahm and Scottie electing to skip this week, this places even more emphasis on tournament favorite Rory McIlroy. In full transparency, I all extremely scared of Rory this week. Three-time Wells Fargo Champion at Quail Hollow, Rory, is going to be a hard man to beat this week. Other notable golfers missing from the field are Billy Horschel, Tom Hoge, Russell Henley, and Justin Rose.

Course history for this event is certainly a bit tough and different than most long standings events on the PGA Tour. The reason for this is that since 2016, only three iterations of this event have taken place at Quail. The three winners here since the 2016 renovation have been Jason Day, Max Homa, and Rory Mcllroy.

We have seen Quail Hollow most recently in the fall at the 2022 President Cup, and it also notably hosted the 2017 PGA Championship won by Justin Thomas. This is certainly a course that some of your favorite golfers will not have much course history to speak of.

As for the course, Quail Hollow is a 7,500-yard par 71 that features Bermuda greens. Make no mistake; this course is LONG. With eight par 4’s over 450 yards and three par 3’s over 175, this is not a driver-wedge course by any means. This is reflected in the winning score being -10, -15, and -12 since the 2016 renovation.

I think that the winning formula this week is fairly straightforward. Distance off the tee, elite long iron play, and Bermuda putting. Bombers off the tee have absolutely thrived here as they normally do on Fazio-designed courses. We have also seen the past three winners here gain 6.9, 9.8, and 8.2 strokes on the green en route to their win.

2023 Wells Fargo Championship Picks

Sam Burns +3500 is currently the best odds. Click here to find out which sportsbook has the best odds for this pick

Elite driving and Bermuda putting, that seems to be the winning formula at Quail. Luckily that also is exactly what Sam Burns does well, and to make it even better, he actually wins golf tournaments. A six-time winner on the PGA Tour since 2021, I am more than happy to take the plunge on Burns this week, especially at this fair of a number.

Winner at the designated Matchplay, we saw how hot Burns putter can get. Burns has always been known for his excellent Bermuda putting, as he ranks third in this field in SG: P (Bermuda) over the past 24 rounds. Since his win, he has had two fine results with a top 30 at the Masters and a 15th at the RBC, where he gained over six strokes putting.

Burns has played a stroke play event at Quail just once in his career in 2018, but it was before he became the player he is today. Sam is an elite PGA Tour player that has shown he can win when he gets into contention, is in great form, and is headed to a course that should suit his game great. I am more than happy to hop on a +3300.

Hayden Buckley +13000 is currently the best odds. Click here to find out which sportsbook has the best odds for this pick

In 2019, we saw the current No. 7 golfer in the world get his breakout PGA Tour win at this course. I think we could be in a similar situation with Hayden Buckley this week. The runner-up at The Sony Open earlier this year, Buckley has shown some great flashes of golf this season.

Off the heels of a top 5 finish a the designated RBC Heritage, I am confident in where Buck’s game is at. He was able to gain a staggering 9.7 strokes ball striking, and his putter finally heated up, gaining over 3.6 on the greens. He was also able to land another top-10 finish at The Valero Open just a few weeks ago. This was another event where elite ball striking led him to the top of the leaderboard. As stated before, elite OTT play is vital here. Hayden ranks fourth in this field in SG: OTT over the last 24 rounds, this is certainly an impressive feat in this field.

I like this bet with each way, and I also really like him in the placement and first-round leader market.

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