Charlotte’s annual PGA Tour event returns to Quail Hollow Club next month after a one-year hiatus caused by Covid-19, with changes in store — including higher ticket prices.
Among the notable differences at this year’s tournament:
•Allowing no more than 30% capacity during each of the four competitive rounds of play.
•Creating semi- and fully open-air hospitality areas throughout the course by removing glass windows at the corporate chalets along the No. 18 fairway and finding other ways to circulate fresh air at various temporary luxury-seating areas.
•Adding Covid-killing air filtration systems in all enclosed areas around the club and course.
•Improving social distancing in those same hospitality areas by increasing square footage by 50% to 100% from past years.
•Following the lead of other sports venues and teams by going to a mobile ticketing system and no-cash concessions and merchandise sales.
•Requiring face coverings at all times unless you’re eating or drinking.
•Requiring social distancing, in part, by not installing public bleachers. Fans are encouraged to bring their own chairs to allow for more room between attendees. The bleachers will return in future years.
Oh, and as for those higher prices? All daily tickets will now cost $75, an increase of 15% to 36%. Previously, first round (Thursday) tickets cost $55 while second, third and fourth round tickets (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) were $65 apiece. Fans also had the option of buying a ticket for use on the day of their choice for $75; that is no longer offered.
Children 15 and younger get in free.
Weekly passes increased by 28.5% this year, to $225. They were $175 previously. The weekly pass encompasses all four rounds of competition and three days of practice rounds.
On a recent late morning at Quail Hollow, as club members made their way on and off the putting greens in the distance, Gary Sobba, the tournament director, and Kendall Alley, a regional executive at title sponsor Wells Fargo, sat at a table on the clubhouse patio and reveled in their imminent return.
“We feel a level of excitement that we’ve never felt before,” Sobba said. “We put tickets on sale (last week), and they exploded.”
Sobba added that some other tournaments raised prices by much more than the Wells Fargo Championship, saying, “We did not want to gouge. … We want to be loyal to people that have been loyal to us.”
The tournament runs May 3-9. Saturday tickets (May 8) have sold out and Friday (May 7) is close to a sellout, too.
Tournament organizers declined to say how many people are expected, emphasizing instead that crowds will be capped at 30% of maximum capacity. The word “maximum” is important; for much of its history, the annual PGA Tour event has limited crowds to 35,000 or so on its most popular days to maintain comfortable pedestrian traffic flow.
But, with 250 acres of property, the number of people who could fit on the course is higher than that.
A reasonable guesstimate — striking CBJ’s previous projection of 10,500 — is in the range of 15,000 people per day for each of the four rounds. Practice rounds Monday and Tuesday traditionally draw sparse crowds but the Wednesday pro-am, depending on guest players, can rival first round attendance.
Last month, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper increased capacity limits for large sports venues to 50% across the board, up from 15% indoors and 30% outdoors. The Covid-era capacity limits have grown during the past 13 months. In October, when crowds were first allowed back after the shutdown, the cap was 7% at outdoor venues only.
The tournament consulted with local and state health officials as well as the PGA Tour before establishing the 30% capacity benchmark. They went with the lower percentage at the behest of the tour, Sobba said.
Covid forced the PGA Tour and other sports leagues to interrupt their seasons when the pandemic arrived in full force in March 2020. Ten PGA Tour events — including Charlotte — plus the British Open were canceled last year.
Tournaments returned before spectators did. Reduced capacity crowds were first allowed back for two fall PGA Tour events, in the Bahamas and Houston, but there were no galleries for winter tournaments.
In February, the largest-attended annual tournament, the Waste Management Phoenix Open, allowed 5,000 fans per day, well below its six-figure crowds pre-Covid. Florida and Texas tournaments in recent weeks have also had reduced-capacity crowds.
Stewart Moore, a PGA Tour spokesman, told me the tour won’t go to full capacity until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it is safe to do so. Moore added that crowds have been capped in the range of 20% to 25% in recent weeks, contingent upon the size and space of the venue, local organizers’ comfort level, and state and local health regulations.
Overall, corporate hospitality is at 95% of previous levels, Sobba estimated.
“The ones we did lose are not back in the office,” he said. “That became the issue. Their internal rules and regs don’t allow them to entertain and they’re not in the office. I’ve talked to multiple CEOs who said, ‘Gary, we want to be there.’”
Covid or no Covid, the weekend warriors who pay handsomely to tee it up with the PGA Tour pros are as eager as ever. All 112 spots on Monday and 156 on Wednesday are sold out, Sobba said. There, too, things have changed from past years as the pro-am parties next month will be indoor-outdoor hybrids requiring all attendees to show proof of vaccination or take a Covid test.
Players and tour officials are tested regularly and operating in a bubble that restricts their interactions. Among other things, there are no fan interactions such as autographs, photos and fist bumps.
Wells Fargo signed a sponsorship extension in 2019, effective last year. Despite the cancellation, terms won’t be adjusted beyond the current 2024 end date. That’s because Quail Hollow is hosting the 2025 PGA Championship — one of the sport’s four major championships — and there would be no room for the annual tournament.
A similar scenario occurred in 2017. That year, the PGA Championship came to Quail Hollow for the first time; the Wells Fargo Championship was played in Wilmington that year.
Before the pandemic, the new sponsorship contract called for the Wells Fargo to be played this year at TPC Potomac near Washington, D.C., to make way for the biennial Presidents Cup, an international competition that would have been played at Quail Hollow for the first time in the fall. Now the dates have been flip-flopped: Covid bumped the Ryder Cup team competition back a year, which, in turn, delayed the Presidents Cup to 2022, which is when TPC Potomac will now have the Wells Fargo.
Alley, the Wells Fargo executive, said, “It’s turned out to be an absolute blessing. Based on the energy of the sales, we’re ready to go.”
That may have been more difficult in the Washington area, where Covid reopening has been slower than here, Alley added.
Wells Fargo will have its usual 300 to 500 employees volunteering during tournament week and company employees will be entertaining guests and playing in the pro-am. In all cases, participation is voluntary since the bank is still in telework mode and is not scheduled to return to the office until after Labor Day.
After playing at TPC Potomac in 2022, the Wells Fargo Championship will be back at Quail Hollow in 2023 and 2024. Quail Hollow and predecessor bank Wachovia started the tournament in 2003.