Wells Fargo Championship - Round One
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Pristine conditions prevailed Thursday as the Wells Fargo Championship returned to Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina, a venue that was a one-time omission from the 2022 PGA Tour as it hosted the Presidents Cup. And plenty of the game's top names sought to make moves early at the latest designated PGA Tour event for 2023, boasting a purse of $20 million and a $3.6 million paycheck for the winner. 

Xander Schauffele appeared primed to take the overnight lead late in the round after back-to-back birdies put him two strokes clear of the field with just three holes to play. But the closing three holes at Quail Hollow -- coined 'The Green Mile' -- are not for the faint of heart, and two bogeys for Schauffele in that stretch flipped the leaderboard. Tommy Fleetwood emerged on top after firing a bogey-free, 6-under 65 that included two birdies in the same stretch that bit Schauffele. 

Schauffele, whose tee shot on the par-4 18th found the hazard, wasn't the only player in his group to encounter trouble late, either. Jordan Spieth was 2 under for the round while standing on the 18th tee box, but a pair of shots into the hazard led to a triple-bogey 7 on that hole and a 1-over 72 for the day.

We'll take a closer look at the top of the leaderboard, including more on how Fleetwood was able to overtake Schauffele late for the lead after 18 holes at Quail Hollow.

The leaders

1. Tommy Fleetwood (-6)

Bogey-free rounds almost always lead to good things, though it wasn't until rather late Thursday that Fleetwood began to separate himself a bit from a crowded leaderboard. Fleetwood was even for the day after six holes before an eagle on the par-5 7th and a subsequent birdie on the par-4 8th put him in the mix. 

After another birdie on the par-4 14th, the Green Mile didn't faze Fleetwood. He finished the round with consecutive birdies on the par-3 17th and par-4 18th to move into the lead as Schauffele squandered a two-stroke lead in the group behind him. Highlighting Fleetwood's strong finish was an approach shot out of a fairway bunker on the 18th which he stuck to 7.5 feet before making the birdie putt. 

"You have to play well around the course," Fleetwood said. "It has its chances, and the more you look at it and the more you talk about it, you obviously have the par 5s and a couple short-issue par 4s which, equally, you can easily make bogeys on any of those holes. I think that's what makes it such a tough course at times, because the scorable holes can actually still kick you." 

Fleetwood's 6-under 65 ties his low first-round score on the Tour -- he also posted a 65 in the opening round of the 2019 Players Championship -- as he seeks his sixth professional win and first on the Tour. Fleetwood's best finish this season thus far was third at the Valspar Championship in March.

Others in contention 

T2. K.H. Lee, Taylor Moore, Ryan Palmer, Xander Schauffele, Kevin Streelman (-5) 

T7. Patrick Cantlay, Wyndham Clark, Emiliano Grillo, Kramer Hickok, Tom Kim, Chris Kirk, Matthew NeSmith, Adam Scott, Sahith Theegala (-4)

That's a difficult finish for Schauffele to digest. The world No. 5 golfer walked off the par-5 15th bogey-free and led by two strokes before carding a bogey on the par-4 16th. He then recorded bogey on the par-4 18th, unable to save par after his tee shot found the hazard. Schauffele, who last won at the 2022 Genesis Scottish Open, has yet to hold the overnight first-round lead in any event this season after squandering a prime opportunity Thursday. 

"I really had it going there," Schauffele said. "The ball was on a string for a bit, [I] did everything really well. It's a championship-style golf course, so [I] played really well through 15 holes and then had a little hiccup there coming in, so it is what it is." 

It was a quite different narrative for Cantlay, who dialed up the heat late in his round after a back-nine start. The world No. 4 golfer carded an eagle on the par-5 7th followed by a birdie on the par-4 8th as he played his final seven holes of the day 4 under. Cantlay already has a handful of top-five finishes this season -- four in stroke-play events and another at last week's team-format at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans -- as he seeks his first win since the BMW Championship last August. 

"The course was gettable on my front nine [the back nine of the course], although I kind of finished with a flurry there with the eagle and the birdie on No. 7 and No. 8," Cantlay said. "So it was all in all a much easier day than the practice rounds with the wind being manageable today."

Lee is also a name worth noting given the time of year. He carded bogey on the par-4 2nd, but was clean the rest of the way with six birdies en route to a 5-under 66. If Lee exits Quail Hollow with any kind of momentum, it could be bad news for the rest of the field at next week's AT&T Byron Nelson, where Lee sits as the two-time defending champion.

McIlroy returns on friendly turf 

Golf fans had not seen Rory McIlroy in action since a missed cut at the Masters nearly a month ago. McIlroy notably skipped the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links, citing he "needed a break" after his struggles at Augusta. Because it was McIlroy's second missed designated event this season, McIlroy forfeited $3 million of his Player Impact Program winnings. 

But a 3-under 68 puts McIlroy, who entered as the betting favorite, three strokes off the lead at a Tour stop that has been favorable to him. McIlroy won the Wells Fargo Championship in 2010 for his first PGA Tour victory. A second win at the event came in 2015 and a third when it was last held at Quail Hollow in 2021. 

"I've always had a level of comfort on this golf course [Quail Hollow], whether it was back in the sort of 2011-2012 era or sort of post-[PGA Championship] in 2017," McIlroy said. "If you look at all the results, I certainly excel here in May rather than when we played it in August [for the PGA Championship] and it was full of Bermuda [grass], I struggled with that a little bit. When it's like this and overseeded, I feel like it's -- that's sort of the right in my wheelhouse." 

Rick Gehman is joined by Mark Immelman to break down Round 1 of the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship. Storylines, scorecards and betting favorites after Thursday's round.