The favorites and value picks for the 2023 Wells Fargo Championship

The PGA Tour is back in Charlotte.

Fresh off hosting the Presidents Cup in September, Quail Hollow Club is slated to host the Wells Fargo Championship beginning on Thursday and running through the weekend.

Here’s a look at everything you need to know ahead of this week’s tournament as some of the world’s best golfers descend on Charlotte:

Who’s in the Wells Fargo Championship field?

This year’s field is absolutely stacked — a byproduct of the “designated” event format the PGA Tour has adopted over the past year.

In layman’s terms, the tour has taken 13 events on its annual calendar, assigned bigger purses to those tournaments and guaranteed that most of the best players in the world will be there through it’s newly branded Player Impact Program (PIP).

That leads to this week.

The Wells Fargo is slated to host 20 of the top 25 players in the world. That includes names names like Rory McIlroy, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa, along with rising stars Max Homa, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Sahith Theegala and Tom Kim.

It’s unclear whether the Wells Fargo will remain a designated event beyond the 2023 season. If it doesn’t maintain that status, this may well be the most talented pool of players to tee it up at Quail Hollow for the foreseeable future.

The favorites and value picks for the title

Betting odds will become firmer as the week goes on, but it’s hard not to circle McIlroy as the favorite.

The de facto face of the PGA Tour during the past year, he’s had well-documented struggles of late, missing the cut at the Masters — the one major championship he hasn’t won — followed by skipping the RBC Heritage on Hilton Head, South Carolina (a move that will cost him $3 million of the $12 million payout he received from the PIP program last year, per Sports Ilustrated).

Recent questions aside, McIlroy is still one of the best players in the sport when he’s on. It doesn’t hurt has has a stellar history with this event either. McIlroy won what was then the Quail Hollow Championship in 2010 for his first professional win on the PGA Tour and took home the title again in 2016 and 2021. He finished solo fifth in last year’s tournament after coming in as the betting favorite. It’d be a shock if McIlroy isn’t toward the top of the leaderboard come Sunday.

Behind McIlroy, Spieth and Homa have to be in the conversation for the odds on favorites. Spieth has started to find his former self — the one that ripped off three major titles between 2015 and 2017 — in recent weeks. He went 6-under on Sunday at Augusta National to put himself in the mix late before John Rahm ran away with the green jacket. Spieth also narrowly missed defending his title on Hilton Head, losing in a playoff to Matthew Fitzpatrick.

The Spieth experience usually consists of wild scrambling coupled with a few world class shots for a show that’s equal parts maddening and enthralling. He’s looked more consistent of late, though, and should be in a position to win this week.

Homa won’t have the name recognition of Spieth or McIlroy with casual fans, but he should be at or near the top of everyone’s picks list. Why? Simply put, Homa always plays well at Quail Hollow.

He’s won the Wells Fargo twice (2019, 2022) in the last three times it’s been played and he’s the defending champ heading into the week. That’s not to mention Homa was a ringer during the Presidents Cup, winning all four of his matches for the U.S. team on these grounds just seven months ago. The former California star has taken his lumps at majors, but this tournament is a big reason why he’s evolved into a star on the PGA Tour in the last year-plus.

As far as value picks/darkhorses go, Rickie Fowler is a bigger name than the average long shot, but that largely epitomizes his place in professional golf these days. Fowler is a fan favorite and has been since the Oklahoma State product burst onto the scene in his highlighter orange Puma getups reserved for tournament Sundays. That said, his form has been all over the place the past few years and he’s largely faded into the abyss — until recently.

Fowler played well at the RBC Heritage last month, snagging a T10 finish after shooting 67-68-68 over his first three rounds at Harbour Town. He’s also quietly piecing together his best season on tour in years with top 20 finishes in seven of his last eight starts, while he hasn’t missed a cut since early October. Fowler won this event in 2012, beating McIlroy in a three-man playoff. I like Fowler’s chances to finish in the top 15 or so again this week.

Lastly, Theegala should also be a name folks hold onto for this week and beyond. He’s become increasingly popular with golf fans after his appearance on Netflix’s “Full Swing” documentary series that chronicled the 2022 season on the PGA Tour. Theegala was sharp in his Masters debut, finishing solo ninth and canning a memorable chip-in on the famed par-3 16th in almost the exact same spot Tiger Woods did in 2005. Theegala has played himself into the top 25 in the world, but his youth makes him a little bit riskier of a pick this week.

Other names to know:

• Matthew Fitzpatrick

• Tony Finau

• Corey Conners

• Joel Dahmen

• Tommy Fleetwood

• Tyrrell Hatton

• Viktor Hovland

• Cameron Young

• Chris Kirk

How to watch the Wells Fargo Championship

Thursday, May 5: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel, ESPN+)

Friday, May 6: 2-6 p.m. ET (Golf Channel, ESPN+)

Saturday, May 7: 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel, ESPN+); 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+)

Sunday, May 8: 1-3 p.m. ET (Golf Channel, ESPN+); 3-6 p.m. ET (CBS, Paramount+)

Past 10 winners at Quail Hollow

*Tournament wasn’t held in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic

2022 — Max Homa

2021 — Rory McIlroy

2019 — Max Homa

2018 — Jason Day

2017 — Brian Harman

2016 — James Hahn

2015 — Rory McIlroy

2014 — J.B. Holmes

2013 — Derek Ernst

2012 — Rickie Fowler