In any business this is a rarity.
Quail Hollow Club, the PGA Championship venue for the second time, opened its course in 1960 and has had only two golf professionals. The current one, Scott Davenport, has held the job since 1999.
“It’s a good place to work,’’ said Davenport. “Johnny Harris and his family have been very pro-golf professional. They’ve been great supporters of me and the entire staff at the club. I’ve been incredibly lucky. My vocation and avocation are one in the same. Nobody deserves it so good.’’
Make no mistake, though. Being the head professional at Quail Hollow is no small task. Davenport — now 69, married and the father of two daughters – has a big job
James Harris, Johnny’s father, owned the property and gathered some friends in Charlotte to start the club in 1959. The course opened in 1960 and hosted the Kemper Open from 1969-79 and the World Series Invitational from 1980-89 before Davenport got there.
He arrived 40 years after the club opened and succeeded Jim Hood as its head professional. Davenport still calls Quail Hollow “a small private club, ‘’ but since his arrival it has hosted two PGA Championships after being revived as a PGA Tour site in 2003.
The PGA returned first with the Wachovia Championship, then in 2009 it became the Wells Fargo Championship. That ended last year and Truist, a Charlotte bank, will start a six-year run as title sponsor in 2026.
“We’ve been in professional golf a long time,’’ said Davenport. “Our members have been in favor of doing that. Back in 2003 Quail Hollow was a very nice place, but now it’s on the national stage. I don’t see that changing. Charlotte, and the Carolinas, have been very supportive, just as our members have.’’
Hosting big-time golf events isn’t just a one-week deal each year. Each requires lengthy planning time, and the host professional is always in the thick of it.
“The preparation is as much fun as anything,’’ said Davenport. “We want to make it a memorable event for all involved, from players to spectators. It’s an ongoing deal to make things better.’’
Though the goals are the same, Davenport’s role is different when the tournament shifts from being a regular tour event to a major championship.
“For me, we’re much more involved with the tournament during the week of the tour event than we are with the PGA,’’ he said. “Our tour events are well-attended, but a major is a whole different level. The PGA is so enormous. In the PGA Tour events we do the merchandising, and our tent is 5,000 square feet. The one for this PGA is maybe 100,000. The whole event is that way.’’
Quail Hollow’s first PGA was in 2017. The club also hosted the President’s Cup in 2022.
We’re almost like competitors in the regular tour events. We want a great event for the spectators,’’ said Davenport, “and our course is so unbelievably spectator friendly. It’s so close to the clubhouse. It’s almost impossible to get more than one hole away from the clubhouse. There’s a lot of trees. It’s an easy walk. There’s elevation change, but not that much.’’
Davenport never qualified for the PGA Championship as a player. He grew up in Alabama and the Pittsburgh suburbs and played a year of college golf at Houston, then transferred to Furman. After graduation he went directly into the club pro ranks in 1978 as an assistant to Hank Johnson at North River Yacht Club in Tuscaloosa, Ala. — the home to Golf Digest’s VIP schools.
While there he spent time with some of golf’s great teaching names – Bob Toski, Sam Snead, Davis Love Jr., Peter Kostis and Jim Flick.
Stints at clubs in Arizona and Florida followed before Davenport moved to Sea Island Club in Georgia. He arrived in the aftermath of the deaths of professionals Love, Jimmy Hodges and John Popa in a1988 plane crash and stayed there for a decade.
“The circumstances were incredibly unfortunate, but Jack Lumpkin and I tried to follow through on the learning center Davis ( Davis Love Jr., son of PGA tour veteran Davis Love III) envisioned before he was killed,’’ said Davenport.
Then it was on to Quail Hollow where Davenport thrived under the leadership of its president, Johnny Harris. Davenport still enjoys playing, and does most of it with Quail Hollow members. They include Jim Nantz, the renowned golf TV broadcaster, and one of the PGA Tour mainstays, Webb Simpson, has had a residence near the seventh tee.
Davenport has seen Quail Hollow’s course, originally designed by George Cobb, changed several times during his years as head professional through modifications made by architect Tom Fazio.
With Harris leading the way there’s always been an ongoing effort to keep up with Augusta National, the annual site of the Masters tournament. Harris is an Augusta National member.
“They set the standard. We can’t compare with those guys,’’ said Davenport. “They’re so unbelievably good, and they have more disposable income than we’ve got, but every year we’re trying to make it better.’’
Since 2003 Quail Hollow has seen some great champions perform well. Justin Thomas won the 2017 PGA Championship and Rory McIlroy won four Wells Fargo events there. Among others who earned titles at Quail Hollow include Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Brian Harman, Max Homa and Wyndham Clark.
As for his best personal memories Davenport doesn’t single out any of the tournaments played at Quail Hollow. Instead he cites a dinner.
“There have been a lot of highlights, but they used to do a Champions dinner like Augusta National does (the week of each Masters tournament),’’ said Davenport. “The PGA used to host the players and others from the club. It was really neat to be a part of that dinner.’’