Field Update: Two Sponsor Exemptions & Two Netflix Stars Added to Wells Fargo Championship Field
Charlotte, NC, April 13, 2023— Tournament officials announced today that a pair of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill golfers—amateur Austin Greaser and PGA TOUR rookie Ryan Gerard—have accepted sponsor invitations as well as commitments from fan favorites Joel Dahmen and Sahith Theegala as the PGA TOUR returns to Charlotte and Quail Hollow Club, May 1-7 for the Wells Fargo Championship.
Greaser, a 22-year-old senior, is currently No. 2 on the PGA TOUR University rankings. The Ohio native is a two-time All-American and has accumulated two collegiate victories, ten top-five finishes and sixteen top-10s in 36 starts as a Tar Heel. He won last year’s Western Amateur and was runner-up in the 2021 U.S. Amateur.
Greaser will be the first amateur to play Charlotte’s Wells Fargo Championship since 2003, when 2011 FedExCup champion Bill Haas competed at Quail Hollow Club while at Wake Forest.
Gerard, 23, was a two-time All-American at UNC-Chapel Hill and the Raleigh native won five junior titles prior to his collegiate career. The TOUR rookie earned a spot in the Honda Classic via the Monday Open Quaifier and finished 4th. That top-ten finish earned him an exemption into the Puerto Rico Open, where he finished T11.
Dahmen returns to Quail Hollow Club with some positive performance history having finished among the top 20 three times since 2019, including a solo runner-up finish to Max Homa in 2019. In 2020 he finished T10 at the PGA Championship, won his first TOUR event in 2021 and was T10 at the U.S. Open last year.
Theegala, who finished 9th last week at the Masters, burst onto the scene at the 2022 WM Phoenix Open where he went toe-to-toe with Scottie Scheffler before falling short. The 25-year-old Pepperdine graduate is still searching for his first official win on the PGA TOUR. Last December he teamed with Tom Hoge to win the QBE Shootout and has earned over $7 million in his short career.
Both players have become stars on the Netfix documentary “Full Swing,” which debuted in February.
Players have until 5:00 p.m. Eastern on April 29 to commit to the 156-player field and can withdraw from the tournament at any time.
The Wells Fargo Championship is one of the premier golf events on the PGA TOUR. Since 2003, the tournament has welcomed all the world’s top 25 players and in 2019, before the TOUR dropped this initiative, was voted by the players as “Best in Class” among events on the TOUR schedule.
Seven of the tournament’s 16 champions have earned major championship titles and four champions have held the No.1 spot on the Official World Golf Rankings since the tournament’s inception in 2003.
The Wells Fargo Championship is partnering with Ticketmaster to streamline the ticket purchase process for fans. To purchase tickets, please visit wellsfargochampionship.com/tickets. Children ages 15 and under are admitted free with a ticketed adult.
The tournament, on behalf of Champions for Education, has distributed over $27 million and raised awareness for numerous charitable foundations in the Charlotte area. For more information about the Wells Fargo Championship, please visit www.wellsfargochampionship.com or call 704-554-8101.
About the Wells Fargo Championship
The Wells Fargo Championship is one of the largest, most prestigious sporting events in the North Carolina region with an economic impact estimated to be around $75 million each year. The tournament’s charitable arm Champions for Education has donated over $27 million to local and regional charities since 2003. The 2023 tournament will be held May 1-7 at Quail Hollow Club. The tournament’s list of champions include David Toms, Joey Sindelar, Vijay Singh, Jim Furyk, Tiger Woods, Anthony Kim, Sean O’Hair, Rory McIlroy (3), Lucas Glover, Rickie Fowler, Derek Ernst, J.B. Holmes, James Hahn, Brian Harman, Jason Day and Max Homa (2). The Wells Fargo Championship received the “Players Choice” Award in 2019, before the initiative was dropped by the TOUR, for the “Best in Class”, as voted on by the players. The tournament has twice won Overall Tournament of the Year and has been among the top-five in this category each year during the time the recognitions were awarded.