Wells Fargo Championship notebook…

CHARLOTTE — The PGA Tour is looking more like youth gone wild this season. A younger crowd is making its presence known. At the forefront are Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth and Rickie Fowler.

McIlroy, the 2010 champion, is the current world No. 1 player and is a green jacket away from the career grand slam at just 26 years old. Spieth, who is only 21, was at the top of the Masters leaderboard for four straight days and had a shot at the tournament’s 72-hole scoring record. Fowler is fresh off his playoff victory at The Players Championship — just the second win of his career — on Sunday, and he finished in the top five in every major in 2014.

It seems like these three — as well as other rising stars such as Patrick Reed — are on the cusp of doing something special.

“I think the amazing thing about this group of player is that we’ve come on tour, and we’ve been ready to win from the start,” McIlroy said. “Jordan wins his first major at 21. Rickie got his first win here as I did, but he really elevated the statsu with that win last week.

“…We don’t play maybe with as much fear as some of the rookies used to in the past. So, I think it’s a great thing.”

McIlroy added there is potential for this crop of talent to be duking it out for the next decade or two.

Webb Simpson, who was a PGA Tour rookie in 2008, noticed the change in attitude with the fresh faces.

“I think they’re just a little more fiery competitor,” he said. “They seem to love the moment and being in contention on Sunday more so than guys my age did. I had my eyes wide open for two years just trying to take it all in, and here these guys are trying to win majors and doing it. It’s fun to see.”

This is nothing Adam Scott, who turned professional in 2001., hasn’t seen before. It’s just a byproduct of the passage of time.

“We’re just seeing the next cycle of guys come along at a good time,” he said. “There is never bad time for a group of guys to come along. I think like I experienced at 20 years old. There were four or five of us that pushed each other along, maybe not to the same level that this group is, but I think they certainly motivate each other. That’s certainly good of the game.

“The next wave has to come along, and I hope they stay hungry and push themselves.”

Oh so close

Phil Mickelson holds a few records for the Wells Fargo Championship.

He holds the top spot for lowest score on the front nine (29, 2014), lowest third-round score (63, 2014) and most top-10 finishes (7).

He’s also second in career money earnings with $2.64 million and second in scoring with a 70.30 stroke average over 40 rounds.

Mickelson, however, has not won the event in his 11 tries. That could change this week.

He said Wednesday he feels good about the state of his game and Quail Hollow is a course where he feels comfortable.

“It’s such a perfectly suited golf course for me that here at Quail Hollow that that’s kind of the irony of the situation. I’m looking to try to fix that.

“I think that it’s going to be a good week. I do feel like I’m playing well enough to score low.”

A Wake Forest pairing

A pair of Demon Deacons will take their opening tee shots at 7:50 a.m Thursday on the 10th hole at the Quail Hollow Club. Bill Haas and Webb Simpson — both products of the storied Wake Forest golf program — are in a threesome with 2010 British Open champion Louis Oosthuizen.

They weren’t at Wake Forest at the same time, but they aren’t strangers by any stretch. Although they seem to get to play together more often when the tour stops in The Tar Heel State.

“It seems like either this tournament or Greensboro we get paired together,” Simpson said. “I was with him (Tuesday) at Charlotte Country Club. We were practicing, I told him that I thought we were going to be playing together. I just kind of had a feeling. We get the text about an hour later.

“I love playing with Bill. I played with him at the President’s Cup. He was my partner. Missing each other at Wake was unfortunate, but we’re good buddies. We’re having a birthday party for my little girl today, and he’s coming with his family.”

Simpson dispelled any notion of even a friendly rivalry on any level. There are a handful of guys on tour he wants to beat, but Haas isn’t one of them.

“I’m always rooting for him,” Simpson said. “I think that comes from the Wake Forest alumni family.  Everybody keeps in touch. I don’t think it’s common for most universities, but at Wake it is. I’m happy for him when he plays well.”

First impression

PGA Tour rookie Mark Hubbard is making his first start in the Wells Fargo Championship. He teed off Monday in a pro-am that took him and his four playing partners more than five hours to complete. That’s plenty of time to get an impression of the layout.

“It’s a beautiful golf course,” he said. “It’s in great shape. The greens were really good. It’s a little different than it looks on TV. There’s a little more slope than what you see on TV, and the fairways are running out so you can really use the slopes to your advantage.”

Monday was also his first look at the course’s 16th, 17th and 18th holes — a stretch known as The Green Mile.

“It’s definitely a mile,” Hubbard said with a laugh. “It’s a lot long shots, but at the same time the greens are receptive right now. …Really the whole back nine is just awesome. I feel like really it’s the last five that are really cool.”

Hubbard is in his first full season playing at the game’s highest level. He’s been grinding out week after week since the frys.com Open in October. He was disqualified at The Honda Classic in March, missed four cuts and his only top-20 finish came at the Humana Challenge in January.

“Once the Florida Swing hit, I had some trouble getting into some events based on my status out here,” Hubbard said. “I don’t feel like I’ve played a ton lately, but the game feels good. So I’m excited for the next couple of months. [He hopes to] get a few more starts and kind of get some momentum going.”

Hubbard’s personal life is trending upward. Seconds after finishing his third round at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, Hubbard walked off the green and dropped to one knee. With the gallery watching the last group of the day walk off the course, he asked longtime girlfriend Meghan McCurley for her hand in marriage.

She said yes.

As for a status update on the wedding planning, it’s better to check with McCurley.

“You’ll have to ask her more than me,” Hubbard said. “We’ve got a trip planned in June. It’s during U.S. Open week, so I’m planning on not being there for that trip. If I don’t qualify, we have a trip to go look at some venues and we’ll go from there.”

Making an adjustment

This has been and will be a year of change for Adam Scott on the course. Scott, who is 108th in the FedEx Cup standings, has been making a transition to a new shaft in his Titleist irons. This isn’t the first time Scott has

gone through a change, but this one hasn’t been easy.

After a tie for fourth place at the WGC-Cadillac Championship in March, Scott — the world’s 11th ranked player — missed the cut at the Valspar Championship the following week and hasn’t cracked the top 30 in his last four events.

“Frustration gets there because, like I said, I think I’m playing well but not enough variables have been under control,” Scott said.

“There’s been too many changes. Maybe I could have gone about it better, but I’ve tried to do it it the best I obviously can. But the game is good. There’s no technical changes. It’s purely just adjusting to a little bit of an equipment change.”

Scoot will have to make another equipment change at the end of the year. The 34-year-old Australian was a longtime user of a long putter. He started the season with a standard-length putter, a move ahead of the ban on anchored putters that will take effect at the end of the year. Scott switched back to the long putter when he showed up at Augusta National for the year’s first major.

“To have my best results consistently, I need to stick with what I’ve worked on for the last four years and become very good at,” Scott said. “That’s why I’m putting the same way and didn’t stick with putting with the short putter at the moment, but I’ll have time again at the end of the year to make a change and probably have a better understanding exactly what I want to do with it now that I have played a couple of events with a short putter.”