CHARLOTTE, N.C. — When is the toughest finishing stretch on the PGA Tour, not the toughest finishing stretch on the PGA Tour?

When golfers have to play those holes before making the turn.

Instead of potentially changing golfers’ fortunes as they finished their round, Quail Hollow’s famed Green Mile — holes 16, 17 and 18 — greeted 33 of the field’s 69 golfers early during their first round of play Thursday at the Wells Fargo Championship. The change was necessitated by the drenching rain and unstable weather that ravaged the region Wednesday into Thursday morning.

Instead of the players teeing off in succession from the first tee early in the morning, the PGA Tour shifted to a noontime, split-tee start, sending 12 groups of three off the front nine, and another 11 off the 10th tee.

That set up an interesting opening nine for some of the best golfers in the world — including defending champion Wyndham Clark — who started their rounds on the 592-yard, par-5 10th, but had to contend with 16-17-18 far more quickly than usual.

The good thing about hitting that stretch earlier?

“However you go through that stretch, you know you have plenty more golf ahead of you,” Xander Schauffele said. “No matter if you’re playing them 16-17-18 or 7-8-9, they’re always hard.”

Schauffele, in particular, was grateful to have more golf to play after traversing the Green Mile. He augmented a hot start with a rare birdie at 17 — his eighth hole — to run his score to 5-under par.

But then … 18.

Schauffele hit his drive right, punched to the fairway, lofted his third onto the green and two-putted from 38 feet for a bogey, the only blemish on his card as he charged to the first-round lead with a 7-under 64.

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