The Wyndham Championship has been a staple of the PGA Tour since 1938, when it was founded as the Greater Greensboro Open. It has always been played annually in April or May until a schedule change in 2003 moved it to the beginning of August. The event has been hosted at a number of courses over the years before a permanent move to the Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield Country Club in 2008. It is the final PGA Tour event before the FedEx Cup playoffs and the last chance for players on the outside looking in to crack the top 70 and continue their season next week in Memphis.
Some major names with serious work to do to qualify include Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry, and Billy Horschel. While securing a spot in the FedEx Cup playoffs adds an extra element of intrigue, the field is also populated by players in a safer position who are simply looking to improve their standing heading into next week’s FedEx Cup kickoff in Memphis. Hideki Matsuyama, Sungjae Im, and Sam Burns will be the pre-tournament favorites heading into what is sure to be a pressure-packed week in Greensboro.
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Wyndham Championship: Course Preview
Sedgefield Country Club
The Donald Ross-designed Sedgefield Country Club features all of the staples of a Carolina golf course, and it is one of the few courses on Tour that can provide plenty of pushback despite its less-than-imposing length. Measuring just 7,131 yards on the scorecard, Sedgefield is one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour, but tricky, unpredictable Bermuda rough, and challenging Donald Ross green complexes will still have players’ attention this week. Sedgefield falls in line with many of the other short, positional golf courses on Tour, such as Harbour Town, TPC Sawgrass, Sea Island, and TPC River Highlands, where playing from the fairway is a huge advantage.
Last year, the Ross design ranked fourth out of 38 courses in missed fairway penalty, and a track that produces former champions such as Tom Kim, Kevin Kisner, Jim Herman, J.T. Poston, Brandt Snedeker, Henrik Stenson, Si Woo Kim, and Sergio Garcia is all the evidence we need to know that precision trumps power. With a whopping eight par fours measuring between 400 and 450 yards this week, nearly two-thirds of all approach shots come from between 125 and 200 yards. Finding the fairway, elite short to middle iron play, and a hot putter is generally the easiest path to success in the PGA Tour regular-season finale. This week, I will primarily be looking to identify players that check all three of those boxes and also have a proven track record of success on many of the other shorter, Bermuda, accuracy-biased golf courses on the PGA Tour schedule.
Wyndham Championship Key Stats
- Long-term Proximity 125-175 yards
- Driving Accuracy Percentage
- Strokes Gained Total: Short, Positional Golf Courses
Wyndham Championship: Outright Winner
Hideki Matsuyama (20/1) (Bet $100 to collect $2,100) BetMGM has the best Hideki Matsuyama odds
Hideki Matsuyama has had a very quiet, consistently strong season. Still, with his last win coming in January of 2022, I figure it’s about time that the former Masters champion found himself holding another trophy on Sunday afternoon. Matsuyama already has three top-15 finishes in seven appearances at the Wyndham, and he has gained strokes ball-striking in every appearance here. The 31-year-old remains the best pure short to middle iron player in this entire field, and he is an incredibly accurate driver of the ball as well. Sedgefield is the type of course that Hideki generally feels very comfortable on, as he ranks second in this field in strokes gained total on short, positional golf courses and sixth on Bermuda-based golf courses over the last two years. He is coming off an incredibly strong ball-striking performance at the 3M Open, where he gained over 2.5 strokes off the tee and nearly five strokes on approach. With some awfully impressive performances at TPC Sawgrass and East Lake as well, Matsuyama has a proven track record of success on Southeastern Bermuda grass golf courses. Still the class of the field from a ball-striking standpoint, I’m expecting an elite performance this week out of the eight-time PGA Tour winner heading into the FedEx Cup playoffs.
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Aaron Rai (45/1) (Bet $100 to collect $4,600) Head to DraftKings for the best Aaron Rai odds
Aaron Rai has quietly emerged as one of the most accurate drivers of the golf ball on Tour, and he is showing all the signs of a player primed for a major breakthrough. When betting the golf outright market, it’s important to look more at spike performances than consistent play, and Rai has shown winning upside on multiple occasions this season. There have already been seven instances this calendar year where Rai has gained over five strokes ball-striking, and he is coming off a rock-solid 20th-place finish at the 3M Open, where he gained strokes in all four major categories. Rai has been the third most accurate driver of the ball in the field this season, and he also ranks top-15 in this field in strokes gained off the tee on short, positional golf courses, recent approach play, and proximity from 125-175 yards. Recent top-25 finishes at TPC Sawgrass and TPC River Highlands shows his meddle on these types of golf courses, and he carries the ideal statistical profile to find success on courses that emphasize precision off the tee and short to middle iron play. This is an absolutely perfect spot for the 28-year-old to pick up his first PGA Tour victory.
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