Pat Mayo and Geoff Fienberg preview the course and run through the odds while making their 2023 Wyndham Championship Picks week’s event at Sedgefield CC.
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2023 Wyndham Championship: Field
Field: 156 Players | Top 65 and Ties Make the Cut after 36 Holes
First Tee: Thursday, August 3
Defending Champion: Tom Kim
2023 Wyndham Championship: Course
Course: Sedgefield CC
Yardage: 7,131
Par: 70
Greens: Bermuda
Par 3s (4) – Average distance: 202 yards
– The long par 3s (both over 220 yards) played as two of the six toughest holes with a bogey-or-worse rate north of 16% while the short par 3s (both under 180 yards) played as two of the six easiest (average birdie rate: 19.7%).
Par 4s (12) – Average distance: 438 yards
– The four toughest holes on the course were all back-nine par 4s, three of them coming in a five-hole stretch (holes 10-14)
Par 5s (2) – Average distance: 537 yards
– Without a doubt, the two par 5s are the easiest holes on the course, both with a sub-10% bogey-or-worse rate and an eagle rate north of 4%. Hole No. 5 had an average score just 0.2 strokes higher than the par 4 11th.
2023 Wyndham Championship: Key Stats
SG: Approach
Par 4s Gained 400-450 Yards
SG: Putting
Eagles Gained
Mayo’s Key Stats powered by FantasyNational.com
2023 Wyndham Championship: Past Winners
2022: Tom Kim -20
2021: Kevin Kisner -15
2020: Jim Herman -21
2019: JT Poston -22
2018: Brandt Snedeker -21
2022: Tom Kim (-20, five clear of Sungjae Im and John Huh)
– Kim actually trailed Huh entering Sunday, but he picked up six strokes after carding a 61.
-Kim picked up 12.5 strokes putting, 3.2 strokes better than anyone else in the field and more than double any other tournament in his young career.
2021: Kevin Kisner (-15, won a six-way playoff with Branden Grace, Adam Scott, Kevin Na, Roger Sloan and Si Woo Kim).
– Kisner didn’t card a round worse than 68 for the week and put together consecutive 66s on the weekend.
– Ten of the top 14 finishers on the final leaderboard lost distance off the tee.
2020: Jim Herman (-21, one clear of Billy Horschel)
-Herman was five back of Horschel entering the weekend, but he went 61-63 over the final two days, carding the best score on both Saturday and Sunday.
-Twenty of the top 22 finishers gained in Proximity from 175-200 yards.
2019: J.T. Poston (-22, one clear of Webb Simpson)
– Neither Poston nor Simpson carded a round worse than 66, but Poston saved his best for last with a Sunday 62.
– Four of the top five in SG: OTT finished in the top six on the final leaderboard.
WINNER FORM
2022: The spike putting week for Kim came out of nowhere — he hadn’t gained even a stroke with the flat stick in any of his four measured events prior.
– He finished seventh at Rocket Mortgage the week prior and finished top 30 in four of his five events prior to winning at Sedgefield.
2021: Zero form for Kisner leading in, as he finished outside the top 60 at both St. Jude and The Open in his two lead-in events.
– The form he did have was a third-place finish in 2020.
2020: Another no-form winner as Herman came in with MC-MC-77th.
– He hasn’t made the cut at this event in the two years since his W. Sometimes it’s just your week!
2019: Poston didn’t play either of the two weeks prior to winning this event (three weeks prior to the win, he missed the cut at John Deere).
– He posted the second-best SG:APP of his career during the win, but again, it was tough to see coming as he had lost strokes on approach in four of his six events prior.
2023 Wyndham Championship: Notes
Like many of the events we’ve encountered the last six weeks or so, the Wyndham is another wedge and hot putting birdiefest. With the added bonus of Sedgefield CC being a short course, thus deemphasizing driving distance, every skill set in the field has a chance to contend.
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Six of the past seven champions have breached the -20 barrier in their victories with Strokes Gained: Approach and Strokes Gained: Putting being more than twice as impactful to the top five finishers on the leaderboard the last decade. The Bermuda greens putting surfaces are around TOUR average (6,500 sq. feet) and historically run faster than most PGA TOUR greens.
With just two par 5s on the layout, both reachable in two by every player in the field (No. 5 has a 6.4% eagle rate, while No. 15 has a 4.1% eagle rate), it’s the eight par 4s measuring between 400-450 yards that will end up being the separator. Over the past 24 rounds, per Fantasy National, Denny McCarthy, Aaron Rai, Ben Griffin, Thomas Detry and Brendon Todd have gained the most strokes on holes from that distance.
Beyond East Lake (TOUR Championship), Detroit CC (Rocket Mortgage Classic) is the other regular rotation Donald Ross course. There has been very little crossover between Detroit and Sedgefield, however. Actually, even more than East Lake, it’s Harbour Town (Heritage), TPC Sawgrass (The PLAYERS) and Sea Island (RSM Classic) which have been leaderboard corollaries over the years.
On a per-round basis, using stats just from Sawgrass, Sedgefield, Sea Island and Harbour Town, Sungjae Im, Justin Thomas, Erik Van Rooyen, Russell Henelly, Si Woo Kim and Ben Griffin have the most Strokes Gained: Total over the past 24 rounds. If you shorten it to the last 12 rounds, Cameron Davis and Adam Svensson jump inside the top three.
2023 Wyndham Championship Picks
Adam Svensson ($7,500)
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The results haven’t exactly materialized yet, however, Svensson has quietly reeled off two straight starts averaging +5.5 SG: T2G after seven in a row losing with his irons. He’s played well at the three direct comp courses as well. He finished 13th in his only start at Sawgrass, averaging +5.5 SG: APP at Harbour Town, and won late last fall at Sea Island. It’s a good time to get hot for the Canadian.
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Pat Mayo is an award-winning video host and producer of long and short-form content, and the host of The Pat Mayo Experience daily talk show. (Subscribe for video or audio). Mayo (@ThePME) won the 2023 Fantasy Sports Writing Association Podcast of the Year and was a finalist for three FSWA Awards in 2023 (Best Podcast, Daily Fantasy Writer of the Year, Golf Writer of the Year). His 27 FSWA nominations lead all writers this decade and are second-most all-time.
Mayo has been recognized across multiple sports (Football, Baseball & Golf), mediums (Video, Writing & Podcasting), genre (Humor), and game formats (Sports Betting, Daily Fantasy, and Traditional Season Long Fantasy).
I am a promoter at DraftKings and am also an avid fan and user (my username is ThePME) and may sometimes play on my personal account in the games that I offer advice on. Although I have expressed my personal view on the games and strategies above, they do not necessarily reflect the view(s) of DraftKings and do not constitute a representation that any particular strategy will guarantee success. All customers should use their own skills and judgment in building lineups. I may also deploy different players and strategies than what I recommend above. I am not an employee of DraftKings and do not have access to any non-public information.