The PGA TOUR is gearing up for the playoffs, but there is one more regular-season event where players can earn their way into the postseason or improve their standing for a deep run in the playoffs. The Wyndham Championship has been the last regular-season stop for the PGA TOUR since 2007 and takes place in Greensboro, North Carolina, at the Sedgefield Country Club. This season the event will tee off on Thursday, July 31 and continue through Sunday, August 3.
Let’s take a look at the history of this event and the course that will host this week’s tournament!
The History of the Wyndham Championship
The Wyndham Championship began in 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open. It was played at both the Sedgefield Country Club and Starmount Forest Country Club for the first few years and bounced back and forth between those two courses before moving to Forest Oaks Country Club from 1977 to 2007. Since 2008, though, Sedgefield Country Club has been the home for this event since a major renovation in 2007.
Early in its history, Sam Snead dominated the tournament and set a pair of records with his win in 1965 that still stand to this day. He won this event for the eighth time that year, the most times any player has won any single event. He also set the record for the oldest player to win a PGA TOUR event at the age of 52 that year.
In 2003, the tournament shifted from the spring to closer to the end of the season, and in 2007, it moved to its spot as the last regular-season event before the FedExCup playoffs. In 2021, the event finished with a memorable six-man playoff, which Kevin Kisner won over Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim, Kevin Na, Adam Scott and Roger Sloan.
This year, the event will officially conclude the regular season and the top 70 will advance to the FedEx St. Jude Championship in the playoffs next week. The top 50 will then move to the BMW Championship, and the top 30 will compete in the TOUR Championship without any “starting strokes” involved this year.
Since making the playoffs and improving status can have huge implications going forward, all of the golfers from No. 60 to No. 109 in the FedExCup standings are in the field this week.
The FedExCup race to the playoffs provides a tournament within the tournament, but in the main tournament, Aaron Rai broke through for his first PGA TOUR victory last year. He passed up a struggling Max Greyserman on Sunday after Greyserman led by four with five holes to play, made a quad on No. 14 and then four-putted No. 16 for a double bogey. Greyserman finished second while J.J. Spaun and Ryo Hisatsune finished tied for third and Luke Clanton rounded out the top five while still playing as an amateur.
The Wyndham Championship will award a total purse of $8.2 million, with $1.48 million going to the winner. For more info about the field, check out this post from my colleague Ciaran Doyle.
A Closer Look at the Course
Sedgefield Country Club is a beautiful Donald Ross design that plays as a par-70 on the PGA TOUR. A major renovation in 2007 returned the course to the original Ross design while adding length to accommodate the modern PGA TOUR. The course is a shorter layout overall and finding the fairways is more important than pure length off the tee.
Positional driving is paramount this week, along with strong iron play and the ability to convert plenty of birdies. As is Ross’s trademark, Sedgefield has small and undulating greens. The greens are now Bermuda after they were Bentgrass earlier in the course’s history.
Although it is a tough and fair test, the course has also given up some very low scores in the past few years. Of the last nine winners, seven have gotten to -20 or lower. The scores this week will likely be low once again, with players who excel on Bermuda greens getting a huge boost.
Here’s a great overview of the course and a nice hole-by-hole description of what to expect:
The final two holes at Sedgefield are some of the most dramatic on the PGA TOUR. They are two of the most beautiful holes on the course, but the tournament and playoff bids almost always hang in the balance coming into the 71st and 72nd hole on Sunday. No. 17 has a deep, saddled fairway built on a creek bed that Ross filled. A good drive sets up a difficult short-iron approach to the smallest green on the course. Hole No. 18 is one of the toughest finishing holes on the PGA TOUR. The tee shot typically leaves a long approach into the severely undulating hilltop green, and players have played their way out of the playoffs on the closing hole in past events.
In general, accurate driving is the most important thing this week, even over Strokes Gained: Approach, which is always another critical stat to monitor. Par 4 scoring and Strokes Gained: Putting on Bermuda are other stats to lean on as you make out your betting cards and fantasy golf lineups for this week.
