Wyndham Championship: Hot-putting Harry chanced at 54/1

• Driving Accuracy the key stat at Sedgefield

• Will one of the Bubble Boys prosper again?

• Keene Trace, Waialae and Sawgrass form a big plus

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Tournament History

Sam Snead won the first Wyndham Championship in 1938, when it was known as the Greater Greensboro Open, and he won it for the eighth time in 1965 at the age of 52 years, 10 months, and eight days! That still stands as the most wins of a single PGA Tour event and he's still the oldest winner on Tour.

The Wyndham is the last counting event before the FedEx Cup Playoff series begins next week with the FedEx St Jude Championship, so players are looking to finish inside the top 70 on the rankings to secure a place in the field in Memphis next Thursday and to keep their cards next season.

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Venue

Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina.

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Course Details

Par 70 7,131 yards
Stroke average in 2024 - 68.97

Founded in 1926, the Donald Ross designed Sedgefield Country Club was the event's original venue but between 1977 and 2007 the tournament's permanent home was Forrest Oaks Country Club. The Wyndham Championship returned to Sedgefield Country Club in 2008 - a year after Kris Spence had restored and lengthened the course so it could stand up to the modern game.

In typical Ross fashion, the greens are smaller than average, undulating and fairly fast, given they're usually set to run at around 12 ½ on the stimpmeter. Since the event returned to Sedgefield, low scores have been the norm.

Last year's runner-up, Max Greyserman shot 60 in round two and we've seen four winners, Carl Pettersson, Arjun Atwal, Jim Herman, and Tom Kim, all shoot 61 on the way to victory but the 2018 winner, Brandt Snedeker, went two better, firing a 59 on day one.

Changes were made to the greens prior to the 2012 renewal and they're now the same strain of Bermuda (previously bent grass) used at another North Carolina Tour stop, Quail Hollow, but it hasn't made the difference to the scores anticipated.

Sedgefield also hosted the Greensboro Open on the Web.com Tour between 1998 and 2000.

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Weather Forecast

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TV Coverage

Live on Sky Sports all four days, with full coverage starting at 20:00 on Thursday.

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Last Eight Winners with Pre-event Exchange Prices

2024 - Arron Rai -18 42.041/1
2023 - Lucas Glover -20 90.089/1
2022 - Tom Kim -20 36.035/1
2021 - Kevin Kisner -15 (playoff) 60.059/1
2020 - Jim Herman -21 1000.0999/1
2019 - J.T Poston -22 270.0269/1
2018 - Brandt Snedeker -21 32.031/1
2017 - Henrik Stenson -22 15.014/1

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What Will it Take to Win the Wyndham Championship?

Driving Accuracy is most definitely a more important stat than Driving Distance.

The last ten winners here, starting with Davis Love III in 2015, have ranked 32^nd, 51^st, 71^st. 25^th, 51^st, 51^st, 65^th, 79^th, 27^th and 63^rd for Driving Distance. This is NOT a bombers track, this is a course for the accurate types.

Brand Snedeker won here seven years ago with some bizarre stats and there were none more bizarre than his 51^st for Driving Accuracy as finding the fairways at Sedgefield is very often the key to victory.

Although not long, the rough is awkward to play from and getting within birdie range is nigh on impossible if you stray from the cut and prepared.

The 2021 winner, Kevin Kisner, only ranked 31^st for Driving Accuracy but last year's winner, Aaron Rai, ranked eighth, the 2023 winner, Lucas Glover, ranked first, the 2022 winner, Tom Kim, ranked fourth and the first six players home in 2020 ranked fourth, fifth, first, eighth, 13th and 17^th for DA.

In 2019, the first and second, J.T Poston and course-specialist, Webb Simpson, ranked second and first for DA and other than Kisner and Snedeker, in the 17 renewals since the event returned to Sedgefield, 16^th (Patrick Reed) is the worst any other winner has ranked for Driving Accuracy.

Kim only ranked 16^th for Greens In Regulation three years ago but seven of the top-12 ranked tied seventh or better for GIR and as many as eight of the 14 players separated by just two strokes at the top of the leaderboard in 2021 ranked inside the top-14 for Greens In Regulation.

The winner four years ago, Kevin Kisner, only ranked tied eighth but the two winners before him both ranked number one for GIR, as did Glover two years ago and the first five home 12 months ago ranked tied fourth, tied fourth, first, 18^th and seventh for GIR.

The three winners between 2019 and 2021 had unusually poor Putting Average rankings of 37^th, 23^rd and 20^th and that's a bit odd given this is essentially a birdie-fest.

The last two winners have ranked only 15^th and 10^th for Putting Average but the 2023 winner, Kim, topped both the PA and Strokes Gained: Putting stats and the three winners between 2016 and 2018 all ranked second for PA.

For the first seven renewals back at Sedgefield, the number one ranked player on the par fours finished either first or second and three of the last six winners have topped the Par 4 Scoring stats.

Finding plenty of greens and putting well are usually important here but the best stats to peruse are probably Driving Accuracy and Par 4 Scoring.

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Check out the Bubble Boys

This is the last event of the PGA Tour season before the FedEx Cup Playoffs begin with the FedEx St Jude Championship next week and that looks like it might offer a good angle in.

Those players bobbing around the 70 mark in the FedEx Cup standings (here) often raise their game in order to ensure they qualify and keep their cards for next season, and a big move can still be made from even further down the standings

Last year's first and second has ranked 53^rd and 63^rd in the Standings but the 2023 winner, Lucas Glover, climbed from 112^th to 49^th.

From a course correlation angle, form at Donald Ross designed tracks tends to cross over well so look at the Rocket Mortgage Classic at Detroit Golf Club, Aronimink Country Club, which hosted the BMW Championship in 2018, East Lake in Atlanta, home of the Tour Championship and Oak Hill, which hosted the 2023 US PGA Championship.

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Other course correlations to consider

Away from the Ross designed tracks, form at the Champions Course at the Keene Trace club in Kentucky, which hosted the ISCO Championship between 2018 and 2024 might be of interest.

Kevin Streelman has finished second and seventh at the two venues and Billy Horschel has finished second at both, Jim Herman has won at both tracks and JT Poston and Glover arguably should have done.

The 2019 Wyndham winner, Poston, was matched at 1.011/100 to win the ISCO at Keene Trace in 2020 before eventually going down to Seamus Power in extra time and the 2023 winner here, Glover, led the ISCO Championship by two at the halfway stage before a lacklustre weekend saw him finish fifth.

The 2023 renewal advertised just how well Sony Open form holds up at Sedgefield. Glover was fifth at the Sony in 2022, when Russell Henley (who finished tied second here two years ago), was beaten in a playoff and the man to finish alongside Henley here two years ago, Byeong Hun An, traded at as low as 1.422/5 to win the Sony last year before losing in a playoff.

In addition, the 2022 Sony Open was won by Si Woo Kim, who won the Wyndham by five strokes in 2016, but if you want a really strong course link you need to head to Florida and to the Pete Dye designed home of the Players Championship, Sawgrass.

Glover has finished third and sixth at Sawgrass, the 2021 winner, Kisner, has finished fourth and second there and as many as five of the last 14 Wyndham winners have also won the Players.

Although he only finished 47^th and 45^th in his two visits to Keene Trace, the US Open winner, JJ Spaun, ties up the course correlations quite nicely given he finished third in the Sony Open in January and second in the Players in March after finishing tied for third here 12 months ago.

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Is There an Identikit Winner?

Snedeker was winning the event for a second time seven years ago and the 2015 winner, David Love III, has won the title three times but this has been a decent tournament for first timer winners of late.

Aaron Rai was winning on the PGA Tour for the first time last year and eight of the last 16 victors were breaking their duck on the PGA Tour.

Rai was a 42.041/1 shot last year and Tom Kim was an extremely well-backed 36.035/1 chance three years ago. Snedeker was a solid 32.031/1 chance seven years ago and Stenson was a well-fancied 15.014/1 favourite in 2017 but Glover was matched at a triple-figure price when the market first opened two years ago, Kisner was a 60.059/1 shot four years ago, Herman went off at 1000.0999/1 in 2020 and outsiders have fared really well of late.

Having been matched at a high of 290.0289/1 before the event, Poston was relatively unfancied in 2019 and the four winners before Stenson in 2017 were also all matched at a triple-figure price before the off.

This is most definitely an event for outsiders - and Herman was the third 1000.0999/1 chance to win in 11 years following Arjun Atwal in 2010 and Davis Love III in 2015.

With length off the tee an irrelevance, this is somewhere the oldies can really shine. As already mentioned, Snead is the oldest ever PGA Tour winner and when Love won here in 2015, he became the third oldest to win on the PGA Tour. Herman was 42 when he lifted the trophy in 2020 and Glover was 43 two years ago.

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Winner's Position and Exchange Price Pre-Round Four

2024 - Aaron Rai - tied third, trailing by two (Not available)*
2023 - Lucas Glover - tied for the lead 3.185/40
2022 - Tom Kim - tied third, trailing by two (Not available)*
2021 - Kevin Kisner - trailing by four 17.016/1
2020 - Jim Herman - trailing by four 50.049/1
2019 - J.T Poston - trailing by three 40.039/1
2018 - Brandt Snedeker led by one stroke 2.111/10
2017 - Henrik Stenson led by one stroke 2.8615/8

*After lots of rain throughout the week, the third round needed to be finished off on Sunday before round four could start in both 2022 and 2024 so I don't know what price the two winners were between rounds three and four.

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In-Play Tactics

Since returning to Sedgefield the in-running stats at the 17 renewals are just odd.

We've seen nine 54-hole leaders win but Poston won from three back and after Kisner's success four years ago, we've had five winners come from four back with a round to go.

In the last 17 years, nobody's won the title having trailed by just a stroke and Kim and Rai in the last three years are the only winners in all that time to be two back after 54 holes.

Kim was a remarkable winner three years ago given he drifted out to 200.0199/1 after he made a quadruple-bogey at his first hole on Thursday, but he ended up winning the weather-affected renewal by five after a sensational 61 on Sunday, having shot 27 on the front nine.

We saw all sorts of drama last year after the organisers had pulled out all the stops to get the tournament played over 72 holes.

In the aftermath of Storm Debby, Greensboro was hit with torrential rain on Thursday and with more than five inches falling in a single day, no play was possible at all on day one.

They spent the next three days catching up and on Saturday night, 22 players still hadn't finished their second rounds.

The runner-up, Max Greyserman, who led by two with 18 to play, was twice matched at long odds-on, hitting 1.061/18 after 13 holes before firing out of bounds on the 14^th to record a quadruple eight and 1.21/5 after he'd birdied the par five 15^th.

It looked a done deal but then this happened on the par three 16^th!

3 putts from 3 feet.

Max Greyserman now trails by 1 with 2 holes left. pic.twitter.com/6vlalfPIln

-- PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 12, 2024

Rai, who had trailed by just two with 18 to play, was matched at as high as 29.028/1 during round four.

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Pre-Event Selections

Although he's playing here for the first time, I couldn't let Jake Knapp go unbacked given his current wellbeing.

Knapp ranked sixth for Driving Distance, 12^th for Driving Accuracy, first for Greens In Regulation and fifth for Scrambling when finishing tied for third behind Kurt Kitayama at TPC Twin Cities last week and had he putted slightly better (ranked 34^th for Putting Average) he probably would have won. And he would have finished closer had he not found water on the 18^th when needing to press for an eagle three.

He was a selection last week at 40/141.00 on the back of some very decent recent form and I'm happy to chance again modestly at a bigger price.

England's Harry Hall has drifted to a very nice price given how well he's been playing over the last few months. I was happy to back him at 55.054/1.

He's missed the cut here on both his previous visits, but he was woefully out of form when he played here for the first time in 2023. He'd won at the aforementioned Keene Trace in his penultimate start before he lined up here 12 months ago.

It's not unusual for someone to lose a bit of focus after a breakthrough victory and the 27-year-old Cornishman should be better equipped to contend this time around after a run of very solid form.

Hall hasn't missed a cut anywhere since March. His 28^th placed finish in the Open last time out is his worst finish in his last eight starts on the PGA Tour and he's ranked eighth and first for Putting Average in each of his last two outings.

He hit more fairways than anyone else in the field when finishing sixth in the Charles Schwab Challenge at the end of May so he's capable of a good week off the tee and looks a fair price now given he's no bigger than 40/141.00 on the High Street.

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