Course Preview and Fits: Wyndham Championship

We’ve arrived at the last week of the regular season, and that means it’s the last chance for everyone on the bubble to punch their tickets to next week’s first-round playoff event. For those who don’t know, the top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings following this week’s event will make the first round of the playoffs next week in Memphis. That means most of the PGA’s top dogs will be resting up for next week, while the middle of the pack will be in Greensboro this week to fight it out at the Wyndham Championship. Let’s dig in, shall we?

At Par 70 and just north of 7,100 yards, Sedgefield is one of the shorter courses on tour, and has a distinctive personality that puts it firmly in the category of “positional golf courses”, one that we know well from our Pete Dye experiences. It’s not a Pete Dye layout, however; instead, it is a fairly typical Donald Ross design in suburban Greensboro, with slight doglegs and tree-lined fairways throughout, and it presents its biggest challenge to tour players off the tee. With penal 2.5-inch Bermuda rough and six water holes, this is a course that can take driver out of guys’ hands routinely, putting a premium on finding the short grass above bombing it out there. Driving distance and accuracy are both consistently below average here, unsurprisingly. The dog legs only further this emphasis on accuracy, as missing in the wrong place can leave players blocked out from reaching the green, or with a much worse angle at the flag. There are only a handful of courses where driving accuracy matters more on the PGA Tour than at Sedgefield, and that’s no secret; players know it and will do all they can to find the fairways this week. Given the relatively short layout, driver isn’t necessary on many of the short par 4s, and iron or wood off the tee is generally the prudent play.

While requiring players’ full attention off the tee, Sedgefield eases up thereafter, providing some of the easiest approach play on tour from the fairway. GIR% is consistently up near 75% here, despite the greens being smaller than tour average at 6,000 square feet. Because of the concentration of shorter par 4s, players are consistently left with approach shots in the 125-200 yard range, so wedge/short- to mid-iron play will be important this week. With only two par 5s and only a few long par 4s, we won’t see many long approaches, but we also won’t see too many flip wedges into greens. Great ball strikers will have a harder time separating without many long iron shots, and approach play won’t be as consequential. Part of that is also the fact that off-the-tee play is so important that it dwarfs the other SG categories. Because of the Bermuda grass and some contoured greens, ARG play is tougher here, and missing greens will provide some challenging up-and-downs.