Fantasy gamers have a way of building narratives out of thin air from week to week, to justify their selections.
Those narratives are easy to create this week as the PGA TOUR heads Greenboro for the regular-season finale, the Wyndham Championship.
With this being the final event of the regular season, a large chunk of the field is attempting to play their way into the FedExCup Playoffs and lockdown some status for the 2021-22 campaign.
With 156 golfers starting the week, the field will be trimmed to the top 65 and ties after 36 holes.
Let’s hop right in and discuss the course.
The Course
Sedgefield Country Club is the host venue this week.
It has carried the title of host since the 2008 edition and the course has not changed much over the year.
Despite the increase in driving distance out on TOUR, this Donald Ross design has packed on just 14 yards since the 2008 edition when it played at 7,117 yards as a par 70.
The course is not particularly tough by TOUR standards, but it is still able to challenge these pros as a classical design that features tight, tree-lined fairways and doglegs that often force you to take less club off the tee.
There is a big premium on finding the fairways here because the bermuda rough can be very tricky in terms of distance control. You may or may not catch a flyer out of the rough.
It is very similar to last week’s TPC Southwind layout in that regard. Distance is not a requirement at either course and accuracy matters at both venues, more than the average TOUR stop.
The golfers do a much better job of explaining the intricacies of the course so make sure you read the quotes section below to pick up all of that knowledge.
The bermudagrass greens are slightly smaller than TOUR average and the greens can get very speedy quickly, usually running over 12 feet on the stimp with a lot of slope to accentuate that speed.
Overall, this is a course where the entire field is in play. You need to keep it between the pipes, get locked in with your mid-irons, and then catch a hot putter for one or two of the days.
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Course Quotes
Sifting through some past quotes, let’s try to break down the course to see how it will play.
Jordan Spieth: “I think you have to work the ball both ways off the tee and into the greens to feed it to the pins, and then the greens are pretty diabolical. You’ve got greens with really, really fast Bermudagrass with a lot of slope, so putts that you don’t really see these kind — this kind of break or speed but for a few weeks a year. Augusta comes to mind as far as the way they putt.”
Mackenzie Hughes: “I think it’s one of those courses that you don’t have to overpower. A lot of guys will hit driver on a lot of holes, but I lay back a decent bit. A lot of 5-woods off the tee. I’m just trying to put the ball in the fairway. If you put the ball in the fairway out here, you can shoot a score. Playing from that rough, that bermuda rough is so difficult to predict. “
Webb Simpson: “I love the Bermudagrass, I love having options off the tee, hitting different clubs, undulating greens.”
Brice Garnett: “I’ve always played this golf course well just because I think it’s position off the tee and then it’s a second shot course, like you said. You have to hit the par 5 fairways and then get the long irons in on both par 5s, otherwise you’re hitting mid irons and wedges and I think that’s part of the strength of my game.”
Ryan Armour: “This golf course is always about hitting fairways. I think if you hit fairways, you can get to some of the hole locations. But out of the rough, especially ball’s starting to knuckle a little bit, it’s getting a little drier up top, so you’re catching some flyers. “
Recap: The theme this week is position off the tee, mid-iron play, and comfort on bermudagrass.
Correlated Courses
Looking at grass types, geography, course attributes, and past performance, here are a few courses/events that I think could prove to be a good pointer this week:
Sea Island Resort
Harbour Town Golf Links
Waialae Country Club
TPC San Antonio
TPC River Highlands
The theme is shorter, less-than-driver courses where precision is a bit more important than power.
Other courses that might fit the bill include TPC Sawgrass, Silverado Resort and Spa, TPC Summerlin, TPC Deere Run, or Detroit GC.
The Weather
Thursday: Mostly Cloudy with a chance of storms. High of 90 degrees with calm winds.
Friday: Sunny with a chance of afternoon showers. High of 91 degrees and winds 5 to 8 MPH.
There are lots of precipitation windows in the forecast but most of them call for light rain. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Golfers to Watch
Webb Simpson
He is the leading money winner at this event and it’s not particularly close (more than $500K above the next closest Brandt Snedeker). For Simpson, he went through a rough patch this summer while battling injuries and courses that didn’t fit his game. This one is tailor-made for him and he arrives fresh off a round at TPC Southwind where he gained 6.9 strokes over the field average. While that’s promising, he has still been more sporadic than usual with round worse than the field average in five of his last nine rounds played.
Hideki Matsuyama
He’s gone from Tokyo to Memphis and not taking a week off, despite being in contention both weeks. Could jet lag or mental fatigue catch up with him this week or will he continue to ride this hot streak out for a deep run into the Playoffs? Matsuyama has missed the cut in three of his six trips to Sedgefield CC but he’s posted top 15s in the other three.
Rickie Fowler
If you are buying into the FedExCup Playoffs narrative then Fowler is one to boost. He enters the week ranked 130th in the FedExCup standings, needing to jump at least five spots to secure a spot in the postseason. Fowler arrives with four straight finishes outside of the top 30 but he has flashed some low rounds over that stretch.
Tommy Fleetwood
The Englishman has failed to find many top-heavy finishes this season and it shows with an FEC rank of 136th. He’s gone 12 straight stroke-play events without a top 10. Does that mean he’s due for a big week or will his season end with another middling result?
Justin Rose
It’s odd to see Rose outside of the FedExCup bubble (139th) but it makes a lot of sense when you look at his stats this season and find that he’s losing strokes off-the-tee, on approach, and around-the-green. It’s hard to trust him with those kinds of tee-to-green performances but he remains a part of tier 1 when you look at the field from a long-term class perspective.
Will Zalatoris
It’s been a remarkable season for the youngster with eight top 10s in 24 starts. For most, that would mean a spot at East Lake would likely be in the cards. Instead, Zalatoris’ season will end this week unless he finds a way into the winner’s circle. He arrives off a T8 at the WGC last week. That is good news for gamers since he had a bit of a question mark entering the week after withdrawing from The Open Championship due to a back injury.
Ranking the Field
1. Webb Simpson
2. Louis Oosthuizen
3. Hideki Matsuyama
4. Patrick Reed
5. Jason Kokrak
6. Brian Harman
7. Will Zalatoris
8. Sungjae Im
9. Russell Henley
10. Tommy Fleetwood
11. Kevin Na
12. Adam Scott
13. Robert MacIntyre
14. Seamus Power
15. Kevin Streelman
16. Talor Gooch
17. Jhonattan Vegas
18. Gary Woodland
19. Matthew Wolff
20. Si Woo Kim