BlogWyndham Preview and Picks

The Olympics:

So it looks like golf in the Olympics may be a keeper.  Sunday’s final round was a big success in the fans, probably thanks to the way Golf Channel did there job in glorifying it.  As I said last week, the final day would be successful with only three winners and the plight to see who would win the medals.  I still think that the format is not very good, I would like to see some combination of stroke play tournament for 36 holes with 44 of the 60 players getting eliminated, then the other 16 going to a match play shootout with the final day having the match for the Gold medal and the bronze medal.

For those playing fantasy golf the course held lot’s of excitement in which lot’s of birdies and eagles were scored, thus making it fun to play.  I still think the schedule is a problem, you can’t have all these great events in a small window and in 2020 the Olympics will be played from July 24th to August 5th.  The good news, there are a lot of really great courses in Japan so that won’t be a problem, even though the building of the Olympic course in Rio was a big success.

The Buzz:

So here it is, for a good share of those in the field of the Wyndham this could be the end of the line.  In the past, this was the last week for those to make it into the FedEx Cup playoffs.  Those in the top-125 move on, while the others waited for the playoffs to finish.  Then they had five to seven event to get into the top-125 of the money list and save their Tour cards for the following year.

The system is drastically different since 2013.  The Wyndham is now the last regular tour event for 2016, so for many its a two edge sword.  Not only are they looking to finish in the top-125 and move onto the FedEx Cup playoffs, but for those that don’t finish in the top-125 they have lost their PGA Tour cards.

So what happens to those that don’t finish in the top-125?  A more expanded hell that is now called the Web.Com Tour finals.  Before it was the PGA Tour Qualifying tournament which if you made it to the final leg (there was three for the unfortunate that had gone through all three stages) it was six days of golf in which 25 cards were on the line for the 144 player field.  So if you had a bad first day or first couple of days, that was it you wouldn’t be able to recover and had to endure the Web.Com Tour for a year.

Now the pain of qualifying is based on four events over the course of five weeks.  So in a way the torture is greatly expanded but in a sense you have more chances to qualify and regain your card.  Here is how it runs.  For those that are not in the top-125 of the FedEx Cup point totals, those between 126 and 175 they get into the four tournament Web.Com Tour finals.  The events are the DAP Championship in Beachwood, Ohio, (Sept 8 – 11), the Albertsons Boise Open in Boise, Id. (Sept. 15-18), the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Championship in Columbus, Ohio (Sept. 22-25) and then the Web.Com Tour Championship played at the Atlantic Beach C.C. in Atlantic Beach, Fl. (Oct. 6-9).

Those between 126 and 175 will be joined by the top-75 money winners off the Web.Com Tour.  The premise is that 50 cards will be given out.  The top-25 of the Web.Com money list will receive a card.  So for those that have played the tour all year they will have a big advantage over the PGA Tour players because the PGA Tour players will have zero dollars while those on the Web.Com Tour will have their money.  But with each event having a bigger purse with the first place of $180,000 those PGA Tour regulars will be able to make up the difference quickly.

The other 25 cards will go to players who earn the most-cumulative money in the four Web.Com Tour events.  So you can see, in a way there are more chances for players. If you play bad in the first couple of events and then catch fire, you can gain a card.  The only problem is that now your pain is over five weeks, not just six days.

A lot of us miss the old PGA Tour qualifying tournament, but in a way this will be easier for players to regain their cards.  Only problem, new players won’t find a way into the final qualifying tournament and be able to have that shining moment, something that about a half dozen players a year get to do.  So to break into the PGA Tour will now be a two-year process of qualifying for the Web.Com Tour and then having to endure the Web.Com Tour finals.

So in a way this week’s Wyndham will be important for those not only getting into the top-125 but also to have some chance and get into the top-175.

Tiger has been missing for a year now

One last item, for many Tiger Woods is a distance name.  This week marks the one year anniversary since Tiger last played competitively in last year’s Wyndham.  Tiger finished T-10th, his only top-10 in two years.  For many we thought that maybe this would be a turn for Woods to return back to possibly contending again.  But that never happened as he soon had two surgeries just after the Wyndham and hasn’t been back since.  The good news even though we have no news from the Woods camp is that possibly he is getting close to being able to play again.  We haven’t gotten the official word from Tiger, but many in the media think that he could play in the Hero World Challenge the first week in December and possibly in 2017.  But who knows, maybe he won’t get healthier and never play again which case last year’s Wyndham would be the end of the road for his great career.  I think Tiger has some years left and hope he will be able to get it together.  But as we has seen in 2014 and ’15, just playing doesn’t mean that Tiger can return to any level of what made him good.  I can’t see Tiger going a long time and not playing well, he has to show signs of possibly winning again or he will just fade into the sunset.  If he does play in the Hero in the Bahamas he would have 15 months to ponder what needs to be done to not only get healthy again but competitive and I can’t see any possible return if it slips back any further.

Tournament information:

• Created in 1938, the 2016 edition of the Wyndham Championship will be the 77th tournament. Initially known as the Greater Greensboro Open, the tournament has blossomed from its paltry roots. The event was the vision of the Greensboro Jaycee’s Chapter, which was but a year old when the idea was conceived. Many were in favor of the creation of a golf tournament; however, no one took steps to creating an event until, at a meeting in the summer of 1937, Joseph Bryan put up capital to back the event. The PGA Tour placed the tournament on the 1938 schedule.
• If Joseph Bryan is credited with being the backer, then Sam Snead is the owner of the event. His eight victories at Greensboro, including the inaugural event, was a record for most victories by a player at one tournament until Tiger tied him in several events. The Greensboro-based tournament had been played every year except for 1943 and 1944, when the event paused because of World War II.
• The tournament name held until 1988, when Kmart became the title sponsor, and the event became known as the Kmart Greater Greensboro Open.  After an eight year run, Chrysler took over in 1996 and in 2003 the Greater was dropped in favor of Chrysler Classic of Greensboro. That name held until 2006, when Daimler Chrysler pulled out as title sponsor and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts took over. The 2014 Wyndham Championship has ramifications for the FedEx Cup Championship. The Wyndham Championship is the last event in which golfers, vying for position in the playoff system, can earn points.
• For 31 years between 1977 and 2007, Forest Oaks Country Club hosted the event, but it wasn’t considered “fan friendly” and the course wasn’t very memorable.  One of the reasons that Forest Oaks got the event in 1977 from Sedgefield was because the course was too short and didn’t have the room and parking to handle big crowds.  It was a big disappointment for the members when they lost the event and many had been lobbying to get it back.  With Wyndham taking over the sponsorship and having it’s offices nearby, and the membership invested $3 million dollars to renovate the course and opened the doors for the return.  When the course was reopened in 2007 to rave reviews, it was decided to change venues for 2008 and has held the event ever since.

Course information:

• Between 1938 and 1976 Sedgefield held the Wyndham Championship 26 times and was considered a great old Donald Ross course.  Unfortunately the course was short and small for galleries so the event moved on.  Still the course was considered a gem and for years membership tried to lure it back.
• Sedgefield founded in 1925, is located in the rolling hills of Greensboro’s Sedgefield neighborhood. The club has hosted many amateur golf tournaments as well as 32 years of the Wyndham Championship. In addition to its Donald Ross-designed golf course, Sedgefield is perhaps best known for its signature clubhouse, a Tudor-style building housed in the framework of the original Sedgefield Inn built in 1925, the Atlantic Coast Conference was founded in this building in 1953.
• Couple of years ago the club entrusted North Carolina course architect Kris Spence with the job of restoring the course back to its original Donald Ross design while making adjustments to bring the course in line with the modern game.  Spence’s renovation added another 400 yards to Sedgefield, bringing its length to 7,130 yards. Par will be 70 as the 18th hole will be converted into a par 4.
• Emphasis must be put on ball placement in the fairway in order to get the appropriate angle to the green. The greens at Sedgefield are very undulating and slope from back to front, with many falling off the edges into collection areas.  In 2013 Sedgefield played to a 69.383 scoring average, more than a shot under par for the field.  It ranked as the 23rd hardest of 43 courses for 2013.  Last year it played to a scoring average of 69.209 and ranked 38th out of the 48 courses for the year.
• It will be an interesting scenario for the players that a Donald Ross course will be used to get players ready for next month’s Tour Championship that will be played on another Ross course at Eastlake, outside of Atlanta.

Let’s take a look at key stats that are important for those playing at the Wyndham Championship:

This is based on the most vital stats from Sedgefield C.C., based on data from last year’s Wyndham Championship and using data from all the players in the field with stats from 2016.
For the second week in a row, the tour plays a course that doesn’t favor the long hitter, matter of fact the key to playing well at Sedgefield is to hit it straight and position your drives for the shot into the green. A look at the list of champions at the Wyndham since the event went back to Sedgefield in 2008 shows that the list of winners are guys that either hit is short and straight, or in the case of hitting it long players like Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia and Patrick Reed that also can hit it straight and long. Another important aspect of driving, the holes that dogleg need players to lay it up to avoid going through the fairway and it’s always best to be in the fairways. The course is tree line and that is more of a hazard than the rough which is not as penal as it could be.
Like any other great Donald Ross course the greens are tough, first in hitting them if you miss them it’s a hard up and down. The greens are also pretty flat and lot’s of putts are made, but good and bad putters. So it’s a course that favors short hitters, those that do scramble well and average putters. Last week was a perfect example, winner Ryan Moore is one of the shortest hitters on tour, can scramble ok and putt ok and yes he does make lot’s of birdies.

So in looking at our four categories, we see how much driving and getting the ball on the green makes a difference. So we pick Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green because at Sedgefield putting the ball in play off the tee is very important, probably one of the most important items on this Donald Ross course. Then getting the ball on the greens is important and we all know how hard it is to hit a Donald Ross green. That is why next up is scrambling, because the greens are hard to hit, when you miss the green you have to get it up and down to win. After that putting average is important, last year Sedgefield was T-11th in putting average so it’s important to play well to putt well on this course. Last we have birdies, last year 1,674 birdies were made only five other courses saw more birdies made.

*Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green: Looks at the combination of length off the tee and accuracy, then getting the ball on the green so it determines who is best at all of these items.

*Scrambler: Who gets it up and down after missing a green.

*Putting Average: The average number of putts in a round, based on the year.

*Birdies: Players that make the most birdies

Players from this year’s field with stats from 2016:

Click any column title in the table header to sort columns.

For the rest of the players, hit this link:

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Wyndham Championship:

Key stat for the winner:

Sedgefield is a very versatile course. Length is not critical because the course plays at about 7,127 yards, just a notch below average for a PGA Tour event. With length not being a factor, players are afforded the opportunity to use either driver or long iron off the tee. The most-critical thing for the field is to manage the slope of the course. To do that, ball control and accuracy are key.

Now this tournament was made famous by Sam Snead, who won it eight times, the PGA Tour record for the most victories by a player in a single event. Snead captured the inaugural event in 1938, and when he won it for the eighth time in 1965, he became the oldest winner in PGA Tour history at 52 years, 10 months and eight days.

Between 1949 and 1965 Snead was never higher than 8th and won $37,827 or about the same amount that the player in 28th place will win this week.  For the record, if Snead would have played all 17 events at the present purse of $5.6 million his Greensboro earnings would have been around $8 million.  Oh Snead is the only winner in Greensboro history to defend his championship and with Davis Love III not playing due to surgery last month that record will stay intact for another year.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

Length is obviously not an issue so that opens things up quite a bit. Look for the winner to be someone who doesn’t like to muscle up with the driver, and just settle for using a long iron for control. Past winners of the event are some of the best iron players on tour. The likes of Sergio Garcia, Webb Simpson, Mark O’Meara, Davis Love III, and Steve Elkington have hoisted the trophy. Look for the winner to be able to manage the surroundings, as the undulations are the most difficult part of the golf course. There is a reason that last year’s winner Davis Love III won at age 51 and that is experience.  The past winners from Sedgefield with the exception of Arjun Atwal in 2010 are experience players so look for someone like that to win.

Hitting greens will be at a premium at this Donald Ross gem, just like it was last week at Atlanta Athletic Club.   Hitting lots of greens goes a long way at the Wyndham Championship.  Look for the winner to hit greens in bunches.

North Carolina in the summer time is rife with heat and humidity, specially with the heat wave that hit the area last week. This will be important because since the grasses are bermuda and that will mean the rough will be thicker and harder to get out of.

Two weeks ago at the Travelers with dry, hot conditions and the course playing fast we saw a lot of low scoring with Jim Furyk shooting the PGA Tour’s first 58.  I can see this week someone shooting a 59 at Sedgefield this week. The course is really short by tour standards and you have to think that if conditions play just right that could happen.  Since the tournament moved to Sedgefield in 2008, 61 has been shot five times including twice in 2010 and last year by Brandt Snedeker.  So don’t be surprise to see players going low, I just see the course very vulnerable this year.

Talking about the weather, the weather will be ok for Thursday and Friday, but stormy over the weekend.  It will also be hot and muggy every day so that could open up for a weird type of winner.