Wyndham Championship Key Fantasy Stats

Wyndham Championship

August 3rd – 6th, 2023

Sedgefield Country Club

Greensboro, NC

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,131

Purse: $7.6 million

with 1,368,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Tom Kim

by Sal Johnson

Founder, Chief Data Officer, GOLFstats

E-mail me at:
sal@golfstats.com

This is based on the most vital stats from Sedgefield C.C., data from last year’s Wyndham Championship, and data from all the players in the field with stats from 2023.
For the third week in a row, the Tour plays a course where driving it straight matters a lot; the key to playing well at Sedgefield is to hit it straight and position your drives for the shot into the green. Like last week at the 3M at TPC Twin Cities and the week before at the British Open at Hoylake, hitting fairways and greens is essential. 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 is guys that either hit short and straight or, in the case of hitting it long, players like Webb Simpson, Sergio Garcia, Patrick Reed, Si Woo Kim, and 2017 winner Henrik Stenson. Last year’s winner Tom Kim and 2021 winner Kevin Kisner both don’t hit it that far and are some of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour. The same with 2020 winner Jim Herman, who not only doesn’t hit it that far, he has a reputation of only playing well once or twice a year, and in most cases, he seems to win. Last year Tom Kim came into the event as a young kid trying to make it on the PGA Tour. Nobody knew who he was going into the Scottish Open. He was a young kid from Asia that got into some events and made the most of it. When he finished 3rd at the Scottish Open, he got temporary membership in the PGA Tour. When he finished T-47th at the British Open, T-26th at the 3M, then 7th at the Rocket Mortgage, he earned a PGA Tour card for 2023. The win at the Wyndham allowed him to play in the FedExCup playoffs. Kim’s key to winning the Wyndham was shooting 61 in the final round. The round was so good that it took im from being in 3rd place going into the final round to a five-shot victory. Kim hit 10 of 14 fairways and only missed one green as he made one eagle, eight birdies, and one bogey. For the week, Kim was T-4th in fairways hit, and T-16th in greens hit. Kim’s secret to the week was putting, he was 1st in strokes gained putting. Another thing that Kim accomplished as he was the first player in the Sedgefield era (2008) to win on his first start at the Wyndham. In the previous 50 years of the Wyndham, only Seve Ballesteros in 1978, Frank Nobilo in 1997, and Brandt Snedeker in 2007 were the only first-timers to win the Wyndham.
The previous year, Kisner came into the Wyndham as one of the favorites as he was T-3rd in 2020 and had two other top-ten finishes. So it was no surprise to see Kisner win. At the other end of the spectrum, 2020 winner Herman was the biggest longshot winner of 2020, strolling into Sedgefield 192nd on the FedExCup point list. He only made seven cuts in his previous 18 starts, and his best finish was T-27th in the winners-only Sentry Tournament of Champions. He hadn’t played in the Wyndham since 2015 but strolled in like he owned the joint. He not only led the field in greens hit with 63, but he was also straight off the tee finishing 4th in driving accuracy. So, of course, there is no rhyme or reason for how this happened. Just like the clock striking midnight and turning the Princess into a pumpkin, the same happened to Herman as he missed the cut at his next stop at the Northern Trust and finished T-40th at the BMW. Since winning the Wyndham two years ago, Herman has played in 66 PGA Tour events and has had only three top-20 finishes, a T-20th at the 2021 Barbasol, T-7th in 2022 at the second-tier Puerto Rico Open and T-14th at the 2023 Honda. Another incredible story was 2019 winner J.T. Poston. He is a very short hitter, coming into the week T-165th in driving distance. But when he is playing well, he hits it straight.
Another critical aspect of driving for the long hitters the holes that dogleg needs 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, which is more of a hazard than the rough, which is less penal than it could be. It has been pretty dry this year, but over the two weeks, the Greensboro area has seen it rain four inches, the last time on Sunday the 30th, about a quarter of an inch. Despite that, I don’t think it will have any bearing on the rough, but with rain coming just about every day, the course will not be dry and fast as in past years.
Like any other great Donald Ross course, the greens are challenging, first in hitting them, but if you miss them, it’s a hard up and down. The greens are also pretty flat, and good and bad putters make many putts. So it’s a course that favors short hitters, those who scramble well, and average putters. Last week was a perfect example; winner Lee Hodges hit 58 of 72 greens which ranked T-9th and scrambled well, getting it up and down on all 11 of the 14 greens he missed to rank T-7th. He also putted well, ranking 4th in Strokes Gained Putting. This added to Hodges making 2 eagles and 25 birdies, the best for the week.
Last year at the Wyndham, Tom wasn’t as good as Hodges last week, but Kim was ok. He hit 57 of the 72 greens to rank T-16th. In scrambling, he got it up and down on 11 of the 15 greens he missed, ranked T-6th, and was 1st in Strokes Gained putting. This helped Kim make 25 birdies for the week, the best.
The same will have to happen this week for someone to win. One thing about Sedgefield, it’s a fun course to play, and yes, it’s challenging. It’s not going to be taxing like other courses on Tour; last year, Sedgefield was the 27th easiest course on Tour in 2022 with a 69.26 average, just a bit more than three quarters under par. Historically Sedgefield has played at the 68.92 average since 2008. This year mother nature is going to play a part in this. The forecast is for hot, muggy days with temperatures in the high 80s and low 90s with showers on Thursday and Friday, with afternoon Thunderstorms on Saturday and Sunday; each day will have just about a 50% chance of rain.

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 putting the ball in play off the tee at Sedgefield is probably one of the most essential items on this Donald Ross course. Last year’s winner Tom Kim was 33rd in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green, as he was T-4th in Driving Accuracy and T-16th in Greens in Regulation. Then getting the ball on the greens is important, and we all know how hard it is to hit a Donald Ross green. 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. Last year Sedgefield ranked 5th in Scrambling, and our winner Kim ranked T-6th in Scrambling. Our next stat is Strokes Gained Putting, which is important. Last year Sedgefield was 12th in putting average while Kim was 1st in Strokes Gained Putting, so to play well, it’s crucial to put well on this course. Last year 1,841 birdies were made, and only four other courses on the PGA Tour saw more birdies made. So we are using the Birdie average for our final category.

*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.

*Strokes Gained Putting: Look who picks up the most strokes on the greens.

*Birdie average: Players who average the most birdies made per round.

Here are the 137 of 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2023:

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