Wyndham Championship Key Fantasy Stats

Wyndham Championship

August 8th – 11th, 2024

Sedgefield Country Club

Greensboro, NC

Par: 70 / Yardage: 7,131

Purse: $7.9 million

with $1,422,000 to the winner

Defending Champion:
Lucas Glover

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 2024.
If you count the Olympics, this is the fourth 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 in France for the Olympics, the week before at the 3M at TPC Twin Cities, and the week before at the British Open at Troon, 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, Lucas Glover, the 2022 winner, Tom Kim, and the 2021 winner, Kevin Kisner, all don’t hit it that far and are some of the shortest hitters on the PGA Tour. The same goes for 2020 winner Jim Herman, who not only doesn’t hit it that far but also has a reputation of only playing well once or twice a year, and in most cases, he seems to win. Last year, Lucas Glover came into the week on the cusp of despair. After the Travelers Championship, he was 167th in the FedEx Cup playoffs, and it looked like he was on the verge of having his worst season on the PGA Tour since 2018. His problem has always been putting, and things couldn’t have worsened. It had been over a decade since he noticed a drastic problem. He remembers that a 4-putt on the fifth green at Colonial Country Club in the first round of the Charles Schwab Challenge was the start of the problem. Things were terrible; he had these involuntary wrist spasms, which prevented him from making any short putts. So, after a decade of trouble, Glover tried using a long putter just before the Memorial. Shortly afterward, he taught himself a split-handed putting grip, and in the month after the Memorial, he regained his confidence on the greens. At the Rocket Mortgage Classic, Glover switched to a broomstick-style putter with a mallet head and ranked 5th in Strokes Gained putting, finishing T-4th, his first top-10 finish of the season. His putting improved as he finished T-6th at the John Deere Classic and T-5th at the Barbasol. He missed the 3M Open cut and went into the Wyndham Championship on a mission. He was 112th in the FedEx Cup standings and wanted to get into the playoffs. He needed to finish no worse than a two-way tie for second to have a chance to qualify, and he did better than that. After shooting a third-round 62, Glover went into the final round tied for the lead with Billy Horschel. They endured a tough day with a two-hour delay due to poor weather. In his round, he three-putted the first hole for a bogey; he played the last 17 holes in 3 under to shoot a 68 to win by two shots. For the week, he was 1st in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green and Strokes Gained Approach the Green, but more importantly, he was 15th in Strokes Gained putting as he made 66 of 70 putts inside ten feet. Not only did Glover get into the playoffs, the win vaulted him to 49th in the season-long points race. It was his first win since the 2021 John Deere, but more importantly, he became a force again on the PGA Tour. The next week, his putter saved the day again. Glover made a 20-foot par putt, a 30-foot bogey putt, and a 12-foot par putt over the final six holes to close with a 1-under 69 and force a playoff with Patrick Cantlay at the FedEx St. Jude Championship. Glover won the second week in a row when Cantlay hit into the water on the first playoff hole. For the week, putting and scrambling was the hero. He was 1st in Scrambling and 12th in Strokes Gained Putting, making 61 of 66 inside ten feet. The previous year, Tom Kim came into Wyndham 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 Asian kid who 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 was that he was the first player in the Sedgefield era (2008) to win at 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 three years ago, Herman has played in 76 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. In 2024, Herman only played in four events, making just one cut. Another incredible story was 2019 winner J.T. Poston. He is a very short hitter, coming into the 2019 Wyndham 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 last week, the Greensboro area has seen a lot of rain; with tropical storm Debby hitting the area, it will rain every day. So the course will be wet and long. Despite that, I think it will have little bearing on the rough, but with rain coming just about every day, the course will not be as 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 flat, so good and bad putters make many putts. So it’s a course that favors short hitters, those who scramble well, and average putters. Two weeks ago, the 3M Open was a perfect example; winner Jhonattan Vegas hit 57 of 72 greens, ranked T-7th, and scrambled well, getting it up and down on all 7 of the 15 greens he missed to rank 69th. He also putted well, ranking 9th in Strokes Gained Putting. This added to Vegas, making one eagle and 25 birdies the best for the week.
Last year at the Wyndham, Lucas Glover was as good as Vegas was two weeks ago. Glover hit 65 of the 72 greens to rank first. He got it up and down in scrambling on 5 of the 7 greens he missed, ranking T-5th. He was 15th in Strokes Gained putting. This helped Glover make 24 birdies for the week, which was the best.
The same thing will happen this week for someone to win. One thing about Sedgefield is that 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 23rd hardest course on Tour in 2023 with a 69.47 average; in 2022, it was the 27th easiest course on Tour with a 69.26 average, just a bit more than three quarters under par. Historically, Sedgefield has played at the 68.95 average since 2008. This year, Mother Nature is going to play a part in this. The forecast is for rain, rain, and even more rain, so look for a mudder to do well.

So, in looking at our four categories, we see how much driving and getting the ball on the green makes a difference. We pick Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green because getting the ball into play off the tee at Sedgefield is one of the most essential items on this Donald Ross course. Last year’s winner, Lucas Glover, was 1st in Strokes Gained Tee-to-Green, as he was 1st in Driving Accuracy and 1st in Greens in Regulation. Then, getting the ball on the greens is essential, 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 8th in Scrambling, and our winner, Glover, ranked T-5th in Scrambling. Our next stat is Strokes Gained Putting, which is essential. Last year, Sedgefield was 11th in putting average while Glover was 15th in strokes gained putting, so to play well, it’s crucial to do well in this course. Last year, 1,684 birdies were made, and they ranked 43rd out of 58 courses on the PGA Tour. 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 133 of 156 players from this year’s field with stats from 2024:

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