Wyndham Championship: Expert Picks

Just a refresher for anyone who needs it. Wyndham Championship is the last tournament before entering into four tournaments that will make up the playoffs. The top 125 players in FedEx points are eligible after this tournament, each tournament it will cut down 25-40 golfers until we have a winner. Notable players on the cusp: Sergio Garcia (130^th); Steve Stricker (141^st), David Lingmerth (140^th) and Bill Haas (150^th).

Tournament Information

Wyndham Championship

Date: August 16^th – 19^th

Course: Sedgefield Country Club

Purse: $6MM ($1MM to winner)

FedEx points: 500 to the winner

2017 Winner: Henrik Stenson (-22)

Course: Sedgefield Country Club. Established in 1926, this 7,120 yard par 70 course was designed by Donald Ross. It is fairly open featuring some thicker roughs and rolling hills. The generous space must be used, if players wonder off too much, they will need a weed Wacker to get their ball out. You will see from past winners that staying with what’s in front of you can yield great scores through as the winner last year had a -21 (the two previous years it was -17 and -17).

Rob Kinnan-USA TODAY Sports

Starting 4

Webb Simpson (3^rd start this year). He finished 6^thhere in 2015 and 3^rd here in 2017. He has top 25 finishes in each of his last three tournaments and he’s 18^th on the tour in strokes gained approaching the green, 12^th in strokes gained putting.

Abraham Ancer (1^st start this year). He has two top five finishes in the last four tournaments. When he is on he can be brilliant to watch. He has now hit 7 rounds at or under par in his last 10 rounds.

Johnson Wagner (2^nd start this year). Some compelling arguments for Johnson to do well, first he is 136^th in FedEx Ranking, so close he needs to do well to advance. Second, he has now made six consecutive cuts finishing in the top 35 each of the last four tournaments. Finally, he has top 25 finishes each of the last two years at Wyndham.

Bill Haas (2^nd start this year). Maybe I’m naïve but despite a rough year, Bill has a chance to make the playoffs with a strong performance here. He finished 6^th here in 2015 and 22^nd here in 2016 before a 75^th place finish last year. He is fresh off 3 consecutive missed cuts BUT earlier this season he missed 3 conescutive cuts and then finished 14^th at AT&T Byron Nelson so I have faith he can bounce back.

Bench 2

Jason Dufner (3^rd start this year). 22^nd here in 2015 and 14^th last year he doesn’t have a strong recent record (three missed cuts in his last five tournaments) but he’s strong enough to bounce back with a dominant performance (having three top 25 finishes this year after missing a cut).

Davis Love III (1^st start this year). Winner here in 2015, he finished 10^th last year. That’s about it as he has withdrawn or missed the cut in six of eleven tournaments this year. He has yet to finish better than 28^th so it’s a deep flier.

2018 Stats

Starting 4: Avg Finish 43^rd (32^nd percentile)

Bench 2: Avg Finish 52^nd (38^th percentile)