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.
Editor’s Note: Get an edge with our premium DFS and Betting Golf Tools that are packed with a DFS Optimizer, DFS Projections, Salary Tracker, Edge Driver, Prop Projections, Futures and much more. Gain access to both tools in our EDGE+ Max tier and don't forget to use promo code WELCOME10 to get 10% off. Click here to learn more!
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.