Wyndham Championship offers last chance for Tour players (Aug 16, 2017)
For a handful of golfers on the PGA Tour, this week's Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., is a final chance the earn a spot in the FedExCup Playoff field.
But for the majority of the players here, this week's tournament is a chance to have a little fun on the golf course again after taking their lumps last week at Quail Hollow Club in the PGA Championship.
Play will begin Thursday for the Wyndham Championship, which will be played at stately and venerable Sedgefield Country Club.
The course that will test a field of 156 golfers this week was designed by Donald Ross, opened for play in 1925 and is ranked the 13th best in North Carolina. It will play to a par of 70 and at 7,127 yards, with a total purse of $5.8 million.
The winner on Sunday afternoon will earn $1.044 million as well as 500 FedExCup points that could vastly improve his standing as the Tour begins its playoffs next week.
Only the top 125 players from the season will move forward on Tour to first event in the playoffs, The Northern Trust. In the past 10 years, 26 players who have started the Wyndham Championship outside the top 125 played their way inside the cutline, including two last year and five in 2015.
There are some big names on the FedExCup top 125 bubble this week, players such as Daniel Summerhays, Australia's Geoff Ogilvy and Aaron Baddeley, Cameron Tringale, Sam Saunders, Ryan Palmer, Billy Hurley III, Graeme McDowell of Northern Ireland and Smylie Kaufman (who ranks 135 entering the tournament).
All these golfers are in the Wyndham Championship field. The field also includes 16 players who have qualified for the FedExCup Playoffs every year.
Ogilvy is right on the fence at 125th on the FedEx Cup points race, but the 40-year-old former U.S. Open winner will have at least have conditional status next season after using his one-time career money list exemption this year.
"I'm not trying to finish 125th," Ogilvy said. "The goal is to get as far up as I can and make it to at least (the second playoffs event in) Boston, where I've played well. You never know what could happen after that. Worst case scenario; finishing 126th or 127th is usually good for 13 or 14 events next year, as well as a few (sponsor's) invites I can probably get. I'll likely have a reasonable (2018) schedule."
Seven players in the top 50 of the Official World Golf Ranking will tee it up here this week, including Sweden's Henrik Stenson (9), Kevin Kisner (24), Jason Dufner (34), Bill Haas (37), Ryan Moore (43), Russell Knox (44), and Billy Horschel (47).
The roster of players also includes nine of the top 50 in the current FedExCup standings and includes Kyle Stanley (17), Webb Simpson (37), Sung Kang (42), Keegan Bradley (44) and Cameron Smith (45).
There are seven past champions in the field: Davis Love III (2015, 2006, 1992), Camilo Villegas of Columbia (2014), Simpson (2011), Arjun Atwal (2010), Moore (2009), Carl Pettersson (2008), and K.J. Choi of South Korea (2005).
William McGirt, who's from Fairmont, N.C., about two hours south of this week's tournament site, made his Tour debut on this course in 2007. He has earned a pair of top-15 finishes in Greensboro including a tie for 14th in 2015, when he posted his career-low round of 62 in the opening round.
After a forgettable experience last week Charlotte at the PGA Championship, in which he missed the cut, McGirt is anxious to play on a course on which he thinks he can contend.
"I'm excited to be at Sedgefield because it's a course where you hit all 14 clubs in your bag," said McGirt, the 64th-ranked player in the world. "It was a pretty boring as far as the golf went last week. This week should be much more fun because the course makes you think about every shot. The goal for this week is to put four good, solid rounds together."
The defending champion of this event is South Korea's Si Woo Kim, who collected his first PGA Tour title in record fashion while setting the new tournament course record with a 60 in the second round and tying the 72-hole tournament mark at 21-under-par 259. Kim went on to capture the Players Championship this season but will not be at Sedgefield to defend his title following a withdrawal from the PGA Championship with a lingering back injury.
Also dropping out for this week were Charles Howell III, Andrew Johnston, Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker. The latter three are dealing with injuries.
