This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
Wyndham Championship
Course: Sedgefield Country Club (7,131 yards, par 70)
Purse: $6,400,000
Winner: $1,152,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
The 2020-21 PGA Tour season has been one unlike any other. We've had six Major Championships, three World Golf Championships, THE PLAYERS, and an Olympic Golf Competition. We've seen players get their first career wins and some veterans add to their legacies. Six players have won multiple times, but nobody has yet to reach three wins on this super season. That still leaves the door for PGA Tour Player of the Year wide open with a strong finish. That leads us to the importance of this week's Wyndham Championship that will once again be the final event of the regular season. There is still plenty of drama left to happen with only the top-125 in the FedExCup standings moving onto the three-week playoffs. Even just sneaking into the playoffs guarantees a player full status for the following season, had they not otherwise been exempt. There are still some big name players right on the fringe of making the playoffs like Adam Scott (121) and Matt Kuchar (124), while others like Rickie Fowler (130), Tommy Fleetwood (136), and Justin Rose (138) will need a strong week to get in.
The Wyndham Championship is one of the oldest events on the PGA Tour schedule. It was originally known as the Greater Greensboro Open and founded back in 1938. The tournament is synonymous with the current co-all-time PGA Tour wins leader Sam Snead, who has eight wins at this event. In 1965 he won his eighth Greensboro Open at age 52, which still stands as a record for the oldest PGA Tour winner. Snead's eight wins in this event is tied for the most in any single tournament with Tigers Woods who also has won the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational each eight times. Sedgefield Country Club has hosted the Wyndham Championship on and off through the years. The Donald Ross design was restored prior to 2008 playing of this event and the PGA Tour has been going to Sedgefield ever since.
2021 Masters Champion Hideki Matsuyama leads the notables teeing it up in Greensboro this week. He is joined by North Carolina native Webb Simpson, who won this event back in 2011 and has gone 3rd-T2-2nd-T3 the last four years. Louis Oosthuizen is the highest ranked player in the OWGR and the FedExCup teeing it up at Sedgefield. The high humidity and recent rain should make this course very gettable once again. Temperatures should average out in the low-90's throughout the tournament, and a halting of play for lightening would not be a surprise at all. Winds are not expected to extend past 10 miles an hour throughout the four days of competition, so a winning score of at least 20-under-par for the sixth straight year is probable.
Recent Champions
2020 – Jim Herman (-21)
2019 – J.T. Poston (-22)
2018 – Brandt Snedeker (-21)
2017 – Henrik Stenson (-22)
2016 – Si Woo Kim (-21)
2015 – Davis Love III (-17)
2014 – Camilo Villegas (-17)
2013 – Patrick Reed (-14)
2012 – Sergio Garcia (-18)
2011 – Webb Simpson (-18)
2010 – Arjun Atwal (-20)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach
- GIR Percentage
- SG: Putting
- Birdie Average
Champion's Profile
Sedgefield Country Club is a classic Donald Ross design. It features mostly tree-lined fairways along with small and undulating greens. The bermuda rough is typically not overly penal, but it is easy to catch a flyer and then send you scrambling for par. With the soft conditions, the course will play longer than its 7,131 yards on the card, but also mean that balls should stop fairly quick. The key in this event will be hitting a lot of greens and then capitalizing on your opportunities. These surfaces are a favorite of many of the players because they run so smoothly. If you are striking your putts solidly, you can really start filling up the cups at Sedgefield. A player that ranks high in birdie average and par-4 scoring should be who you are targeting on a course with just two par-5's and a challenging set of par-3's. This isn't typically a course where we see a lot of big numbers, so the pedal will need to stay down from the opening hole on Thursday. The winning score has been at least 21-under-par each of the last five years here, but the cut has also been at least three-under in each of those editions as well. Course history and recent form should rule supreme.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Webb Simpson ($12,100)
Regardless of who is in the field, Simpson has to be considered one of the top-three favorites for the rest of his career at Sedgefield. He picked up his first win here back in 2011 and has gone on a ridiculous 3rd-T2-2nd-T3 run over the last four years. During that stretch he has a scoring average of 65.31. Simpson has followed up back-to-back missed cuts with a T19 at the Open and a T15 in Memphis.
Jason Kokrak ($11,400)
Kokrak has been so consistent, making 16 of his last 17 cuts on the PGA Tour. He's always been a great driver, but his fifth-place standing in SG: Putting is the reason he has two wins this season and deserves Ryder Cup consideration. Kokrak is 13th in birdie average and has posted three top-20s in his last four attempts at the Wyndham Championship.
Brian Harman ($11,300)
Not many have been better than Harman over the last six months on the PGA Tour. He has made 10 of his last 12 cuts with four top-10's and nine top-20's. The former Georgia Bulldog has been an elite putter on Tour for years and this season is no different, ranking sixth in putts per round, 16th in one-putt percentage, and ninth in three-putt avoidance. Harman scored a T6 at Sedgefield in 2019.
Seamus Power ($10,400)
After missing the cut in five of his first six starts on the PGA Tour this season, Power has gone on a crazy run over the summer. He has finished inside the top-20 in each of his last six starts that was punctuated with a win at the Barbasol Championship a few weeks ago. Power ranks 19th this season in SG: Tee-to-Green and is top-50 on Tour in GIR percentage, birdie average, and putts per round.
Longer Shots with Value
Charl Schwartzel ($9,700)
Schwartzel is rested following his T2 finish at the 3M Open. That capped off a stretch in which he finished T26-or-better in eight of ten starts. That run has seen impressive putting performances at 3M when he ranked fourth in strokes gained on the greens and impressive ball-striking performances like his T3 at the Byron Nelson when he ranked fifth in SG: Tee-to-Green. Schwartzel is hitting on all cylinders right now and still sits shy of five figures this week.
Mito Pereira ($9,500)
Pereira missed the cut in his first two chances on the PGA Tour this year, but has posted top-40's in each of his last five, including a T5-T6-T4 stretch. His ball-striking has been extremely strong in his limited starts, gaining 1.56 strokes from tee to green, which would rank seventh on the PGA Tour if he qualified. Considering all of that and the fact that he is still under five figures in this field, Pereira has very strong value this week.
Patton Kizzire ($9,100)
Kizzire has a solid combination of putting and iron play that makes him an intriguing option for this battle to go as low as possible. Kizzire ranks 16th in SG: Putting, 33rd in GIR percentage, and 14th in birdie average. He comes into the week having made his last three cuts, with two of them being top-25's. Kizzire has made his last four cuts at Sedgefield as well with a pair of top-25's.
Adam Schenk ($8,800)
Schenk is playing his best golf of the season. He has made the cut in his last five starts, a stretch that includes a pair of fourth place finishes and a T15. Schenk ranks in the top-50 on Tour in total driving, GIR percentage, scrambling, and birdie average. This will be his fourth start at Sedgefield.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
During Jim Herman's win here last year he showed the type of formula you want to find in players on your roster this week. He led the field in GIR's and was third in SG: Putting. You don't have to be a long hitter at all to do well here, but you have to be able to roll the rock to contend. I'm fading Hideki Matsuyama after two straight high stress weeks. His putter is very inconsistent obviously, which I think is part of the reason he has only made three of six cuts here. Will Zalatoris has to win this week to get into the playoffs, and much like Matsuyama he is a very good ball striker, but his putter is hard to trust. The quality options seem to fall off the table once you get below $8,500 this week, so I'd suggest not going too crazy on the top end of the salary board.
