This article is part of our Weekly PGA Recap series.
Every golf tournament can be boiled down to winners and losers. But at the Wyndham Championship, it's not so black and white, it's much more nuanced, with different layers of winners and losers.
On Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, Brandt Snedeker was the big winner in the most obvious way – he won the tournament. Nick Taylor and Harris English were also big winners, as was C.T. Pan, even though he may not feel that way just yet.
The biggest loser was, unbelievably, Sergio Garcia. And he did it in such a Sergio way. Other big losers were Martin Piller and Tyrone Van Aswegen, as the regular season came to a close on the PGA Tour.
There were other winners and losers of varying degrees, and we'll get to them shortly.
Perhaps the biggest winner of them all last week, in the big picture, was Thorbjorn Olesen, who notched another high finish at the European Tour's Nordea Masters to take a huge step to qualify for the Ryder Cup team.
But first in the Monday Backspin, the Wyndham, where for so many of the guys it's all about getting inside the top-125 in the FedEx Cup point standings to qualify for the playoffs and keep their Tour card for next season.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Brandt Snedeker
Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a star player is to be forgotten. And for Snedeker, a former top-10 golfer, he had fallen off the map and nearly outside the top-100. Even
Every golf tournament can be boiled down to winners and losers. But at the Wyndham Championship, it's not so black and white, it's much more nuanced, with different layers of winners and losers.
On Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, Brandt Snedeker was the big winner in the most obvious way – he won the tournament. Nick Taylor and Harris English were also big winners, as was C.T. Pan, even though he may not feel that way just yet.
The biggest loser was, unbelievably, Sergio Garcia. And he did it in such a Sergio way. Other big losers were Martin Piller and Tyrone Van Aswegen, as the regular season came to a close on the PGA Tour.
There were other winners and losers of varying degrees, and we'll get to them shortly.
Perhaps the biggest winner of them all last week, in the big picture, was Thorbjorn Olesen, who notched another high finish at the European Tour's Nordea Masters to take a huge step to qualify for the Ryder Cup team.
But first in the Monday Backspin, the Wyndham, where for so many of the guys it's all about getting inside the top-125 in the FedEx Cup point standings to qualify for the playoffs and keep their Tour card for next season.
MONDAY BACKSPIN
Brandt Snedeker
Pretty much the worst thing that can happen to a star player is to be forgotten. And for Snedeker, a former top-10 golfer, he had fallen off the map and nearly outside the top-100. Even after returning from an injury that cost him the second half of last season, Snedeker found a return to relevance a slow go. But he announced that he's back by shooting 59 on Thursday and going wire-to-wire to win for the first time in two and a half years. He moved back into the top 50 in the world, to 30th in the point standings and, just possibly, into the Ryder Cup conversation at the last possible minute. Snedeker is a two-time Ryder Cupper, but his name has not been mentioned when potential captain's picks have been bandied about. It's still a long shot, but if Snedeker could contend or even win again this week as the playoffs begin at The Northern Trust, he might force Jim Furyk to reconsider. If not, the ninth win of Snedeker's career itself goes a long way to restoring his former standing on the PGA Tour.
C.T. Pan
The record shows that Snedeker won by three strokes and went wire-to-wire, but Pan knows it's not so simple. The 26-year-old up-and-comer came to the 72nd hole with a share of the lead, only to see everything go horribly wrong. Pan hit his tee ball out of bounds, and the chance for his maiden PGA Tour win was gone with a soul-crushing double bogey. He tied for second with Webb Simpson. Pan should be very happy that he was in the mix until the very end, showing a win could be in his future. Gamers in season-long leagues should remember that come draft day for next season. More immediately, Pan goes from 108th in points, which could've led to a one-and-done in the playoffs, to 63rd, which signals that he'll likely stick around for at least three more tournaments. That is huge.
Sergio Garcia
Garcia's PGA Tour season stunningly is over, after a back-nine fade on Sunday left him at 128th in the point standings and out of the playoffs for the first time since they were instituted 13 years ago (he'll of course still have his card for next year, and beyond, for winning the 2017 Masters). Garcia had moved from 131st to well inside the top-125 only to bogey Nos. 10, 12 and 14. Two late birdies were not enough, as Garcia tied for 24th. He missed the cut in all four majors in an absolutely disastrous season, falling from 10th in the world to his current 25th. But Garcia's Ryder Cup history precedes him, and he surely will still be one of Thomas Bjorn's captain's picks.
Hideki Matsuyama
Matsuyama tied for 11th for his best showing since tying for fourth at the Tournament of Champions the first week of January. That still is his most recent worldwide top-10. Before we get all excited about Matsuyama's game returning, we'll stand by to see how he plays in an elite field this week in the playoffs.
Nick Taylor and Harris English
Only two guys moved inside the top-125 at the Wyndham, and these are they. Taylor tied for eighth to move from 129th to 119th; English tied for 11th to go from 132 to 124th. They'll get to play The Northern Trust before their season likely ends there, but of course the biggest ramification is that they won't have to fight for their cards for next season.
Martin Piller and Tyrone Van Aswegen
When two players jump inside the top-125, two have to fall out. Piller and Van Aswegen both missed the cut and had to agonizingly sweat out the weekend to learn their fate. They still have the opportunity to secure their cards for next season via the Web.com playoffs, but regardless, next season will start out much tougher for them because they were just a handful of points shy over the course of an 11-month season. Sometimes, the PGA Tour is cruel.
Shawn Stefani, Denny McCarthy, David Hearn and Michael Thompson
These four guys did not crack the top-125, but they did move from outside the top-150 to inside it, meaning that at the very least they will get to play under conditional status next season. It isn't great, but it's a lot better than not having it. None of the four golfers is really worth consideration next season, except for maybe McCarthy, who just completed his rookie season and could mature and grow. He's a great putter, ranking 22nd on Tour in strokes gained: putting.
Bill Haas, Matt Jones, Retief Goosen and Chris Stroud
When four players jump inside the top-150, four have to fall out. Haas is the biggest shocker, of course, though his already-lackluster season never recovered after he was a passenger when driving with a friend who died in a car accident the week of the Genesis Open at Riviera. Haas, who was 35th in points last season, has not won since the 2015 CareerBuilder. He joined Garcia and Luke Donald as guys who had made the playoffs each of the first 12 years but will miss out this year. As for next season, Haas could use his one-time exemption for being in the top-50 in career earnings, but at 36 he's probably too young to burn that. Goosen, who is 49 and counting the days till his Champions Tour debut in February, used his exemption for being in the top-25 in career earnings last year, and could use his top-50 for next year.
Thorbjorn Olesen
The Dane continued his summer surge with a tie for fourth at the Nordea Masters in Gothenburg, Sweden, moving him to 38th in the OWGR. The most significant development is that it moved him into the eighth and final automatic berth for the European Ryder Cup team, though there is still time for that to change before the Sept. 3 deadline. It would be a lot easier for captain Thomas Bjorn to see Olesen qualify on points rather than have to use a captain's pick on a countryman.
Ian Poulter
Poulter was idle last week, but he was overtaken by Olesen. Poulter surely would like to make the team on merit, but if he didn't, the Ryder Cup stalwart almost assuredly would be chosen by Bjorn.
