This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
Wyndham Championship
Greensboro, North Carolina
Sedgefield Country Club - Par 70 - 7,131 yards
Field - 156 entrants
Purse - $7.3M
The Preview
The harsh reality of the PGA Tour's job security landscape remains one of the more entertaining aspects of the Wyndham Championship as we've now reached the regular season finale with professional golf careers hanging in the balance. A champion will be crowned like any other tournament, but those who land among the top 125 in the FedExCup Playoffs and Eligibility Points List on Sunday night are also rewarded with a trip to the FedEx St. Jude Championship while locking up their cards for the 2022-23 campaign. This certainly helps create suspense while a fairly weak contingent of 156 entrants tees it up in Greensboro, as many top names save their energy for a playoff run.
Sedgefield Country Club has hosted the event since 2008, but its undulating and fast bermuda greens have only been in play for the past 10 editions after bentgrass failed to live up to Tour standards in the Carolina summer heat. These putting surfaces are relatively easy to hit from the fairway as GIR percentages inflate, but three-putt rates also climb as proximity is more important when targeting the correct tier or bowl on these dance floors.
The Donald Ross design features two reachable par-5s that lend plenty of eagle opportunities, while eight of the par-4s measure between 400-450 yards. Driving accuracy is key on this shorter layout, and there are several chances to take less than driver off the tee in order to secure preferable angles, thus creating a healthy amount of approach shots from the 125-200 yard range. It's not quite the wedge fest that we saw last week in Detroit with an average of just 16.3 percent of approaches hit from 0-125 yards at Sedgefield, but birdies will still come in bunches. Last year was the first time since 2015 that the winner didn't finish at least 21-under-par.
Recent Champions
2021 - Kevin Kisner
2020 - Jim Herman
2019 - J.T. Poston
2018 - Brandt Snedeker
2017 - Henrik Stenson
2016 - Si Woo Kim
2015 - Davis Love III
2014 - Camilo Villegas
2013 - Patrick Reed
2012 - Sergio Garcia
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Par-4: 400-450 efficiency
SG: Putting (bermuda)
Proximity: 125-200 yards
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Sungjae Im - $47
Im is a collective 43-under-par throughout his first three Wyndham Championship outings, placing T24-T9-T6 here since his 2019 debut. Im now sits No. 1 in P4: 400-450 efficiency over his last 36 measured rounds, and he's coming off a runner-up effort at the 3M Open where he racked up 22 birdies while ranking fifth among the field in SG: Tee-to-Green and T10 in driving accuracy. Simply put, he hits a ton of fairways in regulation and he favors bermuda greens, which is a perfect storm at Sedgefield CC.
Shane Lowry - $46
The Irishman, who's placed top-25 in 60 percent of his starts this season, ranks second in SG: Approach and seventh in proximity from 175-200 yards over his past 24 rounds. In addition to his impressive iron play, he's gained an average of 1.7 strokes per event with the putter throughout his last 10 measured tournaments. Lowry tied for seventh here at Sedgefield in 2017, hitting 61 of 72 greens in regulation on the way to 20 total par-breakers.
Corey Conners - $42
With zero top-20s through three career Wyndham appearances along with a mediocre recent stretch of T28-T61-MC since the U.S. Open, the hope is that we see slightly deflated rostership on Conners from the casuals this week while everyone continues to chase the inevitable maiden victory from Will Zalatoris ($48). In his last two non-major starts on American soil, Conners gained a combined 16.8 strokes from tee to green en route to back-to-back top-15s at the Memorial Tournament and the RBC Canadian Open, where he also enjoyed his second-best putting performance of the season. Over his past 24 measured rounds, he's 15th or better in driving accuracy, SG: Approach, Prox: 125-150 and P5: 500-550 efficiency. The beauty of Yahoo's salary distribution is that it allows you to select all three of Im/Lowry/Conners and still create legitimately competitive GPP lineups if you want to favor a stars and scrubs build, with a $65 budget remaining and plenty of viable plays in the $20-$25 range. Conners' MC here at Sedgefield last year shouldn't be a concern as he lost four strokes with the flat stick despite bermuda being his best surface, conversely gaining 3.7 strokes with his ball striking in just 36 holes.
Glue Guys
Si Woo Kim - $37
Kim already was going to be popular as a horse for the course with three straight top-5s and a 2016 win at Sedgefield under his belt, but then he went out and posted consecutive top-15s in recent weeks at the Open Championship and the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Over his last 24 rounds, he's ninth in putting from 5-10 feet, 11th in three-putt avoidance, 12th in Prox: 175-200 and 16th in Birdie or Better percentage. This past week at Detroit Golf Club, Kim made at least five birdies and gained strokes with the putter all four days.
Jason Day - $31
Day pretty much never sniffs my player pool, but he's now made the cut in six of seven starts dating back to a T15 at the Wells Fargo Championship, and he just fired a six-under 66 on Sunday at the Rocket Mortgage Classic where he gained strokes across the board by tournament's end. Across his past three outings, the Aussie has gained an average of 8.0 feet in proximity on the field from 175 to 200 yards, so the irons might finally be coming around. We already know his putter can be a major positive for Day.
J.T. Poston - $30
Excluding an excusable missed cut at the Open Championship, Poston's last 12 rounds have been truly elite on the way to results of T2-Win-T11 from the Travelers Championship to the 3M Open. During this span, he's first in both P4: 400-450 and P5: 500-500 efficiency, second in SG: Putting, third in BoB percentage and seventh in SG: Approach. His Wyndham resume is all over the place with three missed cuts in five showings, though he notched his first career win here in 2019 when he gained 6.8 strokes with his irons and another 4.1 strokes on the greens.
Bargain Bin
Adam Svensson - $27
Svensson rebounded from a missed cut in Minnesota by tallying his eighth top-25 finish of the season at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, where he ranked second in SG: APP and hit 81 percent of the greens in regulation. The Canadian is now second to none in birdies or better gained over his last 12 rounds, and he even picked up strokes with the flat stick in eight straight starts from the AT&T Byron Nelson through the 3M Open. Svensson tied for 31st in his only previous appearance at Sedgefield CC, gaining 8.6 strokes with his ball striking here in 2019.
Mark Hubbard - $25
Hubbard came back down to earth with a missed cut in Detroit on the heels of back-to-back top-4s at the Barbasol and Barracuda Championship, but he MC-hammered by just one shot at the Rocket Mortgage Classic as he still managed to gain a collective 1.8 strokes off the tee and on his approaches through two rounds. Expanding to a 24-round sample size, Hubbard jumps off the page from a statistical perspective when considering course fit for Sedgefield. He's second in Prox: 150-175, third in three-putt avoidance, fourth in Prox: 125-150, fifth in SG: APP and 11th in P4: 400-450 efficiency since mid-May. Hubbard has made the cut in three consecutive voyages to Greensboro, which includes a pair of top-25s.
Adam Long - $22
Long is an impressive 19th on Tour in SG: Putting this season, but he's been especially outstanding on bermuda greens as he ranks second in putting from 5-10 feet and fifth in SG: Putting over his last 36 rounds on this specific surface. He's rattled off four straight top-25 finishes from the RBC Canadian Open through the 3M Open, rising to 15th in SG: Approach, 17th in Prox: 150-175 and 18th in Prox: 125-150 over his last 24 rounds. Long's $22 Yahoo salary is stellar value compared to his 60-1 odds to win.
