In the final PGA Tour event before the start of the FedExCup Playoffs, Sedgefield Country Club will play host to the Wyndham Championship. Located near Greensboro, North Carolina, Sedgefield has been a regular Tour stop since 2008. It is a Donald Ross-designed classical course with a storied history that was built during golf’s “Golden Age”.
The recently updated and preserved Sedgefield course provides a strategic challenge that is rarely found on Tour. It is a course where finding the contoured fairways carries real worth. While scoring has continued to be low over the years, the narrow, tree-lined fairways along with strategic routing and bunkering, and elevated tricky green complexes ensure that Sedgefield will continue to be a fair test of golf.
Similar to last week at the Rocket Mortgage Classic, this shorter course does feature an above-average number of wedges with the goal of getting the ball as close to the hole on approach. Dissimilar to last week, however, bombers off the tee do not have that much of an advantage, and many of them do not even bother to show up for this event.
With many of the world’s best choosing to rest up and prepare for the three-week FedExCup Playoffs on their own, we will see another field of mostly mid- to lower-tier players. Those that are not firmly inside the top 125 will be highly motivated this week. And those who are firmly in next week’s FedEx St. Jude field will be fighting for position.
Will Zalatoris and Billy Horschel are the only top-20 players in the Official World Golf Rankings in the field. Other notable names include Shane Lowry, Corey Conners, Sungjae Im, Tyrrell Hatton, and Russell Henley. With 156 golfers playing this week, the field will be cut to the top 65 and ties after Friday’s round.
Course History
Designed and built by legendary architect Donald Ross on a former hunting estate in 1925, Sedgefield Country Club has quite the storied past. Ross was initially supposed to design two 18-hole layouts but the Great Depression prevented the second course from being built. Before it became the Wyndham Championship in 2008, it was formerly called the Greater Greensboro Chrysler Classic and also the Greater Greensboro Open.
Between 1938 and 1965, Sam Snead won this event a record eight times. Along with hosting the first professional event in North Carolina, the club also helped to break down racial barriers by inviting Charlie Sifford to participate in 1961 before the Tour had removed its segregation clause.
As time passed, the course had been altered and changed so much that it had little resemblance to the original design. The fairways and bunkers, specifically did not make strategic sense. The course underwent a $3 million restoration project by Kris Spence in 2007. The goal was to rebuild the course and also restore the original Ross feel. Sedgefield was closed for 10 months as Spence relied on 80-year-old aerial pictures and original blueprints. Among the main renovations were adding 400 yards in length, re-positioning bunkers, and restoring the greens to their original size. Spence also took out the Bentgrass greens and added Champion Bermuda.
The Course
Sedgefield Country Club is classified as a positional track that is slightly shorter than the average Tour course. It is a par-70 that measures out to 7,131 yards. With fairways that are heavily tree-lined, the course is routed over a rolling, wooded landscape. Just southeast of the center of Greensboro, it has a definite Carolina feel.
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bThe course is a stock-par 70 with only two par-5s and four par-3s. Nine of the 12 par-4s are less than 445 yards and are a huge reason so many approach shots are with short irons and wedges. The two par-5s are each less than 550 yards and are the easiest group on Tour with a combined birdie or better rate of 59%,
The course features wall-to-wall Bermudagrass with average-sized greens that run between 12-12.5 on the stimp meter. The rough only measures 2.5 inches, but with Bermuda being the most unpredictable grass, even that length can be tricky to hit from.
Sedgefield definitely places a premium on positioning your ball on the proper side of the fairway and finding the best angle to attack the tricky green complexes. Donald Ross was well-known for using the topography of the land to determine the routing of the course and how it should be played. Players will also be challenged to be strategically aggressive and will be rewarded with scoring opportunities if they are successful.
The visual challenges that Ross provides throughout the course are a perfect illustration of this. On the second hole tee, for example, there are numerous bunkers that appear to surround the fairway landing zones, yet they are actually much further back than anticipated. Numerous holes with doglegs also force players into decisions to either attack the dogleg or to lay up with a shorter club.
While only a par 70 course, conditions are typically scoring-friendly at Sedgefield Country Club. Five of the past six years the winning score has been at least 20-under. Over the past five events, the course has played to an average of 1.33 shots under par, making it the 10th easiest track in the Tour rotation. There are only six holes that average over par. When winds are down and conditions are soft, low scores are in play, especially if someone catches fire with the putter as evidenced by Brandt Snedeker’s first-round 59 back in 2018.
There are three main defenses of this golf course that will somewhat challenge players—the Bermuda rough, the undulating green complexes, and the fairway bunkers. The routing of the course can also be challenging when the wind increases. Golfers tee off in a different direction almost every single hole, which can definitely affect distance control and accuracy if needing to calculate different wind speeds and directions. Water comes into play on six holes but is not a huge threat. The fairway bunkers are the toughest on Tour from which to reach the green in regulation. The average GIR rate last year on Tour courses was 48.3%. Over the past couple of years at Sedgefield, it has been only 23.3%. Typically played in the sweltering heat and humidity of the Carolina summer, fatigue could also play a role in performance for those players who are not in the best physical shape.
Strokes Gained Analysis
Off the Tee
Though there are some “blind” tee-shots, narrow fairways, and gnarly Bermuda rough to contend with on errant drives, driving accuracy is actually slightly easier than Tour average. That being said, the Wyndham Championship is one of the most important weeks to “Gain the Fairway”. The GIR rate drops from 85% from the fairway to 54% from the rough. Proximity to the hole also increases from 27 feet to 46 feet due to the lack of distance control from the rough. Thus, “Fairways Gained” is a vitally important metric this week.
An interesting note related to driving distance is that in last year’s event the average drive was the highest it’s ever been on this course at 290.4 yards. Nonetheless, with numerous doglegs and the ninth narrowest fairways on Tour, players often elect to “club down” and hit shorter woods or longer irons off the tee. Five years ago, tournament champion, Henrik Stenson did not use his driver one single time.
Not only is accuracy crucial here but positioning is as well. While homes and trees line most holes, the corridors are still wide enough to allow golfers to position their tee shot to play the best angle into the greens. As previously mentioned, the fairway bunkers can be very problematic as many actually lie inside the fairway. They also tend to distort a player’s depth perception when standing on the tee box.
Approach
Compared to other Tour courses, Sedgefield has ranked as the easiest course to gain strokes on approach since 2015. Once players are taking aim at their approach shots, they will be hitting into incredibly receptive greens that have one of the highest GIR rates on Tour at 74%. One of the reasons for this is the constant watering due to the heat of the Carolina summer.
Also, 55% of approach shots come from the 100-175 yard range which is the highest rate on Tour from that distance. If in the rough, the 2.5″ Bermuda grass tangles around the ball and is difficult to square up, often causing fliers and mishits.
This is also a positional golf course. There are certain angles into the greens that give golfers the best angle to attack the pin placement. With greens typically sloped from back to front, there will be a premium on keeping the ball below the hole. Strategy, patience, and accuracy are all paramount.
Around the Green and Putting
As is typical with Ross designs, elevated and sloping putting surfaces feature multiple run-off locations that can make putting and scrambling tricky if players are not hitting the proper spots on their approach shots. In keeping with the strategic theme, most greens provide a variety of options for flop shots, bump and run type plays, and other creative chips around the green.
Once on the green, putting can be a challenge as averages here are slightly more difficult than Tour standards. Many greens have sharp ridges which allow for some interesting and tricky pin placements. While averaging around a 12 on the stimp meter they do tend to run faster at times. The difficult green complexes tend to expose the below-average putters on this course making it important to consider that fact when selecting players this week.
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