Alex Smalley: I joined June 1st of last year (2020), so I’ve been here for a year and two months now. I haven’t put a number on it, but I think I’ve probably played here 60 to 75 times, so I feel pretty comfortable with the lines on each hole.
Jim Herman: You’ve got to be below the hole, got to have makeable putts out here or you’re going to be playing defensive. If you’re above the hole, you’re going to be just lagging all day long.
Kevin Streelman: It’s one of the most important of the year to be in the fairway. The rough is a dense, thick Bermuda. You get the hot flyers. You can get the fluffy chunkers sometimes, too. It’s just very unpredictable and difficult to predict how it’s going to come out of the rough, but from the fairway you can attack.
f684b2f3d4218ee06dad551b3bb2074bBrandt Snedeker: There’s only two par 5s, everybody in the field can reach them, so distance here is not an overriding factor. You don’t have a huge advantage here just because everybody’s hitting in the same spots off most of the tees. I think that’s why, when that becomes less of an issue, guys who wedge and putt it better tend to do a better job here. This is a golf course I had a lot of success on, I love it. It breeds my kind of play, hit fairways, hit some greens, lots of wedge opportunities. It’s going to turn into a birdie-fest like it always does because the course is in great, shape so you know what you have to do when you step up on the first tee, put the ball in play and give yourself a lot of opportunities.
Matt Kuchar: It’s a course where I think if you find fairways, if you stay out of this Bermuda rough, you have a chance to be aggressive on a number of occasions. Fortunately, I found a lot of fairways today. Playing out of this Bermuda rough, no fun. It’s hard to judge, it’s just a level where the ball’s going to sit down enough to be hard to determine what kind of shot is going to come out. So finding fairways is one of the crucial ingredients around this place.
Henrik Stenson: Have left the driver out this week. Strong 3-wood, 4-wood, and 2-iron. Putting myself in position and trying to stay out of that Bermuda rough. If you do that you got pretty short clubs and you can be accurate with your second shots. I’m trying to be kind of offensive to defensive spots, if you know, off the tee on a few of holes but then you get a lot of 8, 9 irons, wedges into these greens and they’re pretty receptive. You can be pretty aggressive if you’re feeling you got good numbers.
Zach Johnson: You have to hit fairways here. If you want to have loft in your hand, have those wedges in your hand, out of the rough there’s minimal to no control because the greens are Bermuda, they are firm and they will not hold unless you have spin out of the fairway. So I don’t want to say it’s a first shot golf course, but man, that first shot is crucial. There’s a couple par 5s that are gettable, but it seems like on every one wedge hole there’s a really, really good par 3 and a couple holes you’ve got to really step up and hit some quality shots. So I love it. It’s old-school, hit the fairway, stay below the hole.
Luke Donald: It’s a course I really enjoy. I love the design of this course. The greens are very true, very fast, quite undulating. You have to have some imagination.
Webb Simpson: This feels like another home tournament for me. Growing up an hour and a half down the road. I love this golf course. I feel like my home course growing up, Carolina Country Club has some similarities, undulation, doglegs, got to hit fairways. And us players talk about a golf course that fits our eye or a golf course we feel comfortable on and I’ve always felt that way here. So I’ve always said no matter what kind of form I have coming into the Wyndham, I feel confident that I can have a good week. I think building years of good rounds and solid finishes helps build that confidence as well. I love the Bermudagrass, I love having options off the tee, hitting different clubs, undulating greens.
Harold Varner III: Aim small and miss small. I fire at every pin. If the pin’s like five from the right and I try to aim at the middle of the green and you hit just to the left of it, it will roll off the green. Growing up in North Carolina, I’ve played a lot of Donald Ross courses. Over the green is usually screwed. I don’t mind it. I don’t know any secret to it other than you just need to be in the fairway. That’s the biggest thing. People always talk about you’ve got to be accurate with your irons, it doesn’t matter how good you are, if you hit it in the rough, it’s just hard to get it close to the hole.
Tiger Woods: The golf course is tricky. The greens are so fast. They’re so speedy. We ripped a couple putts down there probably 10, 15 feet past the hole and even though as wet as they are, they’re still that fast downhill, down-grain and got to respect it and it puts such a premium on iron play to put the ball in the right spot and give yourself putts. For the majority of the day I was putting myself in perfect spots where I can be aggressive.
Jordan Spieth: I think you have to work the ball both ways off the tee and into the greens to feed it to the pins, and then the greens are pretty diabolical. You’ve got greens with really, really fast Bermudagrass with a lot of slope, so putts that you don’t really see these kind — this kind of break or speed but for a few weeks a year. Augusta comes to mind as far as the way they putt.
Mackenzie Hughes: I think it’s one of those courses that you don’t have to overpower. A lot of guys will hit driver on a lot of holes, but I lay back a decent bit. A lot of 5-woods off the tee. I’m just trying to put the ball in the fairway. If you put the ball in the fairway out here, you can shoot a score. Playing from that rough, that bermuda rough is so difficult to predict.
Brice Garnett: I’ve always played this golf course well just because I think it’s position off the tee and then it’s a second shot course, like you said. You have to hit the par 5 fairways and then get the long irons in on both par 5s, otherwise you’re hitting mid irons and wedges and I think that’s part of the strength of my game.
Ryan Armour: This golf course is always about hitting fairways. I think if you hit fairways, you can get to some of the hole locations. But out of the rough, especially ball’s starting to knuckle a little bit, it’s getting a little drier up top, so you’re catching some flyers.
Peter Uihlein: It’s one of those golf courses where if you’re on with your irons, I think that’s kind of what it’s all about. Old-school Donald Ross where it’s very positional, you’re not going to overpower it. You’ve got to be pretty sharp with your short irons especially, and then make some putts.
Patrick Reed: It’s not one of these where you just set up and hit it as hard as you can, as far as you can. It’s more on kind of playing golf shots, whether it’s driver off tee or irons off tee, you have to shape it both ways, you have to flight your ball. Hitting shots into greens you can get creative, because there’s a lot of slopes and undulations in these greens so you can use a lot of ridges to feed the ball back towards the hole.
Rory Sabbatini: I know this golf course. It’s just a very traditional golf course, everything’s in front of you, there’s no surprises. It puts a premium on driving the ball in the fairway, putting the ball on the greens, but ultimately you’ve got to be nice and clean with your short game and good with your flat stick on the greens.
Photo courtesy of Sedgefield Country Club