The First Look: Wyndham Championship

The Regular Season wraps up at the Wyndham Championship with no shortage of drama set to unfold around the top 125 on the t as players jockey for their place in the FedExCup Playoffs.

Kevin Kisner returns to defend after winning a six-man playoff a year ago.

FIELD NOTES: Will Zalatoris will be the highest-ranked player in the field at Sedgefield Country Club… Past FedExCup champions Billy Horschel and Justin Rose are also in the field… Four of the six players from last year’s playoff are returning to action at the Wyndham Championship – Kisner, Adam Scott, Roger Sloan, and Si Woo Kim, who won the 2016 Wyndham… 2019 Wyndham winner J.T. Poston returns to action; Poston recently picked up his second career win at the John Deere Classic… Other notables include East Carolina alum Harold Varner III, U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III (who won his third Wyndham Championship in 2015 at age 51), past PGA TOUR Rookie of the Year Sungjae Im, and European major champs Danny Willett and Shane Lowry … William McGirt is playing in his final start of his Major Medical Extension… Sponsor exemptions include former college stars Chris Gotterup and Cole Hammer, along with former No.1-ranked amateur Trent Phillips of the University of Georgia. Gotterup, seventh in this year’s class of PGA TOUR U graduates, has made the cut in four of six PGA TOUR starts as a pro, highlighted by a T4 at the John Deere Classic. He’s already clinched his spot in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals and now has his PGA TOUR card for 2023 in sight after making the cut at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. Hammer, best known for qualifying for the 2015 U.S. Open at the age of 15, was fifth in this year’s PGA TOUR U Ranking presented by Velocity Global.

FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 FedExCup points.

COURSE: Sedgefield Country Club (Ross), par 70, 7,131 yards. The TOUR tees it up at a Donald Ross venue for the second week in a row, with Detroit Golf Club also a Ross design. Opened in the 1920s, Sedgefield has Ross’ typical small and undulating greens, although prior to last season is had yielded five straight winning totals of 20 under or lower. Sedgefield was restored to the original Ross design in 2007 but lengthened to accommodate the PGA TOUR. It has hosted each Wyndham Championship since 2008.

STORYLINES: The Wyndham Championship marks the FedExCup Regular Season finale before the three-event FedExCup Playoffs get underway… Former Wyndham Championship winner Webb Simpson is seeking his second win at Sedgefield after several close calls. He has finished no worse than seventh in the last five Wyndhams, including two runners-up and two third-place finishes… Could there be another Chesson Hadley moment this season? Hadley was on the outside-looking-in a year ago, but fired a final-round 62 and moved to No.125… Sungjae Im and Billy Horschel have a chance to move into the Comcast Business TOUR TOP 10 with a good finish… The Wyndham Championship will mark thefinal television broadcast of long-time analyst and nine-time TOUR winner Sir Nick Faldo…Players also will be looking to crack the top 200 in the FedExCup Eligibility Points List to qualify for the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

72-HOLE RECORD: 258, Henrik Stenson (2017), JT Poston (2019)

18-HOLE RECORD: 59, Brandt Snedeker (1st round, 2018).

LAST TIME: Kevin Kisner emerged from a dramatic six-man playoff to capture his fourth PGA TOUR title after a birdie on the second extra hole. Kisner began the day four shots off the lead and shot a final-round 66, which included birdies on Nos. 16 and 17. Kisner had lost in five TOUR playoffs previously, including three in 2015. Kevin Na, Branden Grace, Si Woo Kim, Adam Scott, and Roger Sloan were the others in the playoff. Scott had the best chance to win in the first playoff hole, but his 4-foot birdie try slid by. It was the third six-man playoff on the PGA TOUR, and first since 2001.

Fifty-four-hole leader Russell Henley was amongst the group who finished at T7, one shot out of the playoff. He reached 17 under after making the turn but bogeyed four of his final eight holes, including No. 18, to drop out of contention.

Chesson Hadley fired a final-round 62 (the round of the day, which included the first hole-in-one of his life) and moved from No.132 to No.125 in the FedExCup standings, earning the final spot in the FedExCup Playoffs by a single FedExCup point.

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