X
Lost password?

Don't have an account?
Gain Access Now

X

Receive free daily analysis

NFL
NBA
NHL
NASCAR
CFB
MLB
MMA
PGA
ESPORTS
BETTING

Already have an account? Log In

X

Forgot Password


POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Import Your Leagues
Weekly Rankings
Compare Any Players
Projections
Articles & Tools
Weekly Planner
24x7 News and Alerts

Golf Course Preview for PGA Betting: Scouting the 2024 Wyndham Championship

It is officially do-or-die time on the PGA Tour. With the first round of the playoffs getting started next week in Memphis, the Wyndham Championship is the last chance players will have to accrue valuable FedEx Cup points and put their names into the ring in the three-week race to crown our 2024 TOUR Champion.

Jordan Spieth, Min Woo Lee, Nick Dunlap, and Lucas Glover are just a few big names coming to Greensboro looking to point their way into a playoff birth, while young stars like Michael Thorbjornsen, Luke Clanton, and Pierceson Coody are in must-win territory if they want to extend their promising rookie campaigns.

This piece will serve to break down every key trend and statistic I'm weighing to project a player's viability in the outright market and set our readers up to make the crucial decisions necessary on pre-week betting boards. Without further ado, here is my comprehensive scouting report on Sedgefield Country Club and the 2024 Wyndham Championship!

Featured Promo: Get any Props Premium Pass for 30% off using code WIN. Win more with our two new Props Optimizer tools -- one for PrizePicks Props, and one for Sportsbook Betting Props. Find optimal prop bets and get our recommended picks daily! Go Premium, Win More!

 

The Golf Course

Sedgefield Country Club - Par 70; 7,127 yards

Past Champions

  • 2023 - Lucas Glover (-20) over B. An and R. Henley
  • 2022 - Tom Kim (-20) over S.J. Im and J. Huh
  • 2021 - Kevin Kisner (-15) in six-man playoff (Grace, Kim, Scott, Na, Sloan)
  • 2020 -  Jim Herman (-21) over Billy Horschel
  • 2019 - J.T. Poston (-22) over Webb Simpson

 

Sedgefield by the Numbers (Off-The-Tee):

  • Average Fairway Width -- 29.4 yards; 8th narrowest on the PGA Tour
  • Average Driving Distance -- 286.0 yards; 11th lowest on Tour
  • Driving Accuracy -- 61.6%; 14th highest on Tour
  • Missed Fairway Penalty -- 0.41; sixth highest on Tour
  • Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee Difficulty: (+0.022); 8th easiest on Tour

Although Sedgefield will always hold a special place in this North Carolinian's heart, I wouldn’t call it a particularly distinctive course on the Tour rotation. Very much like the Harbour Town’s, Sea Island’s, and Wai’alae’s of the world, Sedgefield falls in the category of your classical, meat & potatoes, short, southeastern Bermudagrass Par 70. There aren’t a lot of nuances to be found in the routing, and the crossover on leaderboards is quite stark year over year.

Narrow fairways and forced layups will cause even the most confident drivers of the ball to lay back to designated landing areas, and with a whopping eight holes fitting into a 40-yard bucket (405-445 yards), you can expect a lot of similar yardages into these greens.

Sedgefield also features the first instance we’ve seen of Bermuda rough since the U.S. Open, and if you’ve ever played summer golf in the southeast, you’ll know just how treacherous it can get even at shorter lengths. The 2.5” cut at Sedgefield is more than enough to put doubt into the minds of these professionals, and on a layout that is particularly conducive to low scores, driving the ball off the fairway is the quickest way to go on the defense.

As such, driving distance is as mitigated around Sedgefield as it is at any other course on Tour, and over the last two years, nobody that ranked inside the Top 25 in Distance on the week managed to finish inside the Top 10 on the leaderboard. On the other hand, four of the top seven finishers on last year’s leaderboard also ranked inside the top 10 in Driving Accuracy for the week.

In my modeling, I’ll be looking not only at a player's overall ability to find fairways but also his driving proficiency around similar club-down tracks. If a player is consistently able to gain strokes off-the-tee at venues like Harbour Town, Innisbrook, or Wai’alae, I’m confident he can overcome any sort of off-the-tee test Sedgefield will throw his way.

 

Sedgefield by the Numbers (Approach):

  • Green in Regulation Rate -- 73.7%; Third highest on the PGA Tour
  • Strokes Gained: Approach Difficulty: (+0.071); Easiest on Tour
  • Key Proximity Ranges:
    • 150-175 yards (accounts for 26.8% of historical approach shots)
    • 125-150 yards (18.6%)
    • 175-200 yards (18.0%)

Although driving accuracy has been a historically key indicator, approach play remains the king of the two ball-striking stats when projecting success at Sedgefield. Winners over time have gained an average of 5.5 shots on approach over the four days (compared to just 2.5 off-the-tee), and only one player since 2017 (Brice Garnett, 2019), has managed to finish inside the Top 10 while losing strokes to the field with his iron play.

As I mentioned earlier, Sedgefield’s uniformity within its routing and its insistence to play to certain points make it a dream when projecting the approach yardages these players will have into the greens. Nearly 30% of historical approach shots have come within a 25-yard range (150-175), and nearly half of all approach shots have come from 125-175 yards.

These two proximity buckets are far and away my most important metrics when establishing long-term baselines, but if you’re looking for a few more recent data points, I find quite a bit of crossover between TPC Deer Run and TPC River Highlands in terms of the emphasis they place on short-iron play and driving accuracy.

 

Sedgefield by the Numbers (Around the Greens):

  • Scrambling Percentage -- 57.7%; 0.2% above Tour Average 
  • Sand Save Difficulty -- (+0.024); 11th easiest on Tour
  • Up-and-Down Difficulty (Fairway) -- (-0.037); Fifth toughest on Tour
  • Up-and-Down Difficulty (Rough) -- (-0.066); Second toughest on Tour
  • SG: Around the Green Difficulty: (-0.037); Fifth toughest on Tour

One of Sedgefield's most difficult pound-for-pound attributes comes in the form of its around the green complexes. Similar to the penalty we spoke about off-the-tee, the rough around the greens at Sedgefield ranks as the second most difficult on Tour to scramble from (trailing only Muirfield Village), and its tightly mown Bermuda fairway surrounds ranked as either the hardest or second hardest sets of fairways to chip off for six straight years from 2015-2020.

Despite this difficulty, however, short-game acumen has not been a particularly common through-line for either past champions or top 10 finishers. Last year, Lucas Glover lost 0.2 strokes around the greens in his two-shot victory, and in 2020, each of the top three finishers (Jim Herman, Billy Horschel, and Kevin Kisner), all lost strokes with their short games en route to scores of -21, -20, and -18 respectively.

If anything, this demanding set of greenside surrounds places an even larger emphasis on ball striking, as the penalty for missing greens at Sedgefield is magnified exponentially when compared to its fellow set of summertime birdie parties on the PGA Tour. By the numbers, top-five finishers have gained just one-fourth of their total strokes around the greens when compared with their irons and their putters. With GIR rates projected to sit well into the 80% ranges for the field's top ball-strikers, players who are routinely forced to scramble for par will likely find themselves well behind the eight ball no matter how high their ARG baselines sit.

 

Sedgefield by the Numbers (Putting):

  • Average Green Size: 6,000 sq. feet
  • Agronomy -- Champion Bermudagrass
  • Stimpmeter: 12.5+
  • 3-Putt Percentage: 3.8% (0.8% above Tour Average)
  • Strokes Gained: Putting Difficulty: (-0.007); eighth toughest on Tour

​​Onto the greens, which I believe are far and away Sedgefield’s greatest defense against the world’s best. While not as severe as the famous turtle-backs we’ll see at Pinehurst next year, Sedgefield’s greens do typically run at a 12-13 on the Stimpmeter and feature a fair amount of undulation when compared with your traditional PGA Birdie fest. In fact, only Augusta National, St. Andrews, and Quail Hollow conceded fewer made putts of over 15 feet during the 2022 PGA Tour season.

With as benign as Sedgefield’s layout is from tee to green, putting is one of my key differentiators this week and I’m weighing it as highly as I have all season. Along with driving accuracy and wedge play, Bermuda putting is one of the main through-lines you’ll see on the past champions list. If I can’t trust you to routinely make putts on fast, undulated Bermuda greens, it’s a big strike against your prospects in my eyes.

 

Key Stats Roundup (in order of importance):

  • Short & middle-iron play (specifically focused on proximity/strokes gained splits from 125-200 yards)
  • Driving Accuracy/Total Driving -- particularly on other positional tracks with a high missed-fairway penalty (TPC River Highlands, TPC Deere Run, TPC Sawgrass, East Lake, TPC Southwind, etc.)
  • Bermudagrass Putting
  • History around Sedgefield

 

Did you know RotoBaller has a Premium DFS PGA subscription? Like what you read today? You can show your support for Ian by using the discount code BALLER when purchasing a PGA Premium Pass. You get 10% off and full access to all of our Premium PGA articles, DFS tools, and Lineup Optimizer! You also get access to weekly betting picks from Spencer Aguiar, one of the top betting minds in the industry.

 

The Sunday Shortlist

Before the odds come out on Monday morning, here are two to three names I’ve identified as significant targets upon my initial research.

Brian Harman

From driving accuracy to short-iron play and Bermudagrass putting, the blueprint for success around Sedgefield is as cut-and-dry as we're likely to see throughout the PGA Tour campaign. Despite being the highest-ranked player in the field with a skill set that has proven to be tailor-made for this layout, however, Brian Harman can still be found at prices north of 30-1 on mid-week odds boards.

Harman has made a career on the back of driving it in the fairway and filling it up on the greens, but this season, we've seen repeated signs that the UGA Bulldog has turned a corner with his greatest historic weakness. He's gained over five shots to the field on approach on five separate occasions in his last 14 starts (a mark he'd only reached on 12 occasions in his previous 342 tournaments), and over his last 50 rounds, Harman ranks eighth in this field in weighted proximity.

If the iron play continues to showcase this sort of upside, he'll have a great chance of capturing his maiden win of 2024 here in Greensboro. Harman has gained at least 2.9 shots on Sedgefield's greens in five of his last nine starts, he ranks as a top 15 putter on Bermudagrass over his last 50 rounds, and only four players have recorded a better good drive % on similarly positional driving venues. With his established pedigree around many of Sedgefield's direct comp. courses, 30-1 feels like as good a price as any at the top of the board.

Doug Ghim

I've been guilty more than once of paying a premium for Doug Ghim's tee-to-green profile, but this week, it feels as if the UT Austin-alum has been largely forgotten in a field devoid of truly elite tee-to-green entities. It's admittedly alarming for myself and fellow Ghim-truthers that the former top amateur has passed his 28th birthday without a finish better than T5 on the PGA Tour, but at prices as deep as 75-1, ball-strikers of his caliber are few and far between.

Ghim is the only player in this field to rank inside the top seven in both my positional driving model and each of my three most heavily weighted iron stats (Proximity 125-200, SG: approach, birdie chances created), and last year at Sedgefield, Ghim ranked behind just Lucas Glover, Charley Hoffman, and Byeong-Hun An in strokes gained: tee-to-green.

His 51st-place finish was entirely a result of the worst putting week of his entire career (-9.2), and although the putting woes have never seemed to permanently go away for Ghim, his two best putting weeks of the season to date have come on Bermudagrass courses in the Southeast (PGA National, & TPC Sawgrass). Having gained an average of 2.9 shots off-the-tee and 5.0 strokes per start with his approach play over his last three events, Ghim should be tailor-made for the ball-striking questions Sedgefield will be asking. I'm more than willing to give the Longhorn one more shot in this price range.

 

  Win More With RotoBaller

Win more with expert tools and advice from proven winners! RotoBaller's PGA Premium Packages feature several savvy analysts and proven winners for DFS and betting.

Our very own Joe Nicely took down a big DraftKings DFS tournament for the Travelers Championship. And as an encore, RotoBaller subscriber @tenndolly2 won $100K on FanDuel with the help of Joe and the rest of our Premium PGA team: Between all the incredible Premium PGA DFS and Betting content and tools we put out each week, and our Premium Slack Community where we chat with our subscribers before lineups lock, RotoBaller PGA subscribers are armed with the tools, analysis, and advice to win more.

Golf DFS News and Player Outlooks

More PGA Analysis and DFS Lineup Picks

POPULAR FANTASY TOOLS

Expert Advice
Import Your Leagues
Weekly Rankings
Compare Any Players
Projections
Articles & Tools
Weekly Planner
24x7 News and Alerts

REAL-TIME FANTASY NEWS

Jayden Daniels

' Week 3 Status in Doubt
Rob Font

Outclassed In The Noche UFC 3 Co-Main Event
David Martinez

Wins His Second UFC Fight
Jared Gordon

Suffers Brutal TKO Loss At Noche UFC 3
Rafa Garcia

Wins Back-To-Back Fights
Brian Thomas Jr.

Dealing with Wrist Injury
Dustin Stoltzfus

Drops A Decision At Noche UFC 3
Kelvin Gastelum

Gets Back In The Win Column
Diego Ferreira

Suffers Second-Round TKO
Alexander Hernandez

Extends His Win Streak With A Brutal TKO
Quang Le

Suffers First-Round Knockout
Santiago Luna

Shines In His UFC Debut
Christopher Bell

Earns his First Bristol Cup Series Victory
Alex Bowman

Falls Short of Advancing Through Cup Series Playoffs
Chase Briscoe

Collects his Third Top-10 Finish at Bristol
Ryan Blaney

Strong Top-Five Bristol Performance Advances him to the Playoffs
Corey Heim

Earns his First Career Cup Series Top-10 Finish at Bristol
Giannis Antetokounmpo

Leads Greece to Bronze Medal
Alperen Sengün

Alperen Sengun Drops 28 Points in EuroBasket Finals
CFB

Indiana's Lee Beebe Jr. Out for Season with Knee Injury
Dennis Schröder

Dennis Schroder Named EuroBasket MVP
Bryce Eldridge

Giants to Promote Bryce Eldridge
Jaren Jackson Jr.

Progressing in Recovery
Jonathan Kuminga

Receives New Offer From Warriors
Kenneth Walker III

Bounces Back with Big Week 2 Performance
Bijan Robinson

Rushes for 143 Yards in Week 2
Justin Fields

Currently in Concussion Protocol
Cincinnati Bengals

Bengals Calling Around to Available Free-Agent Quarterbacks
Joe Burrow

to Undergo Surgery, Out at Least Three Months
Emil Heineman

Aiming to Take the "Next Step" This Season
Braeden Cootes

Good to Go for Camp
Ivan Fedotov

Blue Jackets Acquire Ivan Fedotov From Flyers
Aaron Jones Sr.

Injures Hamstring During Sunday Night Football
Darren Waller

Not Expected to Play in Week 3
Garrett Crochet

Punches Out 12 in Win
Cole Ragans

to Return on Wednesday
Jameson Williams

Records Long Touchdown in Week 2, Still Limited to Downfield Role?
George Kirby

Strikes Out 14 in Win
Jayden Daniels

Considered "Day-to-Day" with Knee Injury
Carlos Estévez

Carlos Estevez Exits with Back Tightness
Jonathan Taylor

Tops 200 Yards From Scrimmage in Week 2 Win
Joe Burrow

Could Miss Three Months if he Requires Toe Surgery
Davante Adams

Headlines Rams Receiving Corps Sunday
Wan'Dale Robinson

Explodes for 142 Yards, Touchdown in Overtime Thriller
Joe Flacco

Browns Not Considering Benching Joe Flacco After Week 2
Quentin Grimes

Still Not Close to a New Contract Agreement
Lamar Jackson

Throws for Four Touchdowns in Week 2 Win
James Cook

Scores Two Touchdowns in Rout of Jets
Joel Embiid

"Looking Slender, Spry and in Positive Spirits"
Rome Odunze

Scores Twice in Loss
Ja'Marr Chase

Snags 14 Receptions, Finds End Zone in Week 2
Russell Wilson

Throws for 450 Yards, Three Touchdowns in Loss
Ty Gibbs

Has Arguably his Best Career Drive, but Only Finishes 10th
Chase Elliott

Despite Crashing Out at Bristol, Chase Elliott Advances to Round of 12
Austin Dillon

Misses Round of 12 After Extremely Mediocre Bristol Run
Shane Van Gisbergen

Shane van Gisbergen Fails to Advance to Round of 12
Josh Berry

Finishes Last in All Three Round of 16 Races to Fail to Advance
Luis Arraez

Takes a Seat on Sunday With Head Injury
Adolis García

Adolis Garcia Activated, Starting on Sunday
CFB

Ryan Williams Explodes In Return To Field
CFB

Drew Allar Plays Mediocre Game In Blowout Win
CFB

LaNorris Sellers Exits Game In Blowout Loss
CFB

DJ Lagway Tosses Five Interceptions In Loss
CFB

Garrett Nussmeier Plays Game Manager in Saturday's Win
CFB

CJ Carr Remains Poised In Narrow Loss
CFB

John Mateer Leads Oklahoma In Rout
CFB

Arch Manning Struggles Against UTEP
CFB

Jeremiah Smith Impresses In Win
Bryan Woo

Records Career-High 13 Strikeouts
Max Muncy

Exits Early on Saturday
CFB

Sam Leavitt Shines As Arizona State Rebounds From Week 2 Loss
Salvador Perez

Reaches 300 Home Runs, 1,000 RBI
Jose Altuve

Exits Early With Foot Discomfort
Trey Yesavage

Heading to Big Leagues
Will Smith

Placed on 10-Day Injured List
Ivan Demidov

Turning Heads in Rookie Camp
NHL

Calvin de Haan Signs With Swedish Team
Samuel Girard

Skates With Non-Contact Jersey
Mackenzie Blackwood

Dealing With Injury Ahead of Training Camp
Spencer Knight

Signs Three-Year Extension With Blackhawks
Chris Buescher

May have Another Solid Run at Bristol
Corey Perry

Out 6-8 Weeks Following Surgery
Kyle Busch

Should DFS Managers Roster Kyle Busch at Bristol?
Ricky Stenhouse Jr

Is Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Too Risky to Consider Rostering at Bristol?
Michael McDowell

Could be A Solid Value Option For Bristol DFS Lineups
Chase Elliott

Probably Won't Factor in for Bristol Win
NASCAR

Bubba Wallace Not as Strong at Bristol as Other Short Tracks
Alex Bowman

Needs to Win to Make Round of 12
Ross Chastain

has Never Led at Bristol but Has Been Pretty Consistent
Austin Dillon

Richmond Speed Unlikely to Carry Over to Bristol
Josh Berry

Might Run Well at Bristol, but Almost Certainly Won't Win to Advance
Justin Haley

Bristol One of Justin Haley's Few Recent Bright Spots
Tarik Skubal

Avoids Serious Injury, Expected to Make Next Start
CFB

Austin Simmons Listed As Game-Time Decision Against Arkansas
CFB

Nico Iamaleava Struggles In Fourth Straight Loss
Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen

Dealing With a "Tweak"
BUF

Alexandar Georgiev Joins Sabres on One-Year Deal
Corey Perry

Injured During Pre-Camp Skate
Tanner Bibee

Fans 10 in Two-Hit Shutout
Zach Neto

Dealing With Wrist Soreness
Masyn Winn

Shut Down for Rest of Season
Tarik Skubal

to Undergo Imaging on Saturday
Tyler Soderstrom

Scratched on Friday With Groin Tightness
Tarik Skubal

Exits with Side Tightness
CFB

Antonio Williams Out Against Georgia Tech
Ketel Marte

Scratched From Friday's Lineup
CFB

CJ Bailey Flashes Again in Win Over Wake Forest
CFB

Jaxson Moi a Game-Time Decision for Tennessee on Saturday
Jean Silva

A Favorite At Noche UFC 3
Diego Lopes

Set For Noche UFC 3 Main Event
Rob Font

Looks For His Third Consecutive Win
David Martinez

Set For Noche UFC 3 Co-Main Event
Rafa Garcia

An Underdog At Noche UFC 3
Jared Gordon

Looks To Win Back-To-Back Fights
Dustin Stoltzfus

Looks To Return To The Win Column
Kelvin Gastelum

In Dire Need Of Victory
Diego Ferreira

Looks To Get Back In The Win Column
Alexander Hernandez

Looks To Extend His Win Streak
Quang Le

Set For Noche UFC 3 Main Card Opener
Malcolm Brogdon

Heading to Knicks on One-Year Deal
CFB

David Sanders Jr. Won't Play Against Georgia
Landry Shamet

Staying with the Knicks
CFB

Dylan Edwards Slated to Return on Friday
Adam Lowry

Aims for Early-Season Return
CFB

Ryan Williams Expected to Play Against Wisconsin
CFB

Billy Edwards Jr. Unlikely to Play on Saturday
P.J. Washington

Officially Signs Contract Extension
CFB

David Sanders Jr. Questionable to Make Debut Against Georgia
Lauri Markkanen

Big at Both Ends as Finland Books Place in EuroBasket Semis
Luka Dončić

Luka Doncic Notches 39 Points in Losing Effort
NBA

Cam Reddish Expected to Move to Europe
NBA

Trey Lyles Joins Real Madrid
Charles Bassey

Signs Exhibit 10 Deal With Hawks
Sacramento Kings

Terence Davis Waived by Kings
Matthew Knies

Ready for Bigger Role With Maple Leafs
Jack Eichel

Unbothered by Lack of Extension
Sidney Crosby

Not Thinking About Leaving Pittsburgh
SJ

Michael Misa Signs Entry-Level Contract With Sharks
Rutger McGroarty

Nursing an Injury
Cameron Champ

the Ultimate Wild Card at Procore
Cameron Young

Looks to Extend Momentum in Napa
Davis Thompson

Searching for a Spark at Procore
Sahith Theegala

Looking to Reignite Form at Procore
Mackenzie Hughes

Aims for Another Strong Showing at Procore
Luke Clanton

Brings Ball-Striking Upside to Napa
Seamus Power

Looking to Overcome Poor Course History at Procore
Joe Highsmith

Hoping to Find Form in Napa
Kristaps Porzingis

Reportedly Still Not Completely Healthy
Kelly Oubre Jr.

Reportedly on the Trade Block
Andre Drummond

Future in Philadelphia in Doubt
Giannis Antetokounmpo

Helps Greece Reach Semis at EuroBasket
Alperen Sengün

Alperen Sengun Posts Historic Triple-Double
Joel Dahmen

Finishes Tied For 15 at Wyndham Championship
Bud Cauley

Finishes Tied for 33rd at BMW Championship
Justin Thomas

Finishes Tied for Seventh at Tour Championship
J.J. Spaun

Finishes Tied for 25th at Tour Championship
Collin Morikawa

Finishes Tied for 19th at Tour Championship
Keith Mitchell

Misses Cut at Wyndham Championship
Ben Griffin

Finishes Tied for 10th at Tour Championship
Patrick Cantlay

Finishes Tied for Second at Tour Championship
Gary Woodland

Could Hang Around at Procore Championship
Karl Vilips

Ready for Napa Valley This Weekend
Taylor Montgomery

Heating Up at the Right Time
Jackson Koivun

May Be a Little Rusty at Procore Championship
Doug Ghim

Looking to Rise Up at Napa Valley
Shakir Mukhamadullin

Joins Informal Skate
William Eklund

Skates With Sharks
Owen Power

Back at 100 Percent

RANKINGS

QB
RB
WR
TE
K
DEF
RANKINGS
C
1B
2B
3B
SS
OF
SP
RP