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Wyndham Championship: Finals week frenzy

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By Pete Pappas

GolfWRX Staff Writer

The Wyndham Championship is the final stop for the PGA Tour regular season this week. But a crowd of noteworthy competitors is still frantically scrambling to gain admission to the Tour’s FedExCup Playoffs, which begin next week with The Barclays at Bethpage. So when the gates close Sunday evening at Wyndham’s Sedgefield Country Club, you better not be on the outside looking in, or it’s “wait until next year.”

Reigning Wyndham champion and 2012 U.S. Open Champion Webb Simpson is in Greensboro, NC to defend his title, and will be grouped with Carl Pettersson (who’s controversial two-stroke penalty derailed the Swede’s efforts to chase down PGA Champion Rory McIlroy last week at Kiawah), and Davis Love III (this year’s U.S. Ryder Cup captain; and currently ranked 119th in the FedExCup standings).

Last year at Wyndham, Simpson broke out with his first career Tour title, winning by three-strokes thanks to steady weekend play (including a bogey-free final round).

“I really couldn’t think of a better place to win than here in Greensboro,” Simpson said afterwards of his “home-state” maiden victory.

Simpson went on to win the Deutche Bank Championship (the second FedExCup PLAYOFFS event), but fell short in the Tour Championship two weeks later.  Simpson would however finish second overall in the final standings behind eventual 2011 FedExCup champion Bill Haas (whose brilliant 17th hole greenside save with his ball submerged in a water hazard was one of the most unforgettable moments in PGA Tour Playoff history).

Among the swarm of flag hunters vying for Sedgefield supremacy this week — seven past Wyndham winners, eight tournament winners this season, and 12 major winners are all looking to keep their seasons alive.

Simpson currently ranks 13th in the FedExCup standings by virtue of his U.S. Open victory and six top-10 finishes, and comes in as the field’s highest ranked player in the Official World Golf Rankings (No. 5).

The only other player at Greensboro inside the World top-10 is Jason Dufner (No. 9), and he’s excited to be here.

“Sedgefield is a terrific layout, and I think the course will be even better with new Bermuda greens,” Dufner said.  “It’s going to be a great week.

Dufner is one of just five players on Tour with multiple wins this season, and looked very impressive picking up titles earlier this season at the Zurich Classic of New Orleans and HP Byron Nelson Championship.  He currently ranks third in the FedExCup standings.

Meanwhile, former Wyndham champion Brandt Snedeker currently ranks 23rd in the FedExCup standings on the strength of his win at the Farmers Insurance Open and T-3 finish at the British Open.  Wyndham was Snedeker’s first victory on Tour in 2007, helping him earn “Rookie of the Year” honors.

The top 125 players in the FedExCup standings will move on to Bethpage, and high-profile names conspicuously on the wrong side of 125 entering play this week in Greensboro include Y.E. Yang (129), Gary Woodland (130), John Daly (137), and Camilo Villegas (146).

It still seems like just yesterday that an excited Yang celebrated winning the 91st PGA Championship by spontaneously military pressing his tour bag.  The South Korean erased a two-shot final round deficit for his first and only major, and handed Tiger Woods his first blown 54-hole major lead in the process.

Although Woodland has yet to taste major victory (or even finish inside the top-10 at a major for that matter), his 2011 Transitions Championship victory by one-stroke over Simpson put him on the Tour map.  This season, however, Woodland has struggled. In 18 starts he’s yet to finish higher than 24th, and has missed four cuts (with two coming consecutively, including one at the U.S. Open).

Two-time major champion Daly remains one of the most polarizing figures in golf, and “The Lion” comes in to Sedgefield with a “mini-roar” four top-20 finishes in his last seven starts.  In the last two weeks alone he’s moved up 26 spots in the FedExCup standings.  But Daly has never finished inside the top-40 at Wyndham, and he’ll have to do that if he plans to be around for the Barclays.

And Villegas rose to rock-star status almost overnight with his first two Tour victories coming in back-to-back 2008 FedExCup events (the BMW Championship and the Tour Championship).  “Hombre Arana” has 10 career top-10s in the PLAYOFFS, however a poor season thus far (with a T-18 best finish) has left Villegas fighting just to keep his card (a testament to how deep the well of talent runs on Tour – and how quickly fortune can turn).

Following the coronation of an Irish King in America at the PGA Championship last week is a tough act for Wyndham to follow. But Greensboro is the final frenzied push for a chance at the most lucrative payout on Tour.  And that means for anyone not named Rory; it’s time to go for broke.

You can follow Pete on twitter @TheGreekGrind and GolfWRX @GolfWRX

Click here for more discussion in the “Tour talk” forum.

Pete is a journalist, commentator, and interviewer covering the PGA Tour, new equipment releases, and the latest golf fashions. Pete's also a radio and television personality who's appeared multiple times on ESPN radio, and Fox Sports All Bets Are Off. And when he's not running down a story, he's at the range working on his game. Above all else, Pete's the proud son of a courageous mom who battled pancreatic cancer much longer than anyone expected. You can follow Pete on twitter @PGAPappas

1 Comment

1 Comment

  1. Troy Vayanos

    Aug 15, 2012 at 3:31 pm

    It’s a tough one to pick but I like the chances of a few players. Carl Pettersson has had a very consistent year and played well at the PGA last week.

    Brendon De Jonge has been knocking on the door a few times this year and might get his chance to break through in an open event.

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Photos from the 2026 OccuNet Classic

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With the PGA Tour across the border in Canada this week, GolfWRX Tour Photographer Greg Moore stayed stateside and headed to the OccuNet Classic presented by Amarillo National Bank in Amarillo, Texas.

It’s always interesting to see what the guys are playing on the KFT, and this week certainly hasn’t disappointed so far, with some incredible wedge stamping on display.

Check out links to all our albums below.

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Luke Potter’s custom Cameron putter – 2026 OccuNet Classic (KFT)

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From the GolfWRX Classifieds: Scotty Cameron GOLO 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition

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At GolfWRX, we are a community of like-minded individuals who all experience and express our enjoyment of the game in many ways.

It’s that sense of community that drives day-to-day interactions in the forums on topics that range from best driver to what marker you use to mark your ball. It even allows us to share another thing we all love – buying and selling equipment.

Currently, in our GolfWRX buy/sell/trade (BST) forum, @HuskerFlyer is sharing a Scotty Cameron GOLO with a BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition shaft. While the putter is certainly enviable, the Augusta-inspired shaft is equally noteworthy.

 

From the listing:

Scotty Cameron Golo 6 with BGT Stability Tour2 2022 M Edition Scotty Headcover 34″ $375

To check out the full listing in our BST forum, head through the link. If you are curious about the rules to participate in the BST Forum, you can learn more here: GolfWRX BST Rules.

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J.T. Poston delivers career-changing victory after major gear changes

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J.T. Poston required extra holes Sunday to earn a handshake from Jack Nicklaus himself and walk away with the biggest victory of his career.

Poston outlasted Ryan Gerard on the second playoff hole at the Memorial Tournament, and the victory at Jack’s place was aided by two significant gear switches ahead of the tournament in Ohio.

Firstly, Poston swapped from the Titleist Pro V1x to the new Pro V1x Left Dash in his last start at the Charles Schwab Challenge. It’s the ball that made headlines just a month ago, when Jordan Spieth also transitioned into the low-spinning variant at the Cadillac Championship.

Poston’s ball change was spurred by a discussion with Titleist Tour reps about testing some options that could be a little better for him in the wind, after the now four-time PGA Tour winner had gained slightly more speed of late and was feeling like his irons and full wedge shots were overspinning.

Poston spent time testing both the current-generation Pro V1 and the new Left Dash at home the week after the PGA Championship, and at Colonial Country Club, he spent more time dialing things in on the range with J.J. Van Wezenbeeck before deciding to tee up the Left Dash that week. At the time, Poston was 85th in SG: Approach (+0.024); he gained +1.402 at Colonial.

“So we felt like today was going to be a good test of that and it obviously performed really well,” Poston said after a second-round 65 at Muirfield Village which propelled him into the lead. “We had a couple shots that I felt like didn’t quite hit ’em perfect and it hung in there pretty well. So I feel like just having that confidence in that too is big, where I just — we’re trying to hit the smart shot and hit the right shot and just trying to execute and go from there.”

On his way to victory, Poston delivered a dominant performance from tee-to-green and was +8.081 in approach and tied for fourth in greens in regulation.

Poston’s Memorial victory was also the first on Tour for the new torched line of TaylorMade’s 2026 Spider putters. Poston also added the L-Neck Tour X at the Charles Schwab Challenge the week prior, something prompted because “it seems to be working for a lot of the other guys.”

A usually reliable putter, Poston had dropped to as low as 89th on Tour in strokes gained, and when he saw his good friend Denny McCarthy using the Spider, he thought about the change. With the new flatstick in hand, Poston gained close to seven shots on the field at the Memorial and ranked third in SG: Putting for the week.

Poston was the first to agree, though, that neither switch was more important than the other.

“The ball got me there, the putter helped me get it in the hole,” Poston said.

See Poston’s full winning WITB here.

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