The final event of the PGA Tour regular season is here. The Wyndham Championship has been a staple on the PGA schedule for years and acts as the final chance for players to gain points and move up in the FedEx Cup standings before the playoffs begin. The event itself is traditionally an extremely wide-open affair. Sedgefield Country Club is a nice course with smaller Bermuda greens and a little bit of water mixed in to make things interesting, but power off the tee is also not necessary by any stretch of the imagination, and good accuracy and short iron play can carry a player to a low score.
The list of winners at this event over the last five seasons has included one rookie sensation in Tom Kim (who gained 12 strokes putting on the Bermuda greens last season) and a handful of veteran names like Kevin Kisner, Jim Herman and Brandt Snedeker, all of whom came into the week with mixed form. Saying this is a wide-open event is an understatement, and it is important to remember that Herman won as a 500-1 longshot back in 2020.
There are still several massive prize pools in PGA DFS available throughout the industry and has never been a better time to check out the Stokastic PGA DFS projections to get an edge. But before you do, make sure you keep reading the full preview for the 2023 Wyndham Championship DFS picks.
2023 Wyndham Championship DFS Preview & Picks
The top 5 finishers at the 3M Open the week prior were as follows:
- 1st – Lee Hodges
- 2nd – J.T. Poston/Martin Laird/Kevin Streelman
- 5th – Dylan Wu/Keith Mitchell
The Wyndham Championship can be viewed in a couple of different ways. On the one hand, it has a lot of similarities to events like the Sony Open and the RBC Heritage due to how close in layout the venues for those events are to Sedgefield. Tight, congested tracks with plenty of short par 4’s and a couple of easier par 5’s often have the same kinds of players competing for wins at these events.
Brandt Snedeker, Russell Henley and Kevin Kisner have basically made a living off killing these courses. That makes veterans with great course history great targets for betting and DFS, and some players with experience and pedigree at these courses will rise up and make a charge, regardless of their current form.
The other view is that young players who have been trending well all season (and especially in the summer) will also have a great shot at making something happen at Sedgefield, especially if the conditions are soft. Si Woo Kim and Tom Kim both won at this venue without any real experience and absolutely blitzed the course, putting up rounds of 61 or better the week of their win.
The fact there has been such a variety of winners over the past decade or so makes predicting somewhat tough. The name of the game will be to look for a few veteran longshots for betting purposes while also not discounting any less experienced players with great form.
Wyndham Championship DFS & Betting Trends
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Seven of the last 12 winners of this event finished 12th or better at Sedgefield before their victory here.
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Of the last 12 winners of this event, only two have finished outside the top 15 in driving accuracy on the week (Patrick Reed 2013 and Snedeker 2018).
- Four of the last five winners of the Wyndham Championship had gained over four strokes on approach in at least one of their final four starts before winning.
Below are some of the top players in the field to watch given their recent form and course history:
- J.T. Poston: Made a strong run for the win last week but ultimately fell well short of a surging Lee Hodges. He has finished sixth or better in three of his last four starts.
- Vincent Norrman: Norrman faded a little on the weekend, but he made another cut and has finished top 25 in three of his last four starts, which includes a win at the Barbasol.
- Hideki Matsuyama: Matsuyama only managed a 30th-place finish, but he gained over four strokes on approach for the week and opened with a 64. He has made the cut in 10 of his last 11 starts.
- Stephan Jaeger: Jaeger again struggled to get in contention but also found another weekend. He has made the cut in 14 of his last 15 starts and is a near-automatic click in DFS, assuming his price is not too steep.
- Doug Ghim: Ghim is another player who is ending the season strongly, as he comes in having made seven of his last eight cuts and ranks ninth in strokes gained ball striking over the last 24 rounds.
Field Notes For Wyndham Championship DFS Picks: Cameron Champ withdrew from the event last week due to the birth of his first child. He is listed as in the field for, but that could change. Webb Simpson is playing, and he has dominated this event in the past, winning back in 2011. He has played poorly this season, but he could easily pop up on the weekend leaderboard. Justin Thomas missed another cut in Minnesota last week and is back playing again and trying to crack the top 70 for the FedEx Cup. Another missed cut would mean no playoffs.
Wyndham Championship Past Winners
2022: Tom Kim
- Lead-in: 7/26/47 (played Rocket Mortgage the week prior – 7th)
- SG: TTG: 3.8 | SG: APP 3.8 | SG: OTT: 1.1 | SG: ATG: -1.2 | SG: PUTT: 12.5
2021: Kevin Kisner
- Lead-in: 63/73/8 (played week prior at WGC event – finished 63rd)
- SG: TTG 5.9 | SG: APP 3.9 | SG: OTT: 0.8 | SG: ATG: 1.2 | SG: PUTT: 4.4
2020: Jim Herman
- Lead-in: 77/MC/MC (played the PGA Championship the week prior)
- SG: TTG: 9.4 | SG: APP 5.9 | SG: OTT: 4.3 | SG: ATG: -0.7 | SG: PUTT: 6.2
The profiles of the last three winners were pretty similar in terms of stats. Obviously, Kim had a massive spike week with his putter last season, but he still gained over three strokes on approach. The same goes for Kisner and Herman, who both also had big weeks on approach. Putting is the other common denominator, and the fact putting is such a huge key is a big reason there have been so many random winners like Snedeker, Herman and a then-51-year-old Davis Love III over the past decade.
Want to see who is trending as a strong play early? Check out Stokastic’s PGA DFS projections, which will be updated on Monday and throughout the week.
Wyndham Championship DFS Course Preview
Sedgefield Country Club: Par 70, 7,131 yards
Greens: Bermuda
Designer: Donald Ross
Similar Courses: Waialae, Harbour Town Golf Links, TPC Sawgrass
Sedgefield Country Club is short par 70 that is nestled within the suburbs of Greensboro, North Carolina. The Donald Ross design dates back to 1926 and still maintains a lot of its classic old structure. The course is technical with smaller Bermuda greens and a little bit of water mixed in but does not challenge players with a ton of tough shots. While fast greens and wind can help keep scoring down here, once this venue gets soft it becomes an outright birdie fest in a hurry.
Power off the tee does not help a ton at Sedgefield and there are plenty of short par 4’s where players club down off the tee. The venue contains eight par 4’s that measure in between 400 and 450 yards which also means players will see similar approach metrics on many of their iron shots. Approaches 150 175 yards out tend to be the most popular basket the players will face, but there are also plenty of shorter approaches in the 125- to 150-yard range.
With so many short to mid-iron shots proximity tends to be a big deal as hitting it close and hitting an ungodly number of putts is really the only path to victory. Greens in regulation tend to be high, and if golfers are scrambling a ton, that just means they are missing too many birdie chances to contend.
Ultimately, winning at Sedgefield is hard but not complicated. Golfers need to do three things extremely well: Find fairways, hit the ball close to the pin on a consistent basis, and sink an ungodly number of putts. Each of the past four winners at Sedgefield has gained over three strokes on approach, while two of the last three winners have gained over six strokes putting.
The small Bermuda greens were replaced a few years back but once any moisture comes in, they tend to get very receptive. Players who trend well in putting splits on Bermuda can also get a big bump as a result.
Key Stats For Wyndham Championship DFS Picks: SG: Approach / Proximity / Par 4 efficiency 400-450 yards / Fairways gained
2023 Wyndham Championship Recent Form Watch
Strokes Gained: Approach (Last 50 Rounds)
- Gary Woodland
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Aaron Rai
- Chez Reavie
- Mark Hubbard
Proximity (Last 24 rounds)
- Hideki Matsuyama
- Lucas Glover
- Russell Henley
- Alex Smalley
- Chez Reavie
Fairways Gained (Last 24 Rounds)
- Aaron Rai
- Ryan Moore
- Si Woo Kim
- Ryan Armour
- Matthew NeSmith
2023 Wyndham Championship Weather Update
Thursday morning: 70-75 F, winds 6-8 mph/ 0% chance of precipitation.
Thursday afternoon: 80 F, winds 8-10 mph/ 20-40% chance of precipitation.
Friday morning: 70-75 F, winds 6-7 mph/ 40-50% chance of precipitation.
Friday afternoon: 78-80 F, winds 8-10 mph/ 20-40% chance of precipitation.
The weather looks like it will quell any chance of this course firming up and keeping scores somewhat reasonable. Rain is expected for at least portions of the day on both Thursday and Friday (and potentially Saturday), meaning receptive greens and greens-in-regulation percentages that go parabolic. It also does not appear like there will be a huge advantage of one wave over another. The heaviest rain is likely to fall Friday morning, but stoppages could mean that wave gets pushed later in the day.
2023 Wyndham Championship DFS Picks and Early Betting Targets
Russell Henley | BetMGM Outright
It is hard to put into words how well Henley suits these short, tricky birdie fests. He leads the field in driving accuracy on the season, ranks third in proximity over the last 24 rounds and is first in proximity from 125 to 150 yards over the same span. He is also first on the PGA in driving accuracy, which is pretty good for a venue where the vast majority of winners over the last decade ranked within the top 15 for driving accuracy for the week of their win.
Henley has thrived at Sedgefield in the past and placed top 10 at this event in each of the past three seasons. And he should have won in 2021 after opening with rounds of 62-64.
The odds will not look great on open, as everyone is onto Henley at this point at these venues, but there are also some big names at the top of the field (Matsuyama, Shane Lowry, etc.) that should help suppress his opening number. Assuming his opening line is not too egregious, Henley will make for a solid Monday morning outright target and should find himself near the top on Sunday if his putter shows any heat at all.
Brandon Wu | BetMGM Outright + Top 10/20
Wu has been a terrific top-10 and -20 target over his short PGA Tour career. While he tends to miss a lot of cuts, he has also been a great weekend player and makes the most of his opportunities when he survives the Friday cutline. Over the last calendar year, Wu has posted five top-10 finishes to go along with seven top-20s. That is a solid hit rate for someone who should be available at longer odds based on his recent form.
Wu has struggled at times this summer, making the cut in just two of his last six starts. However, true to form, one of those starts resulted in a top-10 when he finished ninth at the Canadian Open. Wu finished eighth at this event last season, and while he finished far down the leaderboard last week in Minnesota (57th), he did have his best ball-striking tournament in quite a while, gaining 3.2 strokes on approach and 6.1 strokes ball striking. He has gained over six strokes putting three times this season already, and if that club flips, he could get in contention again this year. He is a solid longshot target and should have great odds in the top-10/20 markets.
