The PGA Tour wraps up its regular season this week as it visits Sedgefield Country Club for the 2025 Wyndham Championship. Designed by Donald Ross in 1926, Sedgefield Country Club hosted the first four editions of the Wyndham Championship from 1938-1941 and hosted the event on several other occasions in the late 1940’s and through the 1950’s. Sedgefield then became the host course from 1961 to 1976 and then took over as host course again in 2008, where it has been held ever since. This year, Sedgefield Country Club will play as a Par 70, 7,131 yard layout. Following this tournament, players ranked inside the top 70 in the FedEx Cup Standings will be eligible for the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begin next week at the Fedex St. Jude Championship at TPC Southwind.
The Wyndham Championship has served as a late-summer birdie fest on tour, with every winner since 2008 finishing at -14 and seven of the last nine winners reaching -20 or better. This event favors two types of players due to this fact: the bomb and gouge young players and the veteran type of plot their way around the corse in a methodical manner. Birdies are a must in this event, and the players who play their best on Bermudagrass greens will be heavily favored. Players who have traditionally played well at the Sony Open in Hawaii, the WM Phoenix Open, the RBC Heritage, the Bermuda Championship and The RSM Classic, among other tournaments on Bermudagrass greens, have often found success in this event as well. Regardless of style or course expertise, the players with a hot putter who can make a bunch of birdies and can attack greens with sharp iron play will find the most success in this event. With the FedEx Cup Playoffs starting next week, the studs will be looking to improve their positions in the FedEx Cup Standings, while everyone else will be just looking to lock in their spot to give themselves a chance at potentially walking out of East Lake in a few weeks time $10 million richer, not to mention guaranteed starts in Signature Events next season. Which players will step up with their season on the line and which players will fade under the pressure?
The Wyndham Championship was first held in 1938 and still manages to draw a strong field of young guns and veterans alike almost a century later. Among the favorites this week are Keegan Bradley, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Ben Griffin, Robert Macintyre, Hideki Matsuyama and Jordan Spieth, while young studs on the rise looking to make their prescence known include Akshay Bhatia, Luke Clanton, Pierceson Coody, Jake Knapp, Michael Greyserman and Aaron Rai, just to name a few.
Sam Snead holds the record for most victories in this tournament, winning it eight times over the course of his illustrious career. Davis Love III has won this event three times, while George Archer, Billy Casper, Danny Edwards, Sandy Lyle, Rocco Mediate, Byron Nelson, Doug Sanders and Brandt Snedeker are also multi-time winners of this event.
Last year’s edition was won by Aaron Rai, who fired a final round 64 to win by two strokes over Michael Greyserman, who made a quadruple bogey on 14 and a double bogey on 16 to lose a four stroke lead with five holes to play. Ryo Hisatsune and J. J. Spaun finished T-3, three strokes back, while Luke Clanton finished in fifth place as an amateur, four strokes behind,
2025 has very much been a feast or famine season for Will Gordon, posting a pair of top 10’s, four top 25’s and 11 missed cuts in 18 starts. Gordon’s stat line is a mixed bag, ranking inside the top 100 in three of the six major Strokes Gained categories, but having an atrocious short game, ranking 144th or worse in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting. Gordon has so much potential, ranking 10th in Driving Distance and 13th in Greens in Regulation Percentage on tour this season. That short game is Gordon’s Achilles heel though, losing nearly a stroke or more on the greens in three of his last four measured starts and nearly a stroke or more around the greens in four of his last nine starts. Gordon finished T-27 in his first Wyndham Championship appearance in 2020, but has missed the cut here in each of his last three starts. Given his short game woes, I predict another missed cut and early trip home for Will Gordon this week.
It is make or break time for Eric Cole this week. With two top 10’s, six top 25’s and eight missed cuts in 25 starts, Cole sits at 79th in the FedEx Cup Standings, with the top 70 following this week’s event being eligible for the FedEx Cup Playoffs starting next week. The opposite of Gordon above, Cole is a short game specialist, ranking inside the top 55 in Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and Putting, but struggles with his ball striking, ranking outside the top 130 in both Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green and Off-the-Tee. In spite of these struggles, Cole ranks 10th this season in Total Birdies, telling me he can go low when it matters most. More importantly, Cole has played his best this season on courses featuring Bermudagrass greens, posting top 20 finishes at the Sony Open in Hawaii (5th), the Valspar Championship (T-12) and the RBC Heritage (T-18). Sedgefield Country Club also features Bermudagrass greens, and Cole has found great success at this event in his career, finishing T-14 in his debut in 2023 and backing that up with a T-7 finish last season. A win isn’t that far-fetched, but I’m predicting Eric Cole will bring home a top 20 finish this week and give it his all to crack the top 70 in the FedEx Cup Standings.
Ben Griffin is in the midst of his breakout campaign on the PGA Tour, picking up two wins, eight top 10’s and 11 top 25’s in 24 starts to slot in 7th in the FedEx Cup Standings. Griffin is arguably one of the most consistent golfers through the bag this season, ranking inside the top 50 in all six of the major Strokes Gained categories. Griffin is a slight risk this week, as he comes in having missed the cut in his last two tournaments starts, but he also posted six straight top 15’s before that, including a win at the Charles Schwab Challenge and a runner-up performance at the Memorial Tournament presented by Workday. Griffin is also a consistent player in this event, having posted a pair of top 10 finishes in three Wyndham Championship starts, including a fourth place finish in 2022 and a T-7 finish last year. Expect Griffin to be in the hunt all week long on the way to another top 10 finish in this tournament.
The pride of Billund, Denmark, Nicolai Højgaard is heating up at the right time, posting back-to-back top 15 finishes at the Genesis Scottish Open and the Open Championship, and enters this week on the heels of three straight top 25 finishes. Already a three-time winner on the DP World Tour, Højgaard has the skills to compete here in America, too, ranking inside the top 30 this season in both Strokes Gained: Approach the Green and Putting, as well as ranking sixth in both Driving Distance and Greens in Regulation Percentage. Højgaard may only have 53 starts on tour under his belt, but he’s already a proven contender, with three runner-up finishes and six top 10’s so far. Højgaard also has mixed results at the Wyndham Championship,but has shown glimmers of what could be, posting a T-14 finish in his tournament debut in 2023 before following it up with a missed cut last season. Much like last week, this is strictly a trusting my gut decision. A player of Højgaard’s caliber can only be kept out of the winner’s circle for so long. Currently ranked 71st in the FedEx Cup Standings, I predict Nicolai Højgaard is going to qualify for the Fedex Cup Playoffs in a big way by grabbing his first career PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship!
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