The Wyndham Championship: Korea’s Si-Woo Kim Is Still Superb on These Fairways and Greens

• Kevin Kisner defends the trophy he won in a six-man playoff last year
• Sedgefield Country Club again hosts
• The top 125 players in the rankings at the end of the week will progress to next week’s FedExCup Playoffs

The Wyndham Championship Odds

Odds taken from BetMGM

The Wyndham Championship Picks

Si-Woo Kim is the each way outright pick at +2500 with Caesars Sportsbook

Ryan Armour can grab a top 30 at +450 with FanDuel Sportsbook 

Webb Simpson to beat Russell Henley at +100 with BetMGM 

Picks made on 08/02/2022 at 11:45 AM EST

It’s the final week of the PGA Tour’s regular season which means two things for the field this week.

Firstly, most of the world’s elite are elsewhere, getting themselves ready for the three-part FedExCup Playoffs which start next week.

For the rest there are two aims: initially, they want to make the top 125 in the rankings which will guarantee both a place in the Playoffs and also a card for next season, secondly, they want points because after next week only the top 70 progress.

For anyone who doesn’t finish inside the top 125 there will be the rest of August off and then a journey to the Korn Ferry Tour Finals where they will seek to regain their playing rights for the top tier.

Sungjae Im leads the betting alongside Will Zalatoris who will be hoping to use this week to break his PGA Tour duck.

They’re followed by course specialist Webb Simpson who has a dazzling nine top 10 finishes from 13 visits.

Course Report

Sedgefield Country Club is a short (7,131 yards) par 70 that places a greater demand on approach shots than anything played from the tee.

It’s not to say that big-hitters cannot thrive there, but they will need to rein in their game with the driver because the fairways are tree-lined, the rough difficult to hit from and there is nothing to be gained by being aggressive with the first blow.

Low scores are not just likely but demanded: five of the last six winners ended the week on 20-under-par or better and at least once in the week of their triumph they went super low.

The greens are Bermuda grass and that’s a factor to bear in mind too.

Brandt Snedeker knows the course so well he carded a 59 there and said of it: “There’s only two par fives, everybody in the field can reach them, so distance here is not an overriding factor.

Big-hitters don’t have a huge advantage here (on the par fours) just because everybody’s hitting in the same spots off most of the tees. I think that’s why guys who wedge and putt it better tend to do a better job here.

Kim Can Win Again

His record is not quite as good at Sedgefield as Simpson’s, but Korea’s Si-Woo Kim is still superb on these fairways and greens.

He won the event in 2016, helped by a sensational second round of 60, and in the last three years he’s never finished outside of the top five.

He closed with a 64 for tied fifth in 2019, thrashed a brilliant third-round 62 to grab a two-shot 54-hole lead in 2020 ahead of finishing third, and he missed out in extra holes 12 months ago.

In his various visits he’s ranked first for Strokes Gained Off the Tee, Around the Greens, Tee to Green and Putting Average, and second for Approach so pretty much every aspect of his game has thrived at some point.

He’s also in excellent form, finishing T15th at the Open and T14th at the Rocket Mortgage Classic in his last two starts.

Take him each way in the outright at +2500 with Caesars Sportsbook, a good price and paying out eight places.

Armour Plated

Ryan Armour is not in very good form, but he’s badly in need of a good week as he languishes at 162nd in the FedExCup rankings.

The good news for him is that a short course that yields birdies is exactly the sort of test that gets him going.

In a long career, his best golf has come at the likes of El Camaleon, La Cantera, Potomac, Jackson, Innisbrook, River Highlands and Detroit.

All of those courses match up with this week either because of the need to hit fairways, to be bold with approaches, in having Bermuda Grass greens, being short tracks and/or being Donald Ross designs.

In fact, he’s got a solid record at Sedgefield anyway with four top 25 finishes from seven starts, two of them top 10s.

He likes the putting surfaces here too, saying: “I get excited when I come to certain events and this is one of them with how good the greens are.

The greens staff does such a phenomenal job here at Sedgefield, so I always look forward coming to Wyndham.

Take an incentivized Armour to make the top 30 with the FanDuel Sportsbook offering +450.

Heart Simpson

Webb Simpson quite clearly loves this track so let’s support him.

BetMGM have paired him with Russell Henley in the matchbets and there looks like plenty of reason to side with the course expert.

The bad news is that Henley leads the head-to-head count 6-4 in the calendar year, but go back to the start of 2021 and Simpson has the advantage 12-9 (and it is 18-11 from the start of 2020).

The clincher is on the course because Simpson leads 3-1 and the overall evidence is that he’s more consistent.

Henley has two top 30s in five starts and, while those two were both top 10s, Simpson’s record is much better.

He’s got 11 top 30s in 13 starts and nine of them were top 10s.

Take Simpson to land the match-up at +100 with BetMGM.

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