PGA DFS Core Plays: Wyndham Championship
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various salary ranges for this week’s tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
Every once in a while you have to tip your cap in defeat. The 3M Open brought its very best and demolished any and all DFS lineups and bets that I had on the table. Based on the 6-of-6 percentage and the fact that a very low-owned Lee Hodges ran away with the event, I’m guessing that was the case for many of you as well. Luckily, we get the chance to bounce back this week at the Wyndham Championship. This is the final event before the FedExCup Playoffs and only the top 70 make it this year, so many big names like Justin Thomas, Adam Scott, and Shane Lowry have some serious work to do this week.
As always, this event is held at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. This is a Par 70 that measures 7,131 yards, which is awfully short by PGA Tour standards. This is actually the second easiest Par 70 course on the PGA Tour, and six of the last seven winners have been at least 20-under par. There are only two par fives on the course, but they are very gettable and golfers will need to take advantage of them all four rounds if they want to contend. You’ll see a lot of golfers with elite course history and that’s one thing to note this week — the course history is very predictive year in and year out.
The average driving distance here is well below tour average, and that’s for a couple of reasons. The first is that many of the holes have forced layups, which take the driver out of golfer’s hands. Additionally, there has been more than a 30% difference between the greens in regulation rate playing from the fairway compared to playing from the rough. This places a huge emphasis on accuracy, which is another reason to keep the driver in the bag on a lot of the holes. We can throw distance out this week, and I’m honestly not looking too hard at strokes gained off the tee. I will be using total driving and good drive percentage for my off the tee metrics.
This course features bermudagrass throughout, and water comes into play on six of the holes. The greens are average in size (6,000 square feet), but do produce a lot of three-putts. With this being a birdie-fest, and with the greens being easy to hit on average, I’m not focusing too much on around the green play. Scrambling for par will be needed here and there, but golfers that are consistently missing greens are going to have a tough time keeping up with the rest of the field. There aren’t many really short or really long approach shots, as 90% of approaches will come from 100-225 yards. I have included these proximity numbers in this week’s model if you want to give them a look.
Field Breakdown Video & Model Download Link for the Wyndham Championship
This is a course that has always favored ball strikers, especially ones that are accurate off the tee. Without a need for distance, focusing on good iron players and good putters isn’t the worst idea. I’ll be looking heavily at putting splits on bermuda, birdie or better rate, and greens in regulation. If you are looking for comp courses, the five that stuck out to me were TPC Sawgrass, Sea Island, Harbour Town, TPC River Highlands, and East Lake.
PGA DFS Picks: DraftKings & FanDuel Core Plays for Wyndham Championship
Field Size:
- 156 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties move on after the first two rounds
Weather Forecasts
- Kevin Roth’s Forecast (link coming soon)
- Windfinder
- Accuweather
Golf Course
- Sedgefield Country Club
- Located in Greensboro, North Carolina
- Par 70 — 7,131 yards
- Designer: Donald Ross
- Difficulty: 27th (2022), 34th (2021), 29th (2020), 41st (2019), 40th (2018)
- Fairway width in landing areas: 29 yards wide
- Green size: 6,000 square feet
- Grass type: fairways, rough, and greens = bermudagrass
- Water hazards: in play on 6 holes
Course Notes
- Last event before the start of the FedExCup Playoffs
- Six of the last seven winners have been at least 20-under par
- Narrow fairways and small greens put an emphasis on accuracy
- 90% of approach shots here are from 100-225 yards
- Course history is fairly predictive year in and year out
- Five of last eight winners were at least +5500 in pre-tourney odds
- Course favors plodders and ball strikers
What to Look For
- Strokes gained approach
- Total driving or good drive percentage
- Birdie or better percentage
- Greens in regulation
- Strokes gained putting (emphasis on bermuda)
Core Plays
Russell Henley
DK: $10,200 — FD: $11,600
Good Drive % — 1
SG: APP — 4
Greens in Regulation — 8
Birdie or Better % — 62
SG: Putting (Bermuda) — 135
Stat Rank — 4
Noto Rating — 90.6
