The PGA Tour returns from a one-week break for the Olympics and stages its final regular-season event of 2024 with the Wyndham Championship in North Carolina.
Sungjae Im is favoured on the golf odds.
Because of the Summer Games and with golf’s playoffs up next, it’s a watered-down field this week at the top. American and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler probably clinched PGA Tour Player of the Year by rallying on Sunday at Le Golf National in France to win the Olympic gold medal, while Great Britain’s Tommy Fleetwood made a 6-foot par putt on the final hole to secure the silver medal, and Japan’s Hideki Matsuyama won bronze. None of them are playing this week.
The FedExCup playoffs start next week and only the Top 70 in points after the Wyndham qualify, so nearly everyone around that cut-off range is playing. For standard regular-season PGA Tour events, 500 FedExCup points are awarded to the winner, with points also being earned by every player making the cut. Currently sitting at No. 70 is American Brendon Todd, while No. 71 is France’s Victor Perez. Some bigger names who likely will not get into the Top 70 barring a huge week are Rickie Fowler (No. 102), Matt Kuchar (No. 111) and Webb Simpson (No. 149).
Canadians who need help are Adam Svensson (No. 82 in points) and Ben Silverman (No. 105). Taylor Pendrith, Corey Conners, Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes and Nick Taylor are safely inside the Top 70. Up until last year, it used to be Top 125 points who advanced. Do note that since PGA Tour player Grayson Murray died earlier this year, he will not be counted among the Top 70 in the points, so the No. 71 finisher on the official standings will secure a spot in the playoffs. Davis Riley currently sits 72nd.
The Wyndham Championship has been played since 1938 with a break for World War II. Sam Snead won this a PGA Tour single-event record eight times. Tiger Woods later tied that mark elsewhere for the most victories by a player at a single tournament, but Woods never won this event.
Sedgefield Country Club’s Ross Course in Greensboro, N.C., is the host and is a par 70 at 7,130 yards. Sedgefield opened in the 1920s. It has hosted continuously since 2008. It will take double digits under par to win as the worst winning score at Sedgefield in that span was 14-under by Patrick Reed in 2013, and he went to a playoff. We last had one of those in this tournament in 2021 when Kevin Kisner won a six-man playoff that included Canada’s Roger Sloan.
The defending champion is American Lucas Glover, who shot 20-under 260, the second straight year that was the winning score. Glover shot a final-round 2-under 68 for a two-shot victory over Russell Henley and Byeong Hun An. Glover started the week at No. 112, and the victory — his first in two years — moved him to No. 49. Glover is +10000 to repeat, which no one has done in this tournament since Snead in the 1950s, and he needs a good result to reach the playoffs as Glover sits 76th in points.
Americans have won this tournament the majority of time overall and in five of the past six years. We simply picked a USA winner last year at -167 and liked Henley at +2300 individually. Almost got it.
Wyndham Championship Golf Odds
South Korea’s Sungjae Im is the +1400 favourite and has not finished worse than 24th here in the past five years, including a runner-up in 2022 and a T14 last year. Im also has four straight Top 12 finishes on the PGA Tour entering the week.
Billy Horschel and Si Woo Kim are each +2500 with Shane Lowry at +2800. Lowry was Ireland’s flag-bearer at the opening ceremony in Paris and then finished T26 in the golf competition. Lowry hasn’t been Top 10 in this tournament since a seventh-place finish in 2017.
Horschel was the 54-hole leader last year who ended up fourth. His average round score here of 66.30 since 2018 is second-best in the field behind Webb Simpson’s 66.05 with Simpson, the 2011 winner of this event and twice a runner-up at, +5500. The North Carolina native is not having a good year and that’s why the long odds despite being a “Horse for the Course.” Simpson was fifth last year. Kim won here in 2016 and has a runner-up, third and fifth here since but was 33rd in 2023.
Jordan Spieth, who comes into the week at No. 63 in the FedExCup standings, returns to Sedgefield for the first time since 2020. He lost in a playoff in Greensboro in 2013 in his debut and is +3500.
The lone Canadian to win the tournament was Stan Leonard in 1957, which would be the first of his three career PGA Tour victories. Adam Svensson was the top finisher last year at T7, while Michael Gligic was T67. Adam Hadwin, Mackenzie Hughes and Taylor Pendrith missed the cut. Hadwin and Hughes are +8000 this week with Taylor, Svensson and Ben Silverman each +10000
Wyndham Championship Golf Predictions
While the prop hasn’t been posted yet, we’d simply recommend an American again, probably priced -200. For an individual, we will take Billy Horschel at +2500 as he has a good track record here and comes off a T2 at the British Open.
