Course: Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, NC

-Par 70, 7127 yards

-Hosted this event every year since 2008

-Fairways: Bermuda grass

-Rough: Bermuda grass

-Greens: Champion Bermuda grass with stimp around 12 the last 5 years

-Avg. Green Size around 6,500 sq. ft. which is about average for the TOUR

-Field: 156 players; Cut is Top 70 and ties with possible MDF

– One of the easier courses on tour with winning score around -20 or lower

PGA Championship Recap

I’m not saying yesterday (Sunday) was the best final round in a major of all time; however, that was the greatest Sunday of golf I’ve seen in my lifetime. Yes, I am a total Tiger homer and of course wanted him to pull it off, but Brooks has ice in his veins and has clearly shown he doesn’t collapse under any sort of pressure. Seriously, the balls to know you have the lead and proceed to pipe a driver down the fairway on both 17 and 18 was pretty remarkable to watch and good on him to continue to absolutely dominate every major. Congrats to Brooks on now capturing his 3^rd major title, his 2^nd of the year, and what clearly will not be his last. Tiger went +3 on his first 2 holes of the tournament only to play the next 70 at -17. He finished solo 2^nd and clearly contended with the young studs of the TOUR. He has moved from 656^th in the world to start the year to 26^th. Yeah, I think Tiger is ready to fucking win again. Beyond Tiger, I was just so glad to not see a runaway and have everyone at the top of the leaderboard (with the exception of Rickie) play some of their best golf and leave no room for error. Overall, I think the PGA could have made the pin locations a little bit tougher, especially on Sunday, because I’ve never felt like in a major the guys should be able to go after every single pin (maybe put them closer to the fringe?), but I loved watching this tournament and the crowds at St. Louis were beyond electric. 237 days till Augusta.

Sedgefield Country Club

Sedgefield is classic Donald Ross design (1926) that has played host to the Wyndham every year since 2008 and is the last chance for many guys on the bubble to make the FedEx Cup playoffs (Top 125 in ranking after this week). Traditionally one of the easier courses on tour, the winning score often gets into the -20s range with the last 2 winners, Stenson and Kim, winning at -22 and -21, respectively. When first looking at the course you notice that it’s not very long, so driving distance can kind of be thrown out the window here as everyone can get to their comfortable iron range and most everyone can reach the Par 5s in two. The green size is average, at around 6,500 sq. ft. but with many different tiers on the greens, as is traditional with Ross designs, being on the right quadrant (no pun intended) is key to not leave yourself massive lag putts. The course has some of the easier to hit fairways as well with the hit fairway % around 71%, compared to the TOUR average of about 61%. The GIR% is about 71% compared to the TOUR average of 65%. As we look at the scorecard below, as I already mentioned, you need to be able to make tons of birdies, maybe even an eagle or two, to be anywhere close to competing as the scoring average is about 68-69.

So, what’s it going to take to compete? Like I said above I don’t think bombing is necessary but of course distance never really hurts your chances. Key things will be Par 5 scoring as about 30% of BoB come from the 2 Par 5s. Next, 8 of the 12 Par 4s fall in the 400-450 range so guys who can key in on their short to mid irons and beat the scoring average of 4.01 on Par 4s will have a huge edge. Lastly, I think when looking at approaches, as I’ll note below, it’s important to always use SG: APP but I like to put emphasis this week on the mid-short irons but also include approaches from 200+. The 200+ range helps us to factor in the 2-3 Par 3s that will be over 200 yards as well as the Par 5 approaches for players going for the green in two shots.

Stats I think I’ll be targeting include SG: Ball Striking (Player’s rank in both total driving AND GIR), SG: APP (with emphasis on 125-175 and 200+), Par 4 Scoring on 400-450, GIRs Gained, SG: Par 5, BoB Gained, 3 Putt Avoidance, Fairways Gained, and Good Drives Gained. Please note that there should always be some emphasis on SG: T2G but since that is used each and every week I don’t include it in stats that I’m “targeting.” I will go into more depth on my finalized stats, players who’s form I like, course history, and more in my DFS article in the next day or two.

That’s all for the course preview! Follow me on Twitter @sscherman and follow @AmateurHour_Pod too for picks, podcasts with FIRE guests, and weekly picks to win.