Steve Palmer's Wyndham Championship preview, best bets, free golf tips

Golf tips, best bets and player analysis for the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club on the PGA Tour.

Where to watch

Live on Sky Sports Golf from 6pm Thursday

Best bets

Si Woo Kim
2pts each-way 40-1 Ladbrokes
Kevin Kisner
2pts each-way 40-1 Hills, Sky Bet
Shane Lowry
1.5pts each-way 40-1 Hills, Sky Bet
Will Gordon
0.5pt each-way 125-1 Betfair, Hills, Paddy Power, Sky Bet

Analysis

The FedEx Cup playoffs are nearly upon us as the craziest golfing year of all time continues – and players such as Branden Grace, Aaron Wise, Danny Willett and Sergio Garcia are hoping to use the Wyndham Championship to move inside the 125 qualification places.

The Wyndham is the last chance for them, along with Rafa Cabrera-Bello, Shane Lowry and Matt Wallace, to secure a spot in the playoffs. Others, including Charl Schwartzel, are trying to cling on to a berth just inside the top 125, while Brooks Koepka is seeking a surge from 92nd in the standings.

Koepka is competing for a sixth consecutive week and makes no appeal as a hip complaint developed at the US PGA to go with his long-standing knee issue. A final-round 74 at Harding Park did not bode well for the Wyndham or the playoffs.

Steve Palmer's top tip

Si Woo Kim 40-1

While Koepka was hacking his way down the leaderboard in San Francisco on Sunday, Si Woo Kim was putting the finishing touches to a third consecutive round of 68, and the Korean youngster can be hugely encouraged by his US PGA effort.

Kim's career has been remarkable. It started when he secured a PGA Tour card through Q School before he was even old enough to use it, having to wait until his 18th birthday to take membership. Three years later the prodigy became the youngest winner in Players Championship history with a nerveless performance as a 21-year-old at Sawgrass.

That three-shot Florida triumph was not Kim's maiden PGA Tour title – the breakthrough had come ten months earlier in the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. Kim did not just win, he destroyed the opposition and a second-round 60 fired the Seoul man to a five-shot success.

Sedgefield will always have a special place in Kim's heart and he has returned there this week with his A-game appearing. Hard work is paying off and Kim is one of only two players who have teed up in every post-lockdown PGA Tour week. Given how many injury problems he has suffered since joining the circuit, that run of nine tournaments without his body breaking down is a source of great encouragement.

Kim has made seven cuts in a row, with 11th place in the Travelers and 18th in the Memorial hinting at promise, and 13th spot in the US PGA was a significant step up. He closed with a 64 for fifth place in the Wyndham last year, despite the fact he turned up immediately after six consecutive missed cuts and was bereft of confidence.

This time, the self-belief must be there, and Kim can secure his playoffs spot in style. He lies 121st in the standings, so has no margin for error, but a big week can be anticipated. He made nothing worse than a bogey at Harding Park and a year working with Claude Harmon on his swing appears to be bearing fruit.

Next best bet

Kevin Kisner 40-1

The US PGA also provided a fillip for Kevin Kisner, who enjoyed a five-under-par weekend for a share of 19th place, with his approach play and putting particularly impressive. That hot putter should serve him well at Sedgefield, a short, classic design which he relishes.

Kisner, third in the Rocket Mortgage Classic on a Donald Ross design a month ago before he closed with a 65 for 25th place in the Memphis WGC, has shown enough lately to suggest a fourth PGA Tour victory is entirely feasible in the Wyndham.

The 2019 WGC-Match Play champion is a Carolinian who has always been fond of Sedgefield, where he finished eighth in 2014 as a Tour maiden and tenth in 2016. From 52nd in the FedEx standings he could do with a boost before the playoffs.

Other selections

Shane Lowry 40-1

Will Gordon 125-1

Shane Lowry snapped a club in anger last week and the Open champion probably finds it difficult to believe he is outside of the FedEx playoff places, but a strong performance in the Wyndham would solve that problem and Sedgefield is an ideal venue for a revival.

Lowry is dangerous on old, classic layouts such as this one, where scrambling is important around small greens, as he showed when second in the Canadian Open last summer. A 67-64-67-67 effort for seventh place in the 2017 Wyndham confirmed that Sedgefield suits, and a missed cut after a pair of 69s in his only subsequent visit in 2018 is easy to forgive.

Lowry carded four rounds in the 60s for sixth place in the WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational prior to his disappointing US PGA, so expect an immediate bounceback in North Carolina.

Complete a four-pronged attack with Will Gordon, who finished third in the Travelers Championship on a sponsors invite in June to claim a PGA Tour card. Gordon was born in Davidson, North Carolina, knows Sedgefield well, and is from the same college crop as Collin Morikawa. The US PGA champion may have provided all the inspiration Gordon needs for a PGA Tour breakthrough. The 24-year-old was not far behind Morikawa, Viktor Hovland and others in his amateur days.

Players to note

Webb Simpson
The North Carolina-based favourite provides a serious dilemma for punters this week. His Sedgefield form is magnificent, including a victory in 2011 and results of 3-2-2 for the last three years. He has two wins under his belt this year and could easily complete a hat-trick if fully switched on. Caddie issues are the concern. Paul Tesori's injured back did not recover in time for him to carry in the US PGA. Tesori says he will “give it a go” for Sedgefield, but he is clearly far from 100 per cent and could prove an unsettling sidekick for Simpson.

Brendon Todd
The tidy Pittsburgh man is not so handicapped by his lack of length at Sedgefield and could build on solid form figures of 22-15-17 which were achieved in much better events than this one.

Doc Redman
The North Carolinian has produced some eye-catching tee-to-green golf since lockdown and could flourish on home turf this week.

Brandt Snedeker
The former FedEx Cup champion has been in lacklustre form, but his record of success on Ross designs means he must be respected for the Wyndham.

Sedgefield course guide

Course Sedgefield Country Club, Greensboro, North Carolina
Prize money $6.4m ($1.116m to the winner)
Length 7,131 yards
Par 70
Field 156
Course records- 72 holes 258 Henrik Stenson (2017), JT Poston (2019) 18 holes 59 Brandt Snedeker (2018)

Course winners taking part Carl Pettersson, Ryan Moore, Arjun Atwal, Webb Simpson, Patrick Reed, Davis Love, Si Woo Kim, Brandt Snedeker, JT Poston

When to bet By midday Thursday

When to watch Live on Sky Sports Golf from 6pm Thursday

Time difference North Carolina is five hours behind the UK and Ireland

Last week - US PGA 1 C Morikawa (35-1), T2 P Casey (100-1), D Johnson (22-1), T4 M Wolff (110-1), J Day (40-1), B DeChambeau (16-1), T Finau (50-1), S Scheffler (100-1), 9 J Rose (60-1)

Course type Parkland

Course overview Donald Ross created this layout in 1926 and it was redesigned by Kris Spence in 2007. Sedgefield Country Club has hosted this tournament from 2008 onwards, returning to the PGA Tour schedule after a 32-year absence. Modern professionals have found birdies easy to come by in the Wyndham, with winning scores of 21, 16, 20, 18, 18, 14, 17, 17, 21, 22, 21 and 22 under the last 12 years. The greens were switched to Champion Bermuda grass for the 2012 event in an effort to make them harder and faster. They are small, undulating and typically slope from back to front, with plenty of run-off areas around them, so quality scrambling is required. The 507-yard par-four 18th and 501-yard par-four 14th are the most difficult holes, while the 547-yard 15th and the 529-yard fifth (the only par fives on the course) are the easiest

The story of last year JT Poston fired a final-round 62 to pip Webb Simpson by a shot, matching the 72-hole course record in the process and going bogey-free, making his PGA Tour breakthrough

Weather forecast Hot and humid, with a thunderstorm threat all week. Light breezes throughout

Type of player suited to the challenge There are five holes at Sedgefield which fall into the category of difficult – the par fours at 11, 14 and 18, and the two long par threes (seven and 12) – but the rest of the track is straightforward. The champion is likely to have spent four days regularly rolling in birdie putts

Key attribute Touch/putting

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