Weekly PGA Preview: Wyndham Championship

This article is part of our Weekly PGA Preview series.

Wyndham Championship 

Sedgefield Country Club
Greensboro, NC

The PGA Tour heads to Greensboro, NC this week for another edition of the Wyndham Championship.

Before we get to the Wyndham, a few thoughts on the season as a whole and the player of the year race. It's crazy that there is a discussion now about the player of the year, but when one guy dominates the entire first half of the season and another guy wins two of the final three majors, the talk starts. When I say that the talk starts, I mean from other people, because as far as I'm concerned, there really isn't a race for player of the year, it's Scottie Scheffler and this has nothing to do with winning the gold medal in Paris. Xander Schauffele's 2024 season would probably have won him player of the year in any season over the past decade, but not this year. Winning two majors is an incredible feat for any golfer, but it's been done before, more than a few times. What Scheffler is doing this year, is something that hasn't been done in a long time and that's to evoke comparisons to Tiger Woods. I hate to even bring Woods into the picture, because he was so much better than anyone since Jack Nicklaus, but after the way Scheffler has played this season, he's the only modern day comparison. Scheffler has flat out changed the game this season. He's the first player since Woods to bring "the Woods rules" into play for fantasy purposes, which is to have discussions on how to handle him or if to even include him in leagues because it's just not fair that one team can have this guy. In my salary cap league there's no option at this point, Scheffler has already made more than the projected cap, so there's no point in including him in the league. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself however, because it's easy to forget that what Scheffler is doing this year, Tiger did for over a decade, so with that in mind, that's the end of the comparisons for now. The only reason to bring up Tiger is to show how absurd Scheffler has been this season. Nothing outside of Schauffele winning all the FedEx events will reopen the conversation in my mind.                                                            

All odds via FanDuel Sportsbook as of 4:00 PM ET Tuesday.                   

LAST TIME

Lucas Glover shot a final round 68 on his way to a two-stroke victory over Russell Henley and Byeong Hun An.

FAVORITES

Sungjae Im (12-1) 

For the second consecutive week we get odds that resemble something normal for a golf tournament because the new big three are not in attendance this week. Im is in the midst of a good season as he's on track for his 2nd-highest earnings number of his career, but he's yet to post a win or even a top-3. He came close the Scottish Open, finishing 4th and he backed that up with a top-10 at the Open Championship. His track record here is very solid with three top-10s in five starts. It would be nice to get a bigger number on Im, but even at 12-1, there is some value here.   

Billy Horschel (22-1)

Horschel has been hit or miss all season, but when he's hit, he's hit it big. Horschel won in Punta Cana earlier this year and he nearly won the Open Championship this past month, which has all added up to be what should be a career best in earnings this season. If he keeps his Open Championship form he'll be tough to beat as his track record here is very solid Horschel finished runner-up here in 2020 and he finished 4th here this past year. He's finished T11 or better in four of his past five starts at this event. 

Si Woo Kim (22-1)

Kim is having a good season, but he's not been able to back up his 2023 season where he picked up a win and over $5 million in earnings. He's managed to rack up a decent earnings number because of volume and the fact that he doesn't miss many cuts. The problem with Kim however is that he hasn't done much on the weekend. He's landed in the top-25 nine times this season, but only one of those resulted in a top-10. Now for the good news, his track record here is great. He won this event in 2016, and finished in the top-5 in 2019, 2020 and 2021. So, what wins out this week, track record or current form? I expect a good week from Kim, but I doubt he wins.   

THE NEXT TIER

Shane Lowry (25-1)

Even though he's yet to win and has just one top-3 this season, Lowry will post his best earnings number of his career this year. That's due in large part to his six top-10s this season. Two of those top-10s have come in his two most recent starts, which means he's trending in the right direction this week. His track record here isn't great however, but the competition might allow for Lowry to find his first win of the season. Again, not a ton of value here, but at 25-1, he's worth a look.        

Davis Thompson (30-1)

When we last saw Thompson in the states, he was one of the hottest golfers on the planet, but a trip across the pond did him no favors as he played poorly in the Scottish Open and the Open Championship. With that said, he returns to a more familiar layout this week and perhaps that's all he needs to get back on track. Prior to leaving the states, Thompson finished runner-up at the Rocket Mortgage Classic and won the John Deere Classic.  

Akshay Bhatia (35-1)

Bhatia is having quite the season. He picked up a win at the Valero Texas Open in April and although he had a bit of a hangover after that, he found his footing again in June, where he went on another impressive run. His track record here is terrible, but as is the case often with young players, he's a much better golfer now than he was at any point in the past, so I'm not putting too much stock into his past results.     

LONG SHOTS

Min Woo Lee (50-1)       

The odds chart is a little odd this week as you've got some big names in this range including Jordan Spieth and Keegan Bradley, but if I'm looking for someone with some upside, I'm taking Lee. Lee has not played up to expectations this season, but he was playing well prior to the two events in Europe and like Thompson, perhaps a return to a standard American course might serve this well. Lee finished runner-up at the Rocket Mortgage Classic as well and he should pick up where he left off there.                                        

Robert MacIntyre (55-1)

Speaking of another big name down the odds chart. Okay, so MacIntyre isn't exactly a big name yet, but he's won twice this season, so he deserves more respect than his number would indicate. Perhaps the reason he's 55-1 this week is his unpredictable play. He's missed a lot of cuts this season, but when he's been on, he's been really good. If this is one of those weeks when he's on, then he can win, he's already done so twice this season.        

ONE-AND-DONE LEAGUES

Highly-Chosen Pick: Sungjae Im - Im isn't all that familiar with being the favorite, but I doubt that will have any bearing on his play this week. I also doubt that Im has been used a lot in most OAD leagues, which should make him a pretty popular play. Im is probably the safest play on the board, even if his chances of winning aren't great.

Moderately-Chosen Pick: Billy Horschel - After a high-profile weekend at the Open Championship, Horschel is bound to be pretty popular. Horschel has been all over the place this season, but he showed a few weeks ago that he has plenty of game and against a weaker field like this, he can certainly win if he's on his game.        

Lightly-Chosen Pick: Davis Thompson - Though this field is missing most of the top players, there are still a lot of big names, which means a guy like Thompson is sure to fall through the cracks. Thompson's run might be over, or it might not be. I won't make a judgement on that until I see him play in the states. Until then, I'm going on the assumption that his game will still be there on American soil.                                           

Buyer Beware: Cameron Young - I've been expecting Young to breakthrough all season, but it just hasn't happened and I don't think it will this year. Young looks the part and at times he's played extremely well, but there's something missing right now. It will likely take an off season for Young to figure out where he's going wrong.  

This Week: Billy Horschel - I mentioned a few weeks ago that I'm no longer chasing longshots in my OAD and that I'm just making the best possible selection, so with that in mind, I' going with Horschel this week. I used Im early in the season, so he's not an option and although Horschel is bound to be popular, I have to take him in this spot. If I were trying to make up ground, I'd probably take a chance on Thompson.    

Previous Results

FANDUEL PICKS

Upper Range: Sungjae Im ($12,000) 
Middle Range: Min Woo Lee ($10,300) 
Lower Range: Stephan Jaeger ($9,200)

SURVIVOR LEAGUES

This Week: Billy Horschel - Horschel has not been reliable this season, but he's on top of his game entering this week and he's made 10-11 cuts here. That and I've used the three favorites already in this format, so I had to go a bit down the chart to find my pick this week.