Thanks to the Olympics, the upcoming Wyndham Championship is shaping up to have the strongest field in several years.
Several of the world’s best players, idle this week due to the limited-field Olympic competition in Paris, have committed to play at Sedgefield Country Club in the Aug. 8-11 Wyndham.
According to tournament officials, the list of Wyndham commitments — players still have until this Friday afternoon until the deadline — includes four of the top 20 players in the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup standings. Those include No. 9 Sungjae Im, No. 10 Shane Lowry, No. 15 Akshay Bhatia, and No. 17 Robert MacIntyre. Lowry and MacIntrye are coming off impressive showings at the British Open.
Other notable commits include 2023 British Open champion Brian Harman and Wake Forest product Cameron Young, who finished second in the 2022 PGA Championship and third in the 20923 British Open. Justin Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion, the third-round leader and eventual co-runner-up at the recent British Open. Former Wake standout Will Zalatoris, whose short pro career includes runner-up finishes at the U.S. Open, Masters, PGA Championship, has also committed.
Billy Horschel and Kevin Kisner are among other early commitments as are several past Wyndham winners, including defending champion Lucas Glover.
The PGA Tour and DP World Tour took this week off. The Olympics competition includes four U.S. players and no more than two each from other countries.
In recent years, nearly all of the game’s top players have skipped the Wyndham to rest and prepare for the lucrative FedEx Cup Playoffs, which begins this year on Aug. 15. The Wyndham’s purse of $7.9 million is one of the smallest on the PGA Tour. The FedEx Cup winner earns $25 million from a bonus pool of more than $100 million.
But skipping this year’s Wyndham would mean two weeks off prior to the playoffs.
As of Wednesday, U.S. Olympians Scottie Scheffler, Xander Schauffele, Collin Morikawa and Wyndham Clark, as well as Ludvig Aberg, Rory McIlroy and other marquee players on the PGA Tour such as Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and Patrick Cantlay had yet to commit to play at Sedgefield.
For much of the past two decades, the Wyndham was known as a last chance for players to finish in the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list and secure full status on the next year’s tour. Last year, the tournament also became a last chance to finish in the top 70 and qualify for the FedEx playoffs.
Players between No. 30 and No. 50 also have incentive to play at Sedgefield because only the top 50 after the first playoff tournament, the St. Jude Championship advance to the BMW Championship, and only the top remaining 30 make it to final weekend at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
