Where does Sedgefield Country Club’s acclaimed Donald Ross design rank among courses that play host to PGA Tour events?
Better than Bay Hill Club, the famed course owned and frequented by Arnold Palmer. That’s according to a ranking by 1,800 Golf Digest panelists released online this weekend.
Sedgefield was No. 23 out of 36 courses in the rankings.
Judging by the effusive praise PGA Tour players show to Sedgefield each year during the Wyndham Championship, that ranking might seem a bit low. At each Wyndham, players praise the straight-forward style, shot-making requirements on hilly lies and trademark Ross greens as a welcome venue among the many TPC layouts and newer layouts emphasizing distance over shotmaking.
But it’s impressive when you consider that the top 10 includes seven major championship venues (Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach, Riviera, Aronimink, Quail Hollow and Bellerive) and the other three (TPC Sawgrass, Muirfield Village and East Lake) host the Players Championship, The Memorial and Tour Championship, arguably the Tour’s three biggest non-majors.
Many of the lowest-rated courses are the TPC venues, orginally associated with the Tour. TPC courses ranked Nos. 36, 35, 32, 31, 30 and 27. TPC Southwind was 22 and TPC San Antonio was 19.
In addition to Quail Hollow at 9, other Carolinas courses included Harbour Town (Heritage Classic) at 11 and Cliffs at Walnut Cove (Biltmore Championship Asheville) at 29.
Though Alex Smalley will be a long shot to win the Sony Open on Sunday, he should cash a nice paycheck for the opening event on the 2026 PGA Tour.
Smalley, who plays out of Sedgefield Country Club, shot 1-over-par 71 Saturday at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu for a 5-under 205 total entering the final round.
Smalley was in top 20 on the leaderboard late Saturday night, six strokes behind Davis Riley, who had a few holes left to play. Scores were higher in the third round due to strong, gusting winds.
For the second straight day, Smalley got off to a poor start. He bogeyed four of the first seven holes. He birdied four of the last 10 holes, including the par-5 18th, while making only one bogey.
Alex Smalley struggled from the start Friday after shooting an outstanding 64 in Thursday’s opening-round of the Sony Open, the first PGA Tour event of 2026.
The Greensboro resident quickly tumbled down the leaderboard with three bogeys and a double bogey on his first seven holes (he started on the back nine), dropping from sixth place to the cut line at windy Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
But the 29-year-old Sedgefield Country Club member dramatically righted his ship, reeling off a birdie at 18 and four more birdies on Waialae’s front nine to post even-par 70 for a 6-under-par 134 total, good for a tie for 13th with a few players left on the course.
The 120-player field will be cut to about 70 players for the remaining 36 holes. The $9.1 million purse pays $1.64 million to the winner.
Smalley trails leaders Davis Riley, S.H. Kim, Kevin Roy and Adrien Dumont de Chassert by only three strokes. Defending champion Nick Taylor and Chris Gotterup and John Parry were one stroke off the pace with a few holes to play.
A Triad resident is near the top of the leaderboard on the first day of the first 2026 PGA Tour event.
Alex Smalley, a former Duke golfer who makes his home in Greensboro and plays out of Sedgefield, shot 6-under-par 64 Thursday at the Sony Open at Waialae Country Club in Honolulu.
The 29-year-old Smalley made eight birdies and two bogeys to tie for sixth, two shots behind the leaders, defending champion Nick Taylor and Kevin Roy.
After shooting 32 on the front, Smalley reached 6-under with back-to-back birdies at Nos. 13 and 14. He bogeyed 17, but rebounded with a birdie at the par-5 18th hole.
The sale of a Triad country club is underway, and according to reports, the new owner will move forward with renovation plans.
A deal to sell Pennrose Park Country Club in Reidsville, which has a nine-hole golf course designed by Donald Ross, to real estate developer Tom Holderby has been confirmed to TriadGolf.com.
Holderby grew up in Reidsville. In December, he purchased the city’s Pennrose Mall for $2.8 million.
The club recently tore down a decaying pool house with plans to replace it. Renovation plans include improvements to bunkers and cart paths.
The club, which includes a pool and tennis courts, hosts events in its clubhouse.
Though it has a strong base of members, Pennrose Park accepts some outside play.
Give the members of the PGA Tour Board of Directors kudos for bringing back Brooks Koepka with a deal that should be acceptable to even the most resentful Tour members.
The PGA Tour took away Koepka’s player equity shares for the next five years, a penalty estimated to be worth somewhere between $50 million and $80 million. Such a penalty would make up for some, but not the entire bonus Koepka got from LIV. So a nice compromise.
There are other conditions, including a $5 million charity donation stipulated by the Tour’s new Returning Member Program, conveniently passed on the eve of Koepka’s announced desire to return.
But the player equity shares will hit LIV refugees hardest in the pocket book, though not immediately.
Isn’t ironic that the PGA Tour is taking away future non-competition boondoggles that Koepka and other LIV pioneers such as Bryson DeChambeau, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson forced the Tour to create?
That’s right. Without the threat of LIV and its ability to take away some of the PGA Tour’s biggest stars, there were no paydays for mere popularity. The PGA Tour created those funds to keep more of its stars from jumping to the fledgling LIV.
Remember how the PGA Tour criticized the LIV signing bonuses, while self-righteously holding itself up as true competition where financial success is based on tournament performance?
Yeah, the top players on the PGA Tour — typically the players fans come to see — have made millions and millions thanks to the options provided by LIV. Before LIV, PGA Tour headquarters wasn’t sharing anything other than tournament checks with its members.
Those changes included giving the players a majority on the PGA Tour Policy Board — the group that ratified the Returning Member Program — and PGA Tour Enterprises.
Granted, smaller elite fields and a reduction in annual exemptions have hurt the Tour’s fringe players, who do get a bigger check when they play and play well.
But all in all, competition from LIV made the PGA Tour more lucrative for its player/members.
There was a lot of head scratching about finding a reasonable solution to reinstatement for LIV players.
The PGA Tour found one for Koepka. Yet Koepka’s return didn’t trigger a mass return of other stars. On Tuesday afternoon Jon Rahm, Cameron Smith and DeChambeau verified their commitments to LIV for 2026. Then, young Belgian star Thomas Detry jumped to LIV and Dustin Johnson signed an LIV extension.
Heavy fines and long suspensions — penalties the most angry or resentful PGA Tour players wanted — weren’t going to work. Any money paid up front by Koepka might seem like a spiteful money grab.
LIV’s biggest stars weren’t going to turn over tens of millions in their bank accounts from their signing bonuses to the PGA Tour. And nobody, including the PGA Tour’s stars, saw any benefit from having LIV refugees sit out a year-long suspension while possibly winning a major championship.
Koepka could return to PGA Tour competition later this month.
But taking away future earnings — from non-competition funds that debuted after LIV was formed? That’s a much easier penalty to stomach.
Other conditions such as forcing the LIV refugees to earn their way into signature events make sense. That’s typically the case, unless you’re Jordan Spieth. While cleaning up the mess, the PGA Tour should go ahead and eliminate signature event sponsor’s exemptions.
Getting Koepka back is a win for the PGA Tour, but the damage was mitigated Tuesday when LIV avoided a knockout blow.
Meanwhile, the big-name LIV players past their prime can aim toward the Champions Tour — if it offers a reinstatement program.
A Triad golf course made the Golfweek list of the top 200 residential golf courses in the United States.
Old North State Club, a Tom Fazio design on Badin Lake in Montgomery County owned by McConnell Golf of Raleigh, tied for No. 115 on the list released last week.
Old North State has served as host to several major regional tournaments and was the longtime site of the ACC Men’s Golf Championship.The remote course, opened in 1991, is best known for its spectacular finish on the shores on the lake.
Treyburn Country Club in Durham, another Fazio design owned and operated by McConnell, tied for No. 126 on the list. McConnell’s Triad properties include Sedgefield Country Club and The Cardinal by Pete Dye.
The par-3 eighth is one of the top holes at Woodlake.
Greensboro architect Kris Spence had two North Carolina courses on the list — Woodlake Country Club in Vass at 162 and Lake Toxaway Country Club at 165.
The Carolinas dominated the list with 33 courses, including No. 1 Wade Hampton Golf Club, a Fazio design in Cashiers.
The longtime title sponsor of a PGA Tour event announced that 2026 would be its final year of sponsorship.
Farmers Insurance announced its sponsorship of the annual tournament at Torrey Pines in San Diego after 17 years.
Wyndham’s title sponsorship agreement with Greensboro’s annual tournament runs out after this year’s tournament at Sedgefield Country Club. No announcement about the future of the sponsorship has been made yet.
“We’ve been in talks and we’re going to take a little time after the tournament to continue chatting with them, see what the future looks like,” tournament executive director Mark Brazil told Sports Business Journal in late July. This fall, TriadGolf.com confirmed that the deal had not yet been extended.
Wyndham has been the title sponsor in Greensboro since 2007. Originally the Greater Greensboro Open, the tournament’s title sponsors were Chrysler and Kmart from 1988 through 2006.
A handful of other PGA Tour event title sponsorships were due to expire in 2026. Of those, 3M, Valspar and Zurich Insurance extended their arrangements. Sony, Genesis, Charles Schwab and Puerto Rico Tourism are reported to have deals that expire in 2026.
The PGA Tour has lost other longtime title sponsors in recent years. Honda ended its deal with a Florida tournament in 2023, replaced by Cognizant. Wells Fargo left the annual upper-tier event at Quail Hollow in 2024 and was replaced by Truist.
Sanderson Farms ended its sponsorship of a PGA Tour event in Mississippi in 2025 and the event was dropped from the 2026 schedule. New events are scheduled in Asheville sponsored by Biltmore Estate and Explore Asheville; and in Austin, Texas, sponsored by Good Good Golf.
The significant increase in PGA Tour purses since the debut of rival LIV Golf has driven up the price of sponsorships in recent years.
The U.S. Kids Golf Local Tour Spring 2026 Season Schedule has been released with six tournaments.
The one-day competitions are for kids ages 5-14. Players have the opportunity to amass points to qualify for state, regional and international events. Ages 11 and up will play 18 holes. Younger kids will play nine.
Players 8 and under must have a caddie.
For more information, contact Jay Allred at jay@triadgolf.com.
Though home to two world-class oceanfront golf courses on a spectacular barrier island in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Fripp Island remains a somewhat remote retreat, an ideal spot to relax, rewind and enjoy the peaceful surroundings.
While there, the only concern for many golfers is not hitting one of many deer who gather in the landing areas of some of the fairways. Well, that, and not getting too close to Sherman “The Tank,” a 12-foot alligator that patrols the 16th fairway on the Ocean Point course. A wide assortment of birds make their home on the island.
Golfers and vacationers rarely just stumble onto Fripp – the island is a destination. Accessed by a bridge at the eastern tip of two-lane U.S. 21, the resort island is 20 miles from bustling Beaufort and more than an hour’s drive from even busier Hilton Head Island.
The resort island’s special beauty has been featured in scenes in movies The Prince of Tides, Forrest Gump and The Jungle Book.
Once on the island, visitors are typically greeted first by packs of deer as they head for their housing in a small, palmetto-lined community, where many of the short jaunts to courses, restaurants and amenities are made by luxury golf cart.
Deer frequent the fairways unfazed by golfers at the Ocean Point course.
Fripp has beautiful beaches, but golf is the foremost attraction. With 36 holes open only to property owners and resort guests, open tee times are not a problem. Winter is a good season with overseeded tees and fairways and temperatures typically rising into the 60s.
The classic George Cobb-designed Ocean Point features four holes along the Atlantic Ocean, including an exhilarating finish along the beach.
For visitors, golf fees are significantly lower than the going rate at top resort courses in Hilton Head.
The newer Ocean Creek course, designed by Davis Love III, also provides a challenging, but fun test, weaving through pristine wetlands with its own ocean views.
Though lagoons and saltwater marsh must be carried or avoided on many holes, most of the landing areas are generous.
Strong ocean breezes often have a significant effect on strategy and club selection.
“That’s the major defense of the course,” Fripp Island pro Joe Wohlscheid said of the whipping winds. “If you can hit the fairways, you can definitely score.”
Ocean Point, originally opened in 1964, received a significant modernization from Dye Designs Group in 2024 following the resort’s purchase by Seascape Hospitality Group the previous year.
More than 50 bunkers were reshaped, 11 greenside bunkers, several fairway bunkers and 5.5 acres of waste area was added, increasing the course’s links feel. The new cart paths are made of crushed shells, limiting harsh kicks resulting from off-target shots.
Despite the breezes, sand, water and waste, Ocean Point isn’t overly intimidating on most of the tees. The approaches, though, often require navigating the conditions to hit moderate-size, Paspalum greens that roll moderately fast.
Most greens can be accessed in the front via putter from several yards off the surfaces. The collars are tightly cropped.
Stretching to a modest 6,500 yards from the back tees, the course’s teeth are evident in its 74.0 rating and 141 slope. With four other tees beginning at 4,065 yards, the course is playable beginners and high-handicappers.
Short par-5s, the longest is only 502 yards from the tips, skew the Ocean Point yardage totals. Three par-4s measure at least 425 yards. The par-3s also must traverse hazards – none are less than 178 yards. In the winter, the 186-yard No. 2 requires a crisp shot hit typically hit into a stiff wind.
A lagoon extends from the tee to the green at Ocean Point’s par-3 No. 2 hole, which sits only a few hundred yards from the ocean.
The Atlantic comes into play first on No. 9, running along the right side of dogleg left par-4 while a lagoon and waste area protect the dogleg.
Water guards the dogleg at No. 9 at Ocean Point with giant rocks separating the fairway from the ocean on the right.
The layout returns to the ocean on the left at the par-3 15th. The fairway on the par-5 16th is frequently dotted by deer seemingly oblivious to the risk of getting hit with a golf ball. A local rule allows players to drop out of deer tracks in the bunkers.
Second shots hit near the waste area and lagoon on the left at 16 are particularly dangerous when Sherman, estimated to be between 30 and 50 years old, suns himself near the water.
Sherman “The Tank,” a 12-foot alligator, suns himself along a lagoon on the 16th hole at Ocean Point.
At No. 18, the ocean hugs the left side of the rock-lined fairway with new native plants and grasses splashed with pot bunkers providing other hazards.
Ocean Creek, which dates to 1997, is a little more generous off five tees and at 6,400 yards measures 100 yards shorter than Ocean Point. But it’s no pushover from the tips with a 72.1 rating and 139 slope.
Panoramic views of saltwater marsh are offered on several holes. Lagoons and waste areas provide scenic obstacles. Wind is still a major factor, though the Paspalum targets are slightly larger than at Ocean Point.
Ocean Creek’s par-3s are fabulous, led by the 158-yard third hole over a lagoon it shares with No. 2.
Nos. 6, a par-3, and the par-4 seventh along Old House Creek are perhaps the signature holes. Eleven holes run along marsh or interior wetlands.
Ocean Creek winds through lagoons, saltwater marsh and interior wetlands.
Though Ocean Point is perhaps more popular than Ocean Creek with guests, Wohlscheid said many members prefer the Love design.
“Ocean Creek is wider and definitely more fan-friendly, you could say,” Wohlscheid said. “The par-3s are really stout.”
Though hard to resist an opportunity to play 36 holes during even the shortest days of the year, skipping a round to enjoy other amenities can be tempting, especially after feeding a few errant shots to the gators.
The sixth and seventh holes at Ocean Creek skirt Skull Inlet.
A community with housing ranging from large luxury homes to tennis and golf villas and oceanfront condos, Fripp offers a variety of vacation rentals that include access to the amenities, including both golf courses.
Activities with facilities include boating, kayaking, crabbing, swimming (ocean and pools), horseback riding, tennis and pickleball. The resort also has a well-equipped fitness center.
Marina Deli and Market and Springtide Market, have basic food staples. Otherwise, the nearest supermarkets are at least 15 minutes away.
The island also has three main restaurants: Ocean Point Grille at the Ocean Point clubhouse; Bonito Boathouse (the specialty is seafood) at the island marina; and Cabana Club overlooking Skull Inlet.
Other beachside, poolside and outdoor options, including food trucks, are available during the summer season.
Several casual restaurants, many of them offering seafood, are within 10 minutes of Fripp. Easy places to visit include neighboring Hunting Island, South Carolina’s most popular state park.
