Wyndham: Villegas defends, Woods starts

The PGA Tour heads to North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship. Camilo Villegas defends and Tiger Woods plays in a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

Lowdown: The PGA Tour heads to North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship. Camilo Villegas defends and Tiger Woods plays in a last-ditch attempt to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.

This event is a last chance for players to make it into the lucrative FedEx Cup playoffs and to remain in the picture to secure the $10 million bonus prize. Those currently just outside the crucial top-125 include defending champ Villegas (129th) and Japan’s Ryo Ishikawa (130th.)

Further adrift, and only guaranteed a spot in the playoffs if he wins at Sedgefield, is Tiger Woods. The former World Number 1 is currently 187th in the standings and is 292 points behind Charl Schwartzel who is currently 125th. A win would give Woods 500 points, second alone would be 300.

Schwartzel also plays and will be looking for a strong finish to solidify his spot in the top-125 and his place in The Barclays next week. Luke Donald of England is also in a precarious position in 124th. He’s also playing to try and make sure of his playoff participation.

Luke Donald slow motion swing sequence:

This is one of the oldest tournaments on the PGA Tour schedule. It was first contested in 1938 as the Greater Greensboro Open and Sam Snead was the winner, Snead won the tournament seven further times, lastly in 1965. Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Seve Ballesteros and Sandy Lyle have all been winners.

In last year’s championship Camilo Villegas played a brilliant final round of 63 to come from five behind and claim the title – his first win since the 2010 Honda Classic.

There could be rain, perhaps even thunderstorms again this week. It’s unlikely the tournament will be completed without some sort of delay to play.

Venue: Sedgefield CC, Greensboro, North Carolina Date: Aug 20-23 Course stats: par 70, 7,130 yards Purse: $5,400,000 Winner: $972,000 Defending Champion: Camilo Villegas (-17)

TV Coverage: Thursday 20 – Sky Sports 4 from 8pm Friday 21 – Sky Sports 4 from 8pm Saturday 22 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm Sunday 23 – Sky Sports 4 from 6pm

Player watch: Brooks Koepka – The powerful American has recorded seven straight top-25 finishes on the PGA Tour. He was tied fifth in last week’s USPGA Championship and will look to build on that.

Bill Haas – He has a good record at this venue with four top-20 finishes since 2009.  He was joint runner-up behind Villegas in 2014. He has decent recent form too – tied fourth in the Quicken Loans National.

Branden Grace – The South African has been playing some great stuff of late. He’s played brilliantly in both the U.S. Open and the USPGA Championship – alone in third at the USPGA.

Key hole: 18th. At 507 yards, this is a demanding closing hole. The second shot is played uphill but generally it will be from a downhill lie. The large green is guarded by four bunkers and par is a good score here.

Skills required: Putting – this event sees low scoring and an abundance of birdies. To enjoy success here players will have to get the flat-stick working well.