Matt Wallace Says Wyndham Championship Course Is 'Too Severe'

Matt Wallace carded a nice three-under round of 67 on the opening day of the Wyndham Championship, but was by no means happy with the set-up at Sedgefield Country Club.

The Englishman carded four bogeys, five birdies and an eagle in his opening round, but was far from satisfied even after the start set him up nicely in his pursuit of a place in the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

Wallace started the week in 80th in the FedEx Cup Playoff standings and needing something like a top-five finish to have chance of making the top 70 that gets into next week's St Jude Championship.

He's T16 after his first round so in position nicely - but that was not enough for him to be satisfied due to some aspects of the course being unfair in his opinion.

"A bit p****d off actually with the finish," Wallace said after his round. "Playing nicely, just frustrated. I don't like this golf course.

"The runoffs are just absolutely ridiculous. It's just not fun to play. This is my third time playing. Every single time like, yeah, 83 percent of the winners hit greens in regulation pretty much, so a lot of greens in regulation is key.

"But the penalty for a miss - it's too severe, so they need to do something about it."

Wallace did admit that "maybe I'm just being me and being a bit bitchy" and he would like to be saying something completely different come Sunday.

"I'm here to win a golf tournament," he added. "Hopefully I can turn that tune around and at the end of the week I'll tell you I absolutely love this golf course and thanks for having me and I'll be back again next year."

But although he likes the event, his "personal preference" not to have such severe runoffs means that Wallace would likely not have played had he not been desperate to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs.

"I want to be here, I just don't like the golf course," he continued. "I want to be here, I want to play here and I want to play well. 

"So great tournament, great sponsor. Just for me, I just don't like - if I don't have to come here, I wouldn't, but I kind of need to."

Wallace is leaning heavily on his sports psychologist this week, to not let his negative thoughts on the course impact his play.

"I think the most important person here this week with me is my psychologist and we're trying to enjoy the tournament rather than what it produces.

"Just talking about how I'm playing, how we're going to go into today, play every single hole on its merits or individually. And I think I did that really well, especially at the start when I was playing really nicely.

"And hopefully if I win I'll say something different at the end of the week, I absolutely love this golf course."