Course Review: Sedgefield Country Club

With the European circuit approaching the end of a 4-week hiatus, the US PGA Tour stays in the Carolinas for the last regular season event of the year before the FedEx playoffs start next week. Players will be hoping for better conditions than at last week's weather-disrupted PGA Championship as Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina hosts the Wyndham Championship.

Formerly known as the Greater Greensboro Open, this is one of the oldest surviving events on Tour and dates back to 1938. The legendary Sam Snead won the inaugural championship that was held here at Sedgefield, and all-time-great Ben Hogan won his first tour title here two years later. Highlights of Sedgefield's historic past include the 1961 tournament invitation to African American Charles Sifford, and Sam Snead's 1965 record-setting 8th event victory at the ripe old age of 57, a full 27 years after his first win here.

The course itself is an original 1926 Donald Ross layout, designed when the celebrated Scottish- born architect (whose credits include Oakland Hills and Pinehurst No2) was at the peak of his powers. Following years of tinkering, the course had strayed considerably from Ross's concept, so a yearlong $3 million restoration project was undertaken in 2006 to reinstate the designer's original intents and shot values.

By the numbers, Sedgefield's Bermudagrass fairways and bentgrass greens stretch to just over 6500 metres and play to a par of 70. Also, there are 48 bunkers, 12 creeks and 1 pond. However, although not long off the tees, the course is best played from the green back to the tee, with position in the fairway key to getting the correct angle to be able to attack the pin. With Sedgefield's extremely undulating greens generally sloping from back to front and edges that run off into collection areas, players will need to have their short game dialled in. The easiest hole is usually the 485m uphill par 5 played to a plateau green. Likely to give up a handful of birdies, this is the beginning of a 5-hole stretch that delivers four of the five easiest holes on the course. Last year the 460m par 4 finishing hole was the toughest - with a tricky uphill approach from a downhill lie to a well-bunkered green – yielding an average of only 10 birdies each round.

A Golf Weather
Editorial