By Brian Wacker
If you’ve ever watched a golf broadcast you’ve undoubtedly heard the cliche (and vastly overused term) “moving day” in reference to the third round of a PGA Tour event. Except Saturday at the Wyndham Championship really was.

With tee times moved up because of bad weather in the afternoon, and conditions soft, players took advantage with some seriously scorable conditions. Combined players posted 19 rounds of 65 or better on the par-70 Sedgefield Country Club, including a career-low 61 for Jim Herman and a career-low 62 for Rob Oppenheim, lifting both into contention.

With so many birdies, it made for a packed leader board with 18 players within a stroke of the lead at one point before things settled down.

Joining the players who made the most of the red-number day was Si Woo Kim, whose eight-under 62 included a spectacular reaction to the third hole-in-one of his career, and leads by two over Oppenheim and Doc Redman. Here’s more on that and a few other observations from a birdie-filled, early-bird third round of the Wyndham Championship.

A feel-good story to keep an eye on
Rob Oppenheim has played professional golf for nearly two decades and has ended every one of those 18 years having to go to the PGA Tour’s old qualifying school or, more recently, the Korn Ferry Tour Finals.

Sunday, he’ll have a chance to change that after racking up seven birdies, an eagle and just one bogey (on the 18th hole) during his career-best third round. “I just felt very comfortable,” he said. “Tee to green was solid and made some putts.”

Jared C. Tilton
Rob Oppenheim sits tied for second, two strokes off the lead entering the final round. His best finish in 76 career PGA Tour starts is T-8.

That’s an understatement. Oppenheim made a 50-footer for birdie on the first and backed it up with a 34-footer for another birdie one hole later. Terrific iron play—he hit 16 greens—and a hot putter continued throughout, putting him on the precipice of his first career win on tour.

Oppenheim started the week 145th on the FedEx Cup points list. Even without a win, a top-five finish would get the 40-year-old Massachusetts native inside the top 125 and into the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the first time. However, in 76 career starts, Oppenheim’s best showing is a T-8.

“I’ve never been in one of the last two or three groups on Sunday, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’ve been fighting to keep my job or trying to get out here,” said Oppenheim, whose previous best finish in the FedEx Cup standings was 158th in the 2015-’16 season. “Don’t get much more pressure than that.”

Mind you, this year is a little different for Oppenheim. Because of the number of tournaments lost to the COVID-19 shutdown, all players with tour cards keep their status for the 2020-’21 season. So Oppenheim isn’t quite playing for his livelihood next year, but a top 125 finish on the points list does improve his status. Either way, he’s curious how he’ll react come Sunday.

“We’ll see what I’m feeling, but I’m excited,” he said. “I like the golf course, very comfortable here, so I’m looking forward to it.”

Did we mention that he was also 500 to 1 to win at the start of the week?

Jared C. Tilton
Jim Herman shot his career-best score in a PGA Tour event when he posted a nine-under 61 Saturday at Sedgefield Country Club.

Another career day
Jim Herman came into this week having missed the cut in seven of his last 11 starts, so naturally it stood to reason that he’d shoot a scorching 61 on Saturday, right?

Or perhaps it was just another sign that the 40-year-old was about to win for third time in his career.

Prior to his victory at last year’s Barbasol Championship, Herman had missed the cut in 12 of his 14 starts leading into the event.

Five straight birdies, including one from 45 feet on the 14th, before a par at the 18th certainly helped the cause on Saturday.

Chris Keane
Webb Simpson is contending at the Wyndham Championship … again.

Webb lurking
It will absolutely stun you to know that Webb Simpson, who has finished in the top three each of the last three years at Sedgefield, will go into the final round in contention yet again after a 65 on Saturday.

But if the eight-time tour winner is going to add another trophy from this event to his mantel—he won the Wyndham in 2011—he’s probably going to need something even lower on Sunday.

With five strokes and six players separating Simpson from Kim, that’s an awful lot of ground to make up in what will undoubtedly be another shootout.

Shots from Saturday that might end up costing Simpson: A bogey from 154 yards out in the middle of the fairway on the fourth hole and another on the difficult 18th after missing the fairway left off the tee.

Si Woo makin’ that ace, makin’ that ace
If you missed Si Woo Kim’s hole-in-one on the third hole Saturday, you can read about it and his epic reaction here.

If that wasn’t enough excitement, he nearly made another ace with his ball stopping just inches from the flag on Sedgefield’s 12th hole. It set up one of seven birdies to go with his eagle and just one bogey, and of course garnered another NBD reaction from the 25-year-old Korean.

Si Woo Kim already has one ace today.

He couldn’t get any closer to a second … ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/VuTkQ1RsY8

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 15, 2020

Only three other players on tour have ever made two aces in one round, with Brian Harman the last to do so at the 2015 Barclays. Kim, meanwhile, will have to instead settle for a two-shot lead as he tries to pick up his third career victory on Sunday.

The post Si Woo Kim keeps knocking down flags and four other takeaways from Saturday at the Wyndham Championship appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

By Ryan Herrington
There are gluttons for punishment, and then there is Rob Oppenheim.

In 2015, the former NCAA D-II champion from Rollins College finished No. 26 on the Web.com Tour money list, one measly spot out of earning a PGA Tour card for the second time in his journeyman career. He earned some redemption, though, when he snuck into the No. 25 spot in the final event of the Web.com Tour Finals Series to earn a PGA Tour card by $101.

In 2016, unable to hold on to his PGA Tour card, Oppenheim went to the Web.com Tour Finals Series again and was No. 26 heading into the Web.com Tour Championship, just $392 out of the 25th spot that would have gotten him back to the big leagues. But Hurriance Mathew rolled through Florida and forced tour officials to cancel the Tour Championship, keeping Oppenheim from getting the chance to move inside the number. (As my colleague likes to say, a freakin’ act of God kept him off the tour.)

Well, guess who is No. 26 on the Web.com Tour money list again entering the final event of the regular season, this week’s WinCo Foods Portland Open? Yes, that would be Rob Oppenheim.

The 37-year-old Massachusetts native has had four top-10 finishes on the Web.com Tour this season, including a runner-up showing at last month’s Utah Championship and a T-5 last week in Knoxville. Still, he $6,257 short of Beau Hossler in the No. 25 spot.

“You really can’t really make that up,” Oppenheim told the Boston Herald of his déjà vu. “It’s a good spot to be in, in the sense where I’m close. I’m definitely close to getting my tour card again. This year is a little more consistent, to be where I am without a win.”

Interesting, Oppenheim has one top-10 finish in a PGA Tour event this year, having gotten an exemption into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am (Pebble Beach CEO Bill Perocchi is a Massachusetts native who was his partner). He finished eighth, earning $216,000—more than his entire earnings this year on the Web.com Tour ($148,709).

On Thursday, Oppenheim was in the morning wave of players teeing off at Pumpkin Ridge G.C.’s Witch Hollow course, and shot an even-par 71 to start the Web.com event. That left him eight strokes back of early leader Conrad Shindler and in a relatively precarious spot going into Friday’s action.

Of course, if he can’t make the cut and earn enough money to get inside there top 25, there is always Web.com Tour Finals again. But given his history there, you know Oppenheim would like to try to take care of business this week rather than leave things up to the golf gods or mother nature.

The post You’ll never guess who’s on the bubble for a PGA Tour card in the Web.com regular-season finale (OK, maybe you will) appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.