Donald Ross fans, avert your eyes. An Englishman has taken aim at one of the legendary course architect’s North Carolina gems — Sedgefield Country Club, host of this week’s Wyndham Championship.

In a stunning turn of events, that Englishman’s name is not Tyrrell Hatton, a man who seems to have nothing nice to say about any venue on the PGA Tour schedule (except for TPC Sawgrass, of all places). It’s four-time DP World Tour winner Matt Wallace, who opened with a solid three-under 67 on Thursday, which has him in a tie for 16th and inched him a little closer to the projected top 70 in the FedEx Cup standings. It’s the type of start you’d think a player would be thrilled with in a make-or-break event.

Thrilled is the last word you’d use to describe how Wallace was feeling afterward, however. Two bogeys over his final three holes certainly played a role in that, but so did a few of the design features he felt contributed to those bogeys.

“A bit [annoyed] actually with the finish,” Wallace said. “Playing nicely. Yeah, just frustrated. I don’t like this golf course.”

Why is that, a reporter on site astutely followed up. Wallace was more than willing to go into detail.

“Because the run-offs are just absolutely ridiculous and this — it’s just not fun to play,” said Wallace. “Hit a shot out of the rough on the last and it landed on the front and runs backwards 40 yards. Like, it’s just not great.

“Yeah, I shouldn’t be in the rough,” he added. “But it’s difficult to hit the fairway all the time, especially like this. And then hit shots to the front and just — this is my third time playing. Every single time like, yeah, 83 per cent of the winners hit green in regulations pretty much, so a lot of green in regulations is key, but the penalty for miss — even on the par 3 down the hill, 12, you can’t go long because you can putt it off the green, so you play the smart play and you play it towards the front, the middle and, from 220 yards, I mean, it’s too severe, so they need to do something about it.”

Wallace, a notoriously fiery player, missed the cut in each of his previous two appearances at Sedgefield, each time needing a huge week in order to advance to the FedEx Cup Playoffs. So you can understand the frustration. Though, to that, some would say, “play better”.

In fairness to Ross, an all-time great, Wallace wants to like it. He’s trying.

“Just know that — I’m trying to like it, I’m trying to like it,” he said. “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. So great tournament, great sponsor. Just for me, if I didn’t have to come here, I wouldn’t, but I kind of need to.”

RELATED: Matt Wallace berates his caddie on camera

Wallace entered the week at 80th in the FedEx Cup standings, needing to jump 10 spots in order to make the Playoffs for the first time in his career. The Playoffs come with some serious job security for 2024, hence why Wallace not only needs to be here, but needs to play well here.

“I want to be here, I just don’t like the golf course,” Wallace said. “I want to be here, I want to play here and I want to play well. Maybe I shouldn’t say that. And hopefully if I win I’ll say something different at the end of the week, I absolutely love this golf course. But I know the way to play well around here, you’ve got to hit lots of greens and I felt like I’m doing that. You know, the putting was good today, which has been great.

“I just think the penalty is just really, really severe, especially with Bermuda grass, you know. It’s difficult to chip and play and I just think — yeah, just personally, my personal belief, my personal preference is if I play or design a golf course, I just have areas where it wouldn’t just carry on running away.”

Before the haters pounce, Wallace did make sure to acknowledge that he was being a little … well, we’ll let him take that one.

“I don’t know, maybe I’m just being me and being a bit bitchy, but yeah, it’s just how — it’s just how I see the golf course. Runoffs in the fairway, you can hit the fairway and they run into the rough. I mean, I don’t see that.”

Wallace is currently projected at 74th in the standings, on the outside looking in. The minimum finish he needs to have a chance to get into next week’s FedEx St Jude Championship is solo 14th. Based off of historical PGA Tour projections, however, a two-way tie for fourth or better would give him the best possible chance. So there’s much work to be done, both mentally and physically, for Wallace this week.

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By Tod Leonard
It’s well-documented how much Webb Simpson loves the Wyndham Championship. We need no more evidence than he and his wife named their third daughter Wyndham. (More heartfelt, our course, than saying her namesake is a hotel chain.) The Wyndham marked Simpson’s first victory on the PGA Tour in 2011 and going into Saturday’s third round of this year’s tournament at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., Simpson had a remarkable streak to protect.

Simpson shot 16 consecutive rounds in the 60s in the Wyndham in notching four consecutive top-three finishes, and this week the North Carolina native started 65-65 to get into contention again. Eighteen straight under-par rounds anywhere deserves big kudos.

But on Saturday, Simpson found himself fighting to keep the streak alive in probably the craziest battle with the course that he’s ever had at Sedgefield. He made six birdies in the round, but also suffered three bogeys—and then made one killer blunder—a triple-bogey 7 at the par-4 14th when Simpson fluffed a greenside bunker shot and left it in the sand.

The card for the last six holes of the round: birdie, double bogey, birdie, bogey, birdie, par.

No one can say that Simpson dwells on his misfortune, that’s for sure. And that was clear on his final hole, where he made a par of 4 that was hardly routine. He left his approach short on the uphill slope in front of the green, and when his pitch wasn’t strong enough, the ball rolled back nearly to his feet.

Saving par in style. ?

After a roller-coaster back 9, @WebbSimpson1 can't help but smile.

He heads into the clubhouse T9 @WyndhamChamp. pic.twitter.com/jYHVvqIJm6

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 14, 2021

This was when he displayed a lesson for all of us. Obviously frustrated, Simpson stepped up to the ball and was quickly going to hit it. Then he stopped … and took a breath … and looked at the shot again … and then took his swing. And the ball took a couple of hops and bounced into the cup for par. The crowd responded with a cheer as if he’d made birdie.

“It was a perfect ending to a very weird day, very frustrating day,” Simpson said. “I had the position to shoot four, five under again and just didn’t get it done. Just frustrated, but it’s always nice to birdie 17 and par 18.”

The 60s streak? It ended with Simpson signing for an even-par 70 that put him at 10 under total and five shots off the lead of Russell Henley.

“We’re going to go work on the range right now,” Simpson said. “I clearly have a left miss right now that I want to go work out. I don’t know exactly why I can’t get it out of my system, but hopefully 30 or 40 balls will help.”

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By John Strege
Jordan Spieth’s contention that he is making progress toward ending a two-year winless skid hit another weekend obstacle on Saturday and he won’t be playing Sunday as a result.

Spieth, who began the third round of the Wyndham Championship four strokes off the lead, shot the highest score of the tournament, a seven-over par 77 at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., and was a victim of the PGA Tour’s 54-hole cut employed when too many players make the 36-hole cut.

Weekends have proved problematic for Spieth, whose last victory came in the British Open in 2017. He ranked 149th on the PGA Tour in third-round scoring average before this tournament and 201st in fourth-round scoring average.

Yet his play in the first two rounds of a tournament has supported his claim that he’s making progress. He was ranked 18th and second in scoring average in the first and second rounds, and he shot 64-67 in the Wyndham Championship to open the tournament.

Spieth’s round on Saturday included three double-bogeys, a bogey and no birdies. He hit only four of 14 fairways, while obviously continuing to struggle with the driver.

“I’m still looking for a way to get the club out in front of me,” he said on Friday. “It’s just behind. And from a club that’s behind, you really only have one ball flight, and if you don’t pull that ball flight off, it can go pretty far offline. It’s something that you don’t really see professionals struggle with a lot. I’ve been trying to bring myself out of a little bit of a hole with it.

“You know, it seems easy to just say cast it out in front, but unfortunately, it’s just not coming that easy to me. I’ll continue to work on it. It’s better than it was a couple of months ago, which is better than it was a couple of months before that. So it’s progressing, and on a golf course that’s this tight, it really tests my patience level and my zeroing in.”

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Wyndham Championship leader Byeong Hun An is in pursuit of his first PGA Tour victory, but adding to the difficulty on Sunday will be the fact that a past champion, Webb Simpson, is only one back.

An, 27, played a third straight bogey-free round at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., a four-under par 66 to complete 54 holes in 17-under par 193.

Simpson, who won the event in 2011 and finished second last year, shot a five-under 65 and is at 16-under 194, as is Brice Garnett.

An, a South Korean, has made 93 PGA Tour starts without a victory, though he has won on the European Tour, the 2015 BMW PGA Championship. He has finished runner-up in three PGA Tour events in his career.

Simpson, a North Carolina native, is seeking a sixth PGA Tour victory and first since the 2018 Players Championship. He finished second at the WGC-Fed Ex St. Jude Invitational last week.

“I had a chance to win there,” he said. “I played well down the stretch. It’s one of those feelings that you’re happy you played well and you had a hot finish at a good tournament, but you’re first out of winning. So it did create some more hunger to get back to the winner’s circle.”

Viktor Hovland, 21, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, is among those in contention. He shot a six-under 64 and is three off the lead. He turned professional after tying for 12th in the U.S. Open in June and in his last three PGA Tour starts has finished T-13, T-13 and T-16.

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By Ryan Herrington
Brendan Steele already was facing a difficult task at this week’s Wyndham Championship. The three-time PGA Tour winner was 169th on the FedEx Cup points list, meaning he had to have a top-three finish at Sedgefield Country Club in order to leap inside the top 125 at week’s end and be eligible to compete in the FedEx Cup playoffs. It was easier said than done considering Steele’s best finish in 21 starts during the 2018-’19 season was a T-14 at the CJ Cup last October, and an opening-round 70 on Thursday meant he had plenty more work to do.

The 36-year-old California native didn’t help himself, however, when he received a two-stroke penalty during Friday’s second round for a relatively rare breach of the Rules of Golf: Using an alignment stick during a round.

As originally reported by GolfChannel.com’s Will Gray, Steele had stumbled at the start of his round, going four over par on his first three holes. After hitting his approach shot on Sedgefield’s par-4 13th hole (Steele’s fourth), Steele turned to his caddie and asked about his alignment. The caddie proceeded to take out Steele’s alignment stick, which is legal to carry during competition. However, Rule 4-3 states that players are prohibited from using golf training or swing aids during a round.

“I thought maybe that would be a problem,” Steele told GolfChannel.com.

Steele consulted a rules official, who confirmed that he needed to add a two-stroke penalty to his score on the hole. Instead of a par, Steele had to take a double-bogey 6. A bogey on his next hole had him seven over on the round after five holes. To his credit, Steele was two under for the remainder of the day, but posted a five-over 75 that cause him to miss the cut.

Interestingly, Steele learned that had he used something different to check himself on the hole, he might have been clear of any penalty. “[The rules official] said that an umbrella and a club was fine to use, but stick’s not,” Steele told GolfChannel.com. “It’s one of those things.”

Indeed, Rule 4-3 specifies that “any type of golf training or swing aid [such as an alignment rod or weighted headcover or ‘donut’] or a non-conforming club to make a practice swing or in any other way that creates a potential advantage by helping the player in preparing for or making a stroke [such as help with swing plane, grip, alignment, ball position or posture].”

The saving grace for Steele? While he’ll finish the season watching the Playoffs at home, he still has his PGA Tour card for 2019-’20 thanks to his victory at the 2018 Safeway Open.

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By Christopher Powers
For 71 holes, C.T. Pan played well enough to earn his first PGA Tour victory at the Wyndham Championship. Rounds of 65, 64 and 67, plus a bogey-free, six-under round through 17 holes on Sunday put him at 20 under on the final tee, tied for the lead with Brandt Snedeker, who wasn’t as sharp on Sunday as he had been in a week that began with a round of 59.

Then came Pan’s worst swing of the week on Sedgefield Country Club’s 18th tee, as his ball sailed well right of the fairway, hitting the cart path and then a cart and bouncing out of bounds. It led to a double-bogey 6, after which Snedeker finished par, birdie on his final two holes for a comfortable, three-stroke victory, the ninth of his career. This marks the second time he’s won the Wyndham Championship, the first being is first PGA Tour victory. While that one came at a different host site at Forest Oaks Country Club, Snedeker was still clearly emotional to win the event a second time, especially after battling through an injury a season ago.

“I guess I’m turning into Bubba Watson, wanting to cry every two seconds,” said Snedeker, who posted a final-round 65 for a 21-under 259 total. “Being my first tour win, having Wyndham believe in me in 2007 when I was a 26-year-old kid and be my longest term corporate sponsor out here, to do it here, to shoot 59 on Thursday, to be in the lead all week and deal with that pressure every night and step up to the plate today and shoot 65 when I had to, it means the world to me. My family’s here, so a lot of stuff going on that’s making me emotional.”

Snedeker now is one victory away from double-digit PGA Tour wins. It is his first victory since the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open, and it moves him to 30th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning he’ll now have a legitimate shot at winning the FedEx Cup for a second time, the first coming in 2012.

“I’ve still got a lot of great golf in me,” Snedeker said. “I’m excited about the FedEx Cup Playoffs, I’ve done this before. I’ve won that thing. I can’t wait to try and make a run in Atlanta and try to win the FedEx Cup Playoffs, because I’m playing great. It’s going to be a lot of fun the rest of the year.”

While it will be no easy task to come from behind and win the whole thing, Snedeker is confident he has as good a chance as anybody. Not surprising from a guy that just went wire-to-wire to win.

“Pretty hard not to think that,” he said. “I just shot 59 on Thursday and won the tournament, so I’m kind of one of those players that gets on hot streaks and runs them while I can. So hopefully I can keep doing that.”

Pan, who finished with a final-round 66, earned a T-2 result at 18-under 262, his best result of this season and his first inside the top 10. It also matches the best finish of his career, which came at the 2017 Farmers Insurance Open. After starting the week 108th in the FedEx Cup standings, Pan moved to 63rd, putting himself in great position to play at least three more weeks.

He’s joined by Webb Simpson, who fired an eight-under 62 to vault up the leader board on Sunday. Simpson’s Ryder Cup captain, Jim Furyk, shot a seven-under 63 on Sunday, which put him in a tie for fourth with D.A. Points.

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By Christopher Powers
Brandt Snedeker has done two of the hardest things in golf already this week in breaking 60 and then backing it up the following day with another strong round. Yet Sunday he faces his most daunting task this week following the suspension of the third round at the Wyndham Championship, where Snedeker played just seven holes on Saturday before inclement weather intervened. With 29 holes left for Sunday, his quest for career victory No. 9 just got that much harder.

Snedeker fortunately gave himself extra breathing room, playing the first seven holes at Sedgefield Country Club in two under on Saturday. The putter was rolling nicely once again, as Snedeker made a 59-footer from off the green at the par-4 second for his first birdie of the day. His second came at the par-5 fifth, where he laid up from the right rough and then stuck his third shot to nine feet and holed the putt. When play resumes on Sunday at 8 a.m. EDT, Snedeker faces the 374-yard par-4 eighth, where he’ll begin the day at 16 under, good enough for a three-shot lead over Brian Gay.

Gay, 46, posted an even-par 70 on Thursday, but has vaulted into contention by playing his last 30 holes in 13 under, including Saturday’s six under start through 12 holes that included a front-nine 30. The four-time tour winner has not won since the 2013 CareerBuilder Challenge, but has given himself chances at a fifth victory in what has been a late-career revival in 2018. He has finished inside the top 10 five times, including a third at the RSM Classic. His $1.8 million in earnings already is the most he’s made on tour since 2009, when he won twice and made more than $3.2 million.

Also through 12 holes and in the mix is Trey Mullinax, who is at 12 under thanks to a four-under start to his third round. He’s tied for third with Keith Mitchell (three under through eight holes), C.T. Pan (one under through seven holes) and D.A. Points (even through six holes).

The leader in the clubhouse is Michael Thompson thanks to his third-round seven-under 63 that saw him climb 34 spots on the leader board. He’s at 11-under 199 through 54 holes. Sergio Garcia is also at 11 under following a two-under 33 on the front nine, which was all he was able to get in.

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By Christopher Powers
Brandt Snedeker made history on Thursday at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, N.C., carding an 11-under 59 to become the ninth player to shoot a sub-60 round in PGA Tour history. It’s a special day he’ll never forget, but, as a few members of the exclusive sub-60 club will tell you, it doesn’t always win you the tournament, something of which Snedeker was aware following the historic round.

He learned this the hard way early on Friday at the Wyndham Championship, going out in one-over 36 with three bogeys and two birdies. After being in complete control a day earlier, Snedeker had suddenly lost the lead.

But much like he bounced back from a first-hole bogey on Thursday, Snedeker was able to right the ship on Friday, firing a clean back-nine 31 that included a 30-foot eagle putt at the 15th hole and a 33-foot birdie putt at the 16th hole. The late-round run allowed him to retain the lead by two shots over D.A. Points at 14-under 126, Snedeker’s career-low 36-hole total on the PGA Tour.

“It was huge,” Snedeker said of his closing stretch. “I played a really sloppy front nine, didn’t play particularly well, drove it poorly. Then on the back nine, which typically is the harder nine here, I finally hit the ball in the fairway off the tee and hit some quality iron shots and had a few holes where I missed some makable putts. To see one finally go in (on 15) was good, got some momentum going those last few holes. Obviously it’s tough to back up what I did yesterday. I knew it was going to be tough today. Didn’t anticipate it was going to be this tough, but live and learn. Still got the lead. Two more days, hopefully I can kind of rebound and hit it a little better tomorrow, make some putts and try to extend this thing a bit more.”

While his three-under 67 was eight worse than what he shot Thursday, it’s a strong way to back up a career round, something that’s not easy to do on tour.

“I don’t know, I wish I could figure it out,” said Snedeker. “I just didn’t quite feel comfortable on that front nine, felt like I got a little fast, my swing got out of sync. I knew it wouldn’t be as good as yesterday, that’s obvious, but I was hoping for a better start. It’s one of those things, I wish I knew what it was, wish I could bottle it and sell it to a bunch of guys out here, because it’s one of those age-old questions.”

Snedeker heads to the weekend in search of his ninth PGA Tour victory, the last coming at the 2016 Farmers Insurance Open, where he carded a final-round 69 in brutally windy conditions. He’s also looking for his second win in the Wyndham, the first coming in 2007 at Forest Oaks Country Club, his first victory on tour.

While Snedeker’s comeback from injury and Thursday 59 are great stories, the story of the week may be Points, who has missed 15 of his last 16 cuts on the PGA Tour. Before tying for 40th last month at the Barbasol Championship, the 41-year-old had not played on a weekend since the Sony Open, where he tied for 73rd. Prior to the Barbasol, he had broken 70 just three times in his last 34 rounds. This week he’s carded a pair of 64s to get to 12-under 128, and he credits a new set of irons and a new mindset to the sudden hot streak.

“I’ve been hitting it very nicely, I put in a new set of irons a couple weeks ago, and they’ve just been the easiest thing in the world to hit,” said Points, a three-time PGA Tour winner. “Everything’s been really comfortable, I haven’t been looking at my swing on video. Basically, I know this is possibly my last event of the year, so I haven’t been grinding really hard, and it seems to be paying off.”

If Points keeps playing like this, it may not be his last round of the year. He ranks 214th in the FedEx Cup standings, meaning he’d have to win to vault into the top 125 and earn a spot in the Northern Trust. So he might as well keep freewheeling it.

“Fortunately with my win last year in Puerto Rico, I know I still have my job for next year,” Points said. “I mean I’m 213th, or whatever I was coming in to this week, so I’m not really scaring anybody when it comes to that. I have nothing to lose, like literally nothing to lose. I can just go and play and if I win, wow, what a super blessing. But if I don’t it’ll just be a nice way to finish off a tough year and start working on things towards next year.”

Even more impressive is that Points is dealing with nerve issues, revealing after the round that he’s been dealing with a peculiar injury that could force him to make some decisions this off-season.

“I have some herniated discs, C5-6 and C6-7, and my thumb, index finger and middle finger go numb 10 or 15 times a day. I’ve been talking with lots of doctors trying to make a game plan, talking with my wife and family, and with this exemption that I have I just want to make a good decision to move forward in the future.”

Just three back at 11-under 129 is C.T. Pan, who showed a bit of promise in 2017 with three top 10s, including a solo second at Torrey Pines. The 26-year-old’s 2018 campaign hasn’t gone as smoothly, as he’s failed to register a top 10 in 26 starts.

Six players are tied for fourth at nine-under 131, including Sergio Garcia, who has carded rounds of 66 and 65 to make just his third cut in his last 11 starts. At 131st in the FedEx Cup standings, the Spaniard is in need of a strong finish in order to make the playoffs, something he’s done every year since their inception.

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By Christopher Powers
On his opening tee shot Thursday at the Wyndham Championship in Greensboro, N.C., Brandt Snedeker badly snap-hooked a 3-wood into the trees down the left side of Sedgefield Country Club’s 10th hole. He went on to bogey the hole, which is nothing a tour pro couldn’t recover from, but it wasn’t the most confidence-inspiring way to begin a tournament.

WATCH: How Snedeker produced the 10th 59 in PGA Tour history

But Snedeker did more than just recover as he went on to play the round of his life, carding an 11-under 59 even with that bogey, marking the 10th sub-60 round in PGA Tour history and making him just the ninth player to ever accomplish the feat (Jim Furyk has done it twice). It was also good enough for a four-shot lead over Ryan Moore and John Oda.

Making the round all the more impressive was the fact that the eight-time tour winner was still one over through three holes before he went on his first run of four consecutive birdies, two of which came from 26 feet. Two more pars at 17 and 18 gave him a front-nine 32, meaning he needed to shoot something out of this world on the back nine for 59 to even come into consideration.

Even after Snedeker birdied four of his first five holes on his back nine he was still only at seven under with four holes to go. He needed to play that closing stretch in four under, and he took a big chunk out of that, and the cup, at the par-4 sixth, flying a 7-iron directly in the hole for eagle to get to nine under. At the par-3 seventh he put his tee shot to within three feet, cleaning up another birdie and needing just one more on the final two holes for 59, which he was well aware of.

“Really cool feeling to be standing on eight tee and tell myself if I hit two fairways I’m going to shoot 59,” said Snedeker. “Because they were both birdie holes and I felt like I could get it done the way I was playing.”

He did hit the fairway at the eighth, and then hit his approach to six feet, all but locking up another birdie with the way he was putting. But he missed, forcing himself to have to make birdie at his final hole. Facing a 20-footer on the ninth green, Snedeker came up clutch and rolled it in, letting out a huge celebration as he made history.

“To know what you’re trying to do, step up there and have a 20-footer and know what it means, I was very aware of what was going on,”he said. “To knock that in was very special. To know that I’m part of a small club on tour, not many people have done this, really cool feeling right now.”

And to think without a bogey at the first, and that short miss at No. 8, it could have been even better.

“Missed a short one on eight from about four feet that could have made it even more special, but happy with the way everything turned out.”

Per Golf Channel’s Justin Ray, Snedeker became the first player in history to shoot a sub-60 after being over par at any point during the round. He’s also only the third player to break 60 with a bogey, something only Justin Thomas and Jim Furyk had previously done. Still, while incredible, memorable and one that cements his place in golf history, there’s more work to be done this week.

“I’m very aware there’s a lot of golf left,” Snedeker said. “This means absolutely nothing in the grand scheme of this golf tournament. Eighteen-to-24-under par seems to win here every year. So I’m going to have to make a lot more birdies to be around on Sunday. That being said, I’m off to a great start, build on the day and hopefully do what some guys have been able to do here and that’s run away.”

If he does go on to win, it will make him only the fifth player to go on to win the same event that he shot 59 in. The last to do it was Thomas at the 2017 Sony Open in Hawaii.

Moore and Oda, the latter playing in just his 10th PGA Tour event, are still within striking distance following their opening-round 63s, both bogey-free. Oda has quietly impressed in his limited starts this season, finishing eighth in the OHL Classic at Mayakoba and posting a T-3 at the Barracuda Championship. For Moore, the first-round 63 is his lowest on tour since a final-round 64 at the 2016 Tour Championship, where he lost in a three-way playoff with Kevin Chappell and Rory McIlroy. The 2016 Ryder Cup team member has struggled to find similar form since, having finished inside the top 10 just six times in his last 43 starts on tour.

Seven players are tied for fourth at six under, including Ollie Schniederjans, who nearly captured his maiden victory here a year ago but came up one-shot short of winner Henrik Stenson.

American Ryder Cup team captain Jim Furyk carded a five-under 65, while Sergio Garcia, who is in need of a strong week to qualify for the FedEx Cup Playoffs (131st in the standings), shot a four-under 66.

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