Matt Kuchar’s FedEx Cup Playoff streak refuses to die without a fight and aces were wild at 2024 Wyndham Championship
Photo: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
GREENSBORO, N.C. – Playoff fever, can you feel it?
The final of 35 regular-season events on the PGA Tour will be a twin bill of sorts as the second round will resume at 6:45 a.m. ET, followed by plans to play 36 holes to complete the 72-hole tournament and determine the top-70 finishers in the season-long points race who will advance to the first playoff event in Memphis next week.
As a result of an hour delay Saturday morning due to overnight storms, there were 20 players still needing to complete their second round on Sunday morning before a 36-hole cut can be made. The third round (in threesomes off two tees) is set to begin mid-morning and the final round mid-afternoon. At this pace, we could be headed for the dreaded Monday finish.
Matt Kuchar grabbed a one-stroke lead over three players at 12-under 128. He posted a 6-under 64 — preferred lies were in effect again in round 2 — at Sedgefield Country Club on Saturday.
“Halfway mark’s a long way to go still,” Kuchar said. “I kind of keep my head down, keep plugging away and hopefully more good golf to come for whatever we’ve got for tomorrow or Monday, I’m not sure what the next few days is going to hold.”
Here are five things to know about the 2024 Wyndham Championship heading into Sunday.
Kuchar sets the pace
Matt Kuchar acknowledges the gallery on 18 during the second round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament at Sedgefield Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Needing a win to get into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, Matt Kuchar is trying to follow in the footsteps of Lucas Glover last year and win to get in. Kuchar is the only player to make the playoffs in every season since the FedEx Cup began in 2007.
“Certainly been a frustrating year, but I feel like the bar’s been set high,” Kuchar said. “I feel like I played a lot of good golf, consistent golf for a long time. Makes the poor golf that much more frustrating. I think the expectations are high. So I continue every week to expect to play good golf and it’s not always gone that way, but nice to see things kind of rounding into form. Hope it’s not too late, hope I still got a chance to continue going.”
Through two rounds, Kuchar is the only player who is projected to move inside the top 70. He finished T-3 at the 3M Open and picked up where he left off with a pair of 64s to take the 36-hole lead. How does he feel about Sunday’s marathon finish?
“I’ve got some built-in confidence knowing that a month or two ago when I was down at the U.S. Open qualifying, did 36 holes at the Bear’s Club, was medalist down there. Able to walk 36 in the heat and humidity without too much problem,” he said. “Glad I grew up in central Florida and know this stuff pretty well.”
Greyserman’s putting prowess
10th birdie of the day for Max Greyserman! @WyndhamChamp pic.twitter.com/Ts6lbaZeeN
— Golf on CBS ⛳ (@GolfonCBS) August 10, 2024
About the only putt Max Greyserman failed to make during his second round on Saturday was a 49-foot birdie putt at 18 for 59.
Inexplicably, he left it short.
But he made more than 188 feet of putts for the round, including a 75-footer for birdie.
“Looked pretty good the whole way,” he said. “It was kind of a tricky putt up and over a knob, but didn’t have too much break. I was so far away, I couldn’t even tell, but it looked pretty good.”
When told about the long-range bomb, Denny McCarthy, one of the Tour’s best with the short stick, said that’s more feet than all of the putts he’d made in his first two rounds. His caddie chimed in, “He’s not lying.” (Well, truth be told, McCarthy made 99 feet, nine inches, but point made.)
When Greyserman sank a 24-foot birdie at 17, he reached 10 under for the round and knew the course was a par 70 and that a birdie would break 60.
“The last four holes it was in my mind for sure,” he said.
After just two birdies in his opening round, Greyserman shot the second 60 of the tournament and leaped into a tie for second at 11-under 129 with Chad Ramey and Cameron Young.
Projected FedEx bubble
Brendon Todd watches his tee shot on the 15th hole during the first round of the Wyndham Championship golf tournament at Sedgefield Country Club. Mandatory Credit: Jim Dedmon-USA TODAY Sports
Heading into Sunday’s 36-hole marathon, here are the players on the bubble for the top 70 and qualifying for the FedEx Cup Playoffs.
66. Brendon Todd (T-10)
67. Nick Dunlap (MC)
68. Emiliano Grillo (T-26)
69. Jhonattan Vegas (T-46)
70. Seamus Power (T-46)
71. Victor Perez (T-26)
72. Davis Riley (T-26)
73. Andrew Putnam (MC)
74. Kurt Kitayama (MC)
75. Luke List (MC)
Whose bubble will burst?
Keith Mitchell of the United States plays his shot from the second tee during the first round of the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club on August 09, 2024 in Greensboro, North Carolina. (Photo by Isaiah Vazquez/Getty Images)
Keith Mitchell summed up what it feels like to be on the outside looking in on the playoff picture this week at the Wyndham Championship.
“It’s all or nothing really,” said Mitchell, who entered the week at No. 78 and is seeking to extend a six-year FedExCup playoffs streak. “I’m kind of playing from behind and it’s no fun to do that, you’ve just got to kind of dig deep and do the best you can.”
He did just that on Saturday, shooting 64 to improve to 6 under (T-19) and keep his hopes alive. He needs a two-way tie for seventh at minimum. When asked if he feels a bit like a football team down four with two minutes to go in the game, he said, “We might be down nine, I might need to throw — go for two and kick a field goal, you never know.”
Davis Riley, who is projected at No. 72, shot a solid 66 to take care of the first part of the puzzle and make the cut.
“For sure, it’s a big round,” he said. “It’s very hot out here and it was honestly one of the toughest rounds of golf I’ve played. I’ve been a little bit under the weather the last couple days and I was grinding out there. Yeah, so I’m exhausted. To play the weekend and hopefully put together a playoff berth would be big time.”
Another player who came up clutch was Seamus Power. He stuck his second shot at his last hole to 3 feet and made birdie to make the weekend on the number and head into the final two rounds as the Bubble Boy.
Victor Perez (T26/-5) is the only player projected to fall out of the top 70 (70 to 71). Among those assured of missing the cut are Nos. 72-77 entering the week, who are all finished with the second round at 3-under or worse: Andrew Putnam; Kurt Kitayama; Luke List; defending champion Lucas Glover; Lee Hodges; and Adam Schenk).
Aces wild
There were not one but two aces on Saturday. Both were made at the 189-yard, par-3 12th hole.
First, Lucas Glover made his sixth career hole-in-one on Tour (tied for ninth-most since the Tour began tracking hole-by-hole data in 1983).
🚨 ACE ALERT 🚨@Lucas_Glover_ cards his first hole-in-one since 2017 on the 189-yard par-3 12th @WyndhamChamp.
(Presented by @CocaCola) pic.twitter.com/FiXd7bzsqI
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 10, 2024
That was followed by Joe Highsmith, who became the first player to make three holes-in-one in a single season since the Tour began tracking hole-by-hole data in 1983; other holes-in-one this season: The American Express (R2/No. 13), Rocket Mortgage Classic (R2/No. 5).
“Yeah, it was super cool. I hit 6-iron and it was kind of a perfect number and I knew if I pulled it long right that I had a little backstop over there. It worked out perfect,” said Highsmith, who said he has 18 career aces.
He also had a premonition he would make one. “I just kind of had like some weird feeling,” he said. “Sometimes some crazy stuff like that happens in golf.”
His first hole-in-one this season, which also was with a 6-iron, has a cool backstory. “My grandpa couldn’t walk the course that day so he was staying on the green on that hole, so that was going to be the only shot that he saw all day,” Highsmith recalled. “It went in, so that was probably the most special.”
ANOTHER HOLE-IN-ONE 🤯
Rookie @JoeHighsmith33 becomes first TOUR player on record with three aces in a season!
(Presented by @CocaCola) pic.twitter.com/IE94TJtT6c
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) August 10, 2024
