Wyndham Championship Recap: Aaron’s Rai-ght stuff, Clanton dazzles again on the weekend, bets, and how the final playoff spots shook out

Aaron Rai’s breakthrough first win on the PGA Tour seemingly has been coming for a while now. The Englishman who turned pro when he was 17 years old and has had to multiple treks through Q School finally crossed the finish line on top at the Wyndham Championship after a grueling three day tournament. 

Rai’s bogey free final round 64 (-6, -18 for the tournament) gave him a 2-shot victory over Max Greyserman in Greensboro. After needing to complete 36 holes on the day, Rai knocked his approach on his final hole of the tournament to 5 feet, finishing in style with a birdie, zero light in the sky, and flash bulbs exploding around him. Greyserman could only watch on helplessly from the fairway as a tournament that seemed to be so surely his just hours before, had slipped from his grasp. After Rai and his group exited the green the victory was made official when Greyserman dumped his approach into the greenside bunker. 

Rai’s victory moves him into 25th on the FedEx Cup points list securing him at least two more tournaments before the TOUR Championship in 3 weeks. He’ll look to carry his first win momentum into next week’s FedEx St. Jude Championship in Memphis, TN.

TAKE A BOW WYNDHAM STAFF

The day itself started at 6:00 AM and ended at 8:30 in near darkness. With players still needing to complete some on their 2nd round which meant a total of 40 holes needed to be completed in order for the tournament to be settled. Because of this there were groupings teeing off on 1 and 10 simultaneously throughout the day on 2 separate occasions. That also meant that the Wyndham grounds crew needed to cut, move, and replace certain holes at least on two but sometimes on three separate occasions throughout the day while golfers were on the course.

The truly heroic acts by all involved on-site to make this tournament a reality over just about 2 and a half days should go down as an example to all tournaments of how things should be operated. I commend every groundskeeper, volunteer, coverage participant, official, and so many more for all of their dedication to the Wyndham Championship and the PGA Tour. I’m sure there are so many stories to tell that will get the exposure they deserve soon. 

CLANTON……MORE LIKE CANTON

Football is on my mind of course with the preseason getting into full swing this week, but at the Wyndham once again weekend eyes were on amateur, Luke Clanton. Not shy of the spotlight already, possibly from his Good Good and GM Golf past, Clanton has had some inspired finishes on the Tour over the past two months. This single day may have topped them all.

Clanton was one of the handful of golfers whose 2nd round was suspended by darkness Saturday. With him squarely on the cutline at -4, he could not afford any mistakes in his final 3 holes at the crack of dawn Sunday. He finished those 3 holes one under and set off on his way to tee up another 18. Before most had awoken, Clanton had made his move on the Wyndham firing a 62 (-8). By the time the third round ended that had placed Clanton one shot of the lead. A win unfortunately was not meant to be after the final 18 holes of the day, which Clanton carded a 69 (-1, -15 for the tournament), but another Top 5 was added to his resume. 

A total of 39 holes were completed by the Florida State Seminole on Sunday in which Clanton recorded a -10 to lead all golfers over that span. His last act of the day was to jump on a charter jet to Minnesota after his final round as his match at the US Amateur at Hazeltine CC is at 2:09 p.m. Good luck Luke! I’m pulling for you!

WHY KUCH WHY?

Technically the tournament has been won but is not over as on 18 Matt Kuchar decided that he would not complete the hole due to darkness after pulling has drive way left. The rules officials did inform him on his walk to the ball that the whistle for play to stop was “blown” and it would be the players choice to finish their last hole or not. Kuchar was the only player to decide to finish on Monday, and after a grueling tournament for all involved it’s not ideal for those that have volunteered and officials running the tournament to come back in the morning.

LAST IN, LAST OUT

Here’s how the top-70 bubble for the FedEx Cup Playoffs shook out:

IN

65. Brendon Todd
66. Seamus Power
67. Nick Dunlap
68. Jhonattan Vegas
69. Emiliano Grillo
70. Victor Perez

OUT

71. Davis Riley
72. Andrew Putnam
73. Kurt Kitayama
74. Luke List
75. Adam Svensson

WYNDHAM BETTING CORNER

EDIT: We come out on top at the Wyndham, originally I thought I had Cam Young T20, I had him T30. Isn’t that the best when you think you’ve lost but get the winning confirmation! We will be back at it next week with the FedEx St. Jude.

Jhonattan Vegas T30: Finished T65 = L (-$100)

Thomas Detry T10: MC = L (-$50)

Aaron Rai T5: Finished 1st = W (+$187.50)

Sungjae Im or Billy Horschel To win: Finished T41 and T7 = L (-$25)

Davis Thompson, Cam Davis, and Denny McCarthy T30: Finished T12, MC, T33 = L (-$25)

Webb Simpson and Harry Hall T40: Both MC = L (-$25)

The Cam Young T30 last minute add, which Now knowing his birdie on the 72nd hole gave me makes me love this dude! T22 = W ($95.23)

Wyndam Tournament win/loss = + $57.73

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