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.
There were 20 players still needing to complete their second round on Sunday morning before a 36-hole cut can be made.
Matt Kuchar grabbed a one-stroke lead over three players at 12-under 128. He posted a 6-under 64 at Sedgefield Country Club on Saturday. Here are five things to know about the 2024 Wyndham Championship heading into Sunday.
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Kuchar sets the pace
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.”
Kuchar 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
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
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 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,” he said. “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 and keep his hopes alive. He’s projected No. 78. 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.”
Among those assured of missing the cut include Andrew Putnam, who took three putts…