GREENSBORO -- Lost amid all the big names scheduled to play in next week's Wyndham Championship is one decidedly anonymous golfer.
Cameron Peck.
Sound familiar? It should: Peck won the FootJoy Invitational this summer at Sedgefield. So impressed was Wyndham tournament director Mark Brazil with Peck's game that week -- not to mention his victory at last month's U.S. Junior Amateur -- that he offered the teenager one of his eight sponsor's exemptions into next week's event.
Peck will be the youngest golfer to play in a PGA Tour event this year. At 14 years, 2 months and 29 days, Michelle Wie was the youngest golfer ever to play on tour when she played in the 2004 Sony Open in Hawaii.
Peck's reaction to learning he'd be standing on the other side of the ropes next week was typical of a 17-year-old: "Pretty cool," he said Wednesday.
Brazil extended the offer to Peck, who lives in Olympia, Wash., last week. Peck, who was already coming to North Carolina for the U.S. Amateur in Pinehurst later this month, jumped at the chance to play with the pros.
"It's going to be great," Peck said. "I don't think I'll be too nervous. I've already played the course and know the layout."
Brazil plans on offering every future FootJoy champion a spot in that year's Wyndham. It's a move he thinks will make the FootJoy, already one of the best junior amateur tournaments in the nation, even stronger.
"What better incentive to come here than for guys to know that if they win they'll be playing in a PGA Tour golf tournament," he said.
Brazil, who serves on the American Junior Golf Association's board of directors, runs the FootJoy, in part, to schmooze with some of the game's best golfers as amateurs in hopes that they'll return to Greensboro should they turn pro.
Peck is the second amateur Brazil has offered an exemption to. High Point's Drew Weaver was given one this spring.
Brazil said Weaver and Peck are not taking positions from tour players who have a legitimate chance at being one of the top 144 golfers to qualify for the FedEx Cup playoffs.
"Besides," he said, "the intent of a sponsor's exemption is to use them in a way that's best for the tournament."
You'd get no argument from Peck.
Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com
What: Greensboro's PGA Tour event
When: Aug. 14-17
Where: Sedgefield Country Club
Tickets: 379-1570 or wyndhamchampionship.com
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