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GREENSBORO — It was as if the tall clock next to the putting green had rolled back to a time when the legend in the straw hat brought passels of people to the tournament now called the Wyndham Championship.

Words were spoken Saturday — “We’re running out of tickets,” declared tournament director Mark Brazil — that hadn’t been heard since the Sam Snead era of a half-century ago.

Back then, the galleries at Sedgefield were among the largest on the PGA Tour.

Brazil was scanning the grandstand and the enclosed spectator tents on both sides of the 9th green — all full. People were standing in open spaces next to the green. The same scene existed in the skyboxes around the 18th green, with spectators stretching down the hill.

Where the 15th, 16th and 17th holes come together, all the tent and skybox seats looked full on both sides of the lake between the 15th and 16th greens.

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Brazil said all parking lots were full. His people were opening the overflow lots.

At 4:20 p.m., the announcement came: All 25,000 tickets were gone.

The third round of the four-round tournament was a sellout, perhaps the first since 1950, when officials ran out of tickets after two rounds and had more printed.

A woman standing beside High Point Road held a sign: “Need Tickets.” That’s par for the course for the men’s ACC basketball tournament, but not for the Wyndham, which has played under various names since its founding in 1938.

The turnout Saturday gave the tournament the feel of a big-league event, after a decade of declining attendance at Forest Oaks Country Club. The tournament left Sedgefield for Forest Oaks in 1977 and stayed through last year.

“We’ve been doing this for four years,’’ said former Greensboro Jaycees President Randy Harris, standing at the tournament entrance to greet arriving spectators. “We have never seen crowds like this. At one time, it was shoulder to shoulder. We have even worked up a sweat for the first time.”

Dead solid perfect is the only way to size up the decision of the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, which took over the tournament from the Jaycees in 2005. The foundation decided: Move the tournament to Sedgefield, and they will come again.

The fact that a guy with Greensboro ties, Grimsley grad Carl Pettersson, has been scorching Sedgefield this week may account for some ticket sales. But tournament leader Pettersson lived here only two years.

Besides, it wasn’t only Greensboro people swelling the galleries. The tournament has broadened its marketing reach. High Point is as close to Sedgefield as central Greensboro. Winston-Salem isn’t far.

“It’s a lot more convenient for me,’’ said spectator Rick Poston of Winston-Salem, who would have had to drive 12 more miles to reach Forest Oaks, on the opposite side of Guilford County.

Tournament director Brazil said: “I think the Triad has taken hold here. We have ’em here from High Point, Burlington and Winston-Salem. We aren’t used to that.”

Even before this week, signs pointed to a big attendance uptick. Online sales — for a one-day ticket or package for all four days — topped more than 30,000, compared with about 14,000 last year.

Carol Earnhardt, a teacher at Glenn High in nearby Kernersville, looked relieved as she and several Glenn students stayed busy operating a lemonade stand beside the 17th fairway.

“I didn’t think I would do it this year because it was so slow last year,” Earnhardt said, but she’s glad she changed her mind.

“Wonderful! Our sales are up 50 percent,” said Sherry Thomas, a volunteer in what formerly was a merchandise tent but now is Sedgefield’s pro shop. It was filled with people buying hats and shirts and other textiles with the Wyndham logo.

Brazil, who was hired seven years ago to direct the tournament, kept looking at the panorama of the ninth hole, with the stately Tudor clubhouse in the background and people extending down the fairway. The scene was what one would expect of a premier golf tournament.

“I think today,” Brazil said, “is a great sign of things to come for this tournament.”

Staff writer Robert Bell contributed to this report.

Contact Jim Schlosser at 601-9879 or beale1@clearwire.net