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GREENSBORO -- A red shirt broke through a sea of red shirts flowing down the fairway at No. 18 on Sunday at Sedgefield Country Club, and Carl Pettersson walked across a rustic footbridge and into Wyndham Championship history.

The local boy trudged the final 100 yards, up the last hill he would have to climb, taking the last few steps all alone and accepting the cheers of the largest crowd this golf tournament has seen in a long, long time.

Tournament officials ringed the 18th green, along with sponsors and tour reps and cameras and fans, not unlike a scene from the '60s when fans stood in the very traps to watch Sam Snead and other legends accept the cheers on the edge of tradition. After a long lull, those traditions returned this week.

On a summer Sunday that felt like spring, the tournament that began 70 years ago provided scenes that will last a lifetime. The lasting image will be that of Pettersson, the Grimsley grad who went to N.C. State, walking up the final rise toward a win in front of old friends and fans.

He'd been a part of the storyline all week, a board member of the tournament itself who was responsible for the amenities that the players raved about and the nuances most fans never see. From his 64 on Thursday, Pettersson was in the middle of a scramble of birdies that threatened long-standing tour records and rendered many of the hills and rises and rustic qualities of the 83-year-old Donald Ross course moot.

Pettersson's 61 on Friday angered some of the members here, and his three-day total of 19-under had golfing purists shaking their heads. Sunday, the course began to take back what it was owed.

A 2007 redesign by Greensboro architect Kris Spence gave the tournament a modern gem, and four days of birdies and eagles threatened the prestige of the course. Spence stood behind the 18th Sunday and smiled.

"This feels like the old GGO," he said.

In other words, he'd done his job.

Tour officials resisted bringing all of Ross' subtle confines into play, and more than a few tournament officials mentioned that to the PGA men. The bottom line is that the tour wins all these discussions all the time. But the PGA relented Sunday, moved tees back and tucked pins against swales and dips and promised to do more of that in the future.

Everyone was learning this week. Traffic snarls will be worked out in time. Course management will improve. Word of mouth will spread among the tour players, and fields will steadily improve. Sedgefield will mature and harden and become the fast track golfers are used to playing in summer.

But it's just as likely that real summer will be here when we meet again next year. Barring a move to the spring, the Wyndham will always battle the elements. That the temperatures stayed in the mid-80s and humidity remained tolerable was luck.

The tournament has needed luck just to make it this far. Years of mismanagement and dwindling interest in the old course at Forest Oaks Country Club eroded the tournament's reputation. A sponsor pullout and a date change threatened its very existence. Through it all, a group of men believed the tournament could indeed be like the old GGO days and dared to make it happen.

They raised the money to save the tournament, moved it back to Sedgefield, the site of so much of the event's history, and stood back and waited for good things to happen. That they happened, just as those men hoped, was mostly hard work and money, partly luck and trust in Greensboro and the Triad to restore the image and the future of the tournament.

Sunday dawned with heavy, overcast skies. Pettersson's final round dawned with missed putts and the quick evaporation of a two-stroke lead. Storms were all around and Greensboro's hometown storyline was unraveling as Pettersson lost the lead to journeyman Scott McCarron. For a fleeting moment, it all seemed tenuous.

He said the crowd pulled him back, a crowd that came Thursday out of curiosity and Friday to see how low the scores would go. The weekend was all about Pettersson. They came to see the Grimsley grad cap a year's work and bring it all together, the course the tournament and the region.

The scene at No. 18 was reminiscent of so many tournaments gone by, so many days from our past when everybody showed up to watch the final group walk up the final hole. Sunday, the skies lifted late and the sun-splashed fairway was suddenly brilliant, highlighted by Pettersson and his red army.

He walked across the bridge and up the last stretch of golf this year. The course behind him was quiet and silhouetted in long, elegant shadows, and the men who made it all happen awaited him at the top of the final hill.

Finally, all was right with the Wyndham.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com