news-record.com

GREENSBORO — The Wyndham Championship is back this week for another year at Sedgefield Country Club. Another week of waxing nostalgic about Donald Ross and the course he designed. Another week of grown men close to misty eyed about a course from another era.

Lost between the gauzy platitudes is a fact golfers are reluctant to acknowledge (at least publicly): Sedgefield is easy. Not just on the eyes, but on the scorecard.

Golfers struggling with their game look at Sedgefield as Lourdes on fertilizer. It is an enticing 7,130 yards short, with birdies and eagles around almost every curve. It's the perfect tonic for a down-and-out golfer.

So the buzz on the first day of Wyndham week centered on the rarest of treasures on the PGA Tour: Is there a 59 lurking out there this week?

The number, of course, is golf's holy grail. Only Al Geiberger, Chip Beck and David Duval have done it in a competitive round on the tour. But talk of a 59 has been spurred this week by memories of how vulnerable Sedgefield was to birdies last year.

The proof is in the putting. Last year's Wyndham scoring average of 67.84 is well below the tour average this year of 71.06.

Wyndham officials were wondering how the world's best golfers would do at Sedgefield, which hadn't been the site of a tour event since 1976. They got their answer on the first day when Martin Laird set a course record with a 63. Carl Pettersson shattered it the next day with a 61. Pettersson might have shot a 59 on that Friday had he not bogeyed the par-5 15th, one of the easiest holes on the course.

It's been 10 years since Duval fired the last 59, at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic, but Pettersson said it won't take as long for it to happen again — and Sedgefield would be the logical place to attain it.

"Golfers are so aggressive these days, attacking every pin," said the Grimsley and N.C. State alumnus, who went on to win last year's Wyndham. "In a lot of ways we can get away with more if we make a mistake because we know there's another chance for birdie out there on the next hole."

Sedgefield is made all the more vulnerable given the time of year the Wyndham is played. Tournament officials are forced to water the bent-grass greens early and often to keep them from burning in the August heat. All that water makes the greens soft and spongy — perfect for firing at the pin.

A year ago, Bobby Long, chairman of the local charitable foundation that runs the Wyndham, showed up Saturday morning before the start of the third round to scold PGA Tour officials over their course setup. Long was so passionate in defending his course, the tour reprimanded him last fall in a letter.

These days Long seems to accept that there's little anyone can do to avoid the onslaught of red numbers coming this week.

"I let my ego get in the way last year," he said. "What I learned is that (tour officials) know what they're doing. That's their job and we ... I ... need to let them do it."

Besides, Long said, there's nothing wrong with a few — OK, a lot — of birdies.

"I think fans like to see guys go low," he said. "The crowds last year loved it. There were roars all weekend from the course."

Duval, who played here last year and missed the cut, said golfers avoid thinking about a 59 even when they're on a birdie spree. He likened it to a pitcher thinking about throwing a no-hitter.

"You start thinking about (a 59) and not your next shot and you're done," he said. "If it's going to happen, it just happens."

Shooting a 59 is not an indictment of a golf course, Duval said.

"To say the course was playing easy takes away from what the golfer did," he said. "You almost can't make a mistake; you have to be perfect for a 59. That's why it's so rare out here."

Contact Robert Bell at 373-7055 or robert.bell@news-record.com