By Jeff Mills, Special to the Wyndham Championship
GREENSBORO — In a world of constant motion and shifting landscapes, some things just don’t change. Some things remain comfortably reliable, like a well-worn pair of jeans, the smell of fresh-brewed coffee or the sound of music you know by heart.
So it is at stately Sedgefield Country Club, where on a perfect day the Bermuda grass is still impossibly green, the sky vibrantly blue and the sun warm on your shoulders.
On a day like that — a day like today — low numbers are out there, awaiting the players who can keep the ball in the fairway and think their way around Sedgefield’s Donald Ross-designed golf course.
Beau Hossler opened the 87th Wyndham Championship with a 9-under par 61, making seven birdies and an eagle to take the first-round lead in the PGA TOUR’s regular-season finale.
Hossler birdied five holes on the front nine — four in a row on Nos. 3, 4, 5 and 6 — then eagled the par-5 15th. He finished his round with birdies on the 17th and 18th holes.
“It was pretty strong across the board,” Hossler said. “I got off to a nice start and obviously
finished particularly well there at the end there as well.”
Sahith Theegala and 23-year-old rookie Ben James are both just one shot back after first rounds of 8-under 62. Journeyman Eric Cole is alone in fourth place after a 7-under 63, and six players are tied for fifth place at 6-under 64.
Former Wyndham Championship winners Brandt Snedeker and Tom Kim, along with established stars Billy Horschel and Hideki Matsuyama, were among a dozen players tied at 5-under 65.
Twelve golfers were still on the course and didn’t finish their first rounds when late afternoon storms nearby suspended play for the day. They finished early Friday morning while the second round was already underway.
Hossler’s fine first round could’ve been even better, but Sedgefield’s pristine greens and thick rough are its best defense against low scores.
“I kind of did everything well,” Hossler said. “I didn’t feel my best with the driver, but my iron play was probably the best of my career today. I missed a couple of very makeable putts, but with that being said, if you leave it five feet above the hole on this golf course, it can be incredibly difficult. Proximity is part of the battle, but a lot of it is the leave. These greens are quite severe and fast.”
Hossler, 31, should know. He turned pro in 2016, and he shot a career-best round of 60 at the Wyndham Championship two years ago. But it’s been a love-hate relationship with a golf course that rewards shot-making but punishes mistakes.
“The main thing is just getting comfortable off the tee,” Hossler said. “There’s a lot of really awkward-looking tee shots here, where if you were to look at them from a blimp, they look straightforward. But the way we play them, there’s usually a little bit more of a crest to where the hole essentially is blind. I guess I’ve gotten a bit more confident with those lines over the years.”
Once upon a time, Hossler was a 17-year-old phenom who was all set to play Greensboro’s AJGA Wyndham Invitational in 2012 … but instead qualified for the U.S. Open at Olympia that week and briefly took the second-round lead before finishing 29th.
Fourteen years later, Hossler is still chasing his first PGA TOUR victory.
“I’m going to try to win a golf tournament, that’s all there is to it,” Hossler said. “You try to do the same thing every week. I’ve been out here on TOUR for nine years and, yeah, at the end of the day, that’s what we all prepare to do — whether it’s the first week of the year or a week like this.
“Every week we play out here has implications for future years. If you let that consume you, it’s a dangerous thing. I’m going to go try to play great golf and let the cards fall where they may.”
James, who starred at the University of Virginia, turned pro this year at the Canadian Open and shot his 62 in just his eighth PGA TOUR start. He eagled both of Sedgefield’s par-5s, but missed a chance to share the lead when he bogeyed the difficult 18th hole — a par-5 for club members, but a par-4 for the pros.
“I don’t really look at the leaderboard,” James said. “Every week someone always shoots anywhere from 63 to 60 or 59 the first day, so it’s always there. You just try to put yourself in position and play the best you can.”
Theegala, a 28-year-old pro from California, got off to a scintillating start. He made eight birdies on the front nine, including his first six holes in a row. He made the turn, then made eight pars in a row before birdieing the 18th.
“I got to the back nine, and I just stopped hitting fairways,” Theegala said. “That cost me a lot of opportunities. … It was an interesting round. I really didn’t feel I played poorly on the back, I just couldn’t quite hit it in the fairway, and it’s tough to score from the rough. That’s why it’s such a great golf course — you can tear it up in the fairway but not from the rough.”
And it’s been that way since 1926. That’s 100 years of comfortable reliability.
