GOLF PICK 'EM: WYNDHAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHUP BREAKDOWNS
Golf Pick 'Em is back for another season of picks and prizes in the NBC Sports Predictor app.
The free-to-play game has returned in 2021 and continues this week with the Wyndham Championship. Each week participants will choose between a series of head-to-head matchups, plus select an overall tournament champion and winning score.
Participants can compete for weekly cash prizes, with a $50,000 jackpot available for any participants who earn a perfect score (increasing up to $100,000 during some of the biggest events of the year). There will also be at least $1,000 awarded each week in guaranteed cash and prizes, even if there is no player with a perfect score.
The U.S. Open featured a jackpot winner, as one user took home $100,200 after picking Jon Rahm to win at 6 under and getting all 10 matchups correct.
Here's a look at some of the keys to this week's set of 10 matchups as the PGA Tour wraps up the 2020-21 regular season in Greensboro:
Rickie Fowler vs. Adam Scott
Keys: Two fan favorites with work to do in order to make the playoffs. Fowler has shown some signs of life this summer but still enters the week at 130th in points, needing a solid result on a course where his lone prior appearance (2016) ended with a T-22 finish. Scott is in slightly better shape, sitting at No. 121 in points, but is still in danger of missing the postseason for the first time in his career. He has a missed cut and a T-63 finish in two prior trips to Sedgefield, the most recent in 2015.
Edge: Fowler
Webb Simpson vs. Brandt Snedeker
Keys: Both of these men circle this event on the calendar, regardless of how busy this part of the season can be. Simpson won here in 2011 and named his daughter after the tournament's title sponsor, while Snedeker shot 59 en route to victory back in 2018. He missed the cut last week in Reno after a pair of top-20 finishes and has fallen outside the top 130 in the world, while Simpson's T-15 finish in Memphis for his best result since April. Simpson has been beaten by a total of six players at this event over the last four years, finishing 3rd-T2-2nd-T3.
Edge: Simpson
Justin Rose vs. Tommy Fleetwood
Keys: Two Englishmen who will need a big finish to make the playoffs. Rose finished seventh and T-8 at the first two majors this year but has struggled since, and he heads to North Carolina ranked 136th in points. Fleetwood hasn't cracked the top 10 since the WGC Match Play in March, and he sits at No. 138 in points after a T-16 finish in Tokyo in his most recent start. Both men played here last year, with Fleetwood finishing T-58 while Rose missed the cut.
Edge: Rose
Louis Oosthuizen vs. Hideki Matsuyama
Keys: Matsuyama has lost playoffs in consecutive weeks, first for a bronze medal at the Olympics and then Sunday in Memphis. The Masters winner has split his time at Sedgefield, with three missed cuts and three top-15 finishes. Oosthuizen has had a number of close calls this year, including runner-ups at the PGA and U.S. Open, and makes his tournament debut off a T-17 finish in Memphis.
Edge: Matsuyama
Will Zalatoris vs. Jason Day
Keys: Zalatoris finally snapped out of his summer funk at TPC Southwind, finishing T-8 for his best result since the PGA in May. He missed the cut here in 2018 in his lone prior appearance, while Day hasn't played this event since way back in 2008. Much has changed for him since then, but he returns to Greensboro ranked 74th in the world and looking for his first top-5 finish since the 2020 PGA one year ago this week.
Edge: Zalatoris
Bubba Watson vs. Gary Woodland
Keys: Two of the Tour's longest hitters who will each need to lean on other factors of their game to thrive at Sedgefield. Watson hasn't played this event since 2009, having missed the cut both that year and the year prior, but has made four straight cuts highlighted by a T-6 finish in Detroit. Woodland is making his first appearance since a missed cut in 2012 and he chased a T-11 finish at the 3M Open with a T-7 finish at the Barracuda.
Edge: Woodland
Jim Herman vs. J.T. Poston
Keys: The two most recent names on the Sam Snead Cup. Herman produced a wild weekend last year, shooting 61-63 to win as a 500-to-1 longshot, while Poston won here two years ago while playing all 72 holes without making a single bogey. Herman grabbed the early lead last week in Memphis before fading, while Poston lost a playoff last month at the Barbasol and finished T-28 at the 3M Open in his most recent start.
Edge: Poston
Kevin Kisner vs. Matthew Wolff
Keys: Kisner struggled last week in Memphis, beating only two players in the 65-man field, but he now heads to a course where he has finished inside the top 10 three times in his last four trips, including a T-3 finish last year when he went 65-64 over the weekend. Wolff has struggled with consistency this year but did finish T-17 in last week's WGC event, and he'll look to improve upon a T-19 finish two years ago in his tournament debut.
Edge: Kisner
Jason Kokrak vs. Patrick Reed
Keys: Two guys with Ryder Cup aspirations on their mind in North Carolina. Kokrak has won twice already this season and remains in the mix for Player of the Year. He heads to Greensboro after a T-34 finish at Southwind, having finished inside the top 15 at Sedgefield each of the last two years. Reed famously beat Jordan Spieth in a playoff to win here back in 2013, and he has finished inside the top 25 in four subsequent trips including a T-9 last year. He finished T-31 last week in Memphis, one shot ahead of Kokrak.
Edge: Reed
Rory Sabbatini vs. C.T. Pan
Keys: The surprise medalists from Tokyo are back in action. Sabbatini's closing 61 at Kasumigaseki earned him a silver medal, but his PGA Tour record includes four straight missed cuts. He does, though, have three finishes of T-8 or better here since 2014, including a T-6 finish two years ago. Pan nearly won this event back in 2018, finishing T-2, and his bronze in Japan came after he had missed each of his three prior cuts. Pan is inside the playoff bubble at 120th, while Sabbatini sits at No. 141 in points.
Edge: Sabbatini
