NCG Fantasy Golf: Who are we picking for the Wyndham Championship?
Are you playing NCG’s Fantasy Golf game yet? There are prizes up for grabs every week courtesy of Teeofftimes.co.uk, so it’s never too late to register. And the top three winners at the end of the season will be kitted out in the latest FootJoy gear.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to our Fantasy Golf page and get choosing!
But before you do that, read who our Fantasy Golf expert Matthew Beedle is putting in his team this week.
NCG Fantasy Golf: Who are we picking for the Wyndham Championship?
This week the PGA Tour heads to North Carolina for the Wyndham Championship with plenty of players trying to cement their place in the FedEx Cup play-offs.
Henrik Stenson was victorious at Sedgefield CC last year with a record championship score of 22 under par to earn his sixth PGA Tour win.
The aim in this year’s game is to pick the right players to match the RankBuster. This week’s is set at 234 so who can you fit in your team to beat it? Here are my picks…
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Fantasy Rank: 5
The Spaniard comes off the back of a fantastic tied 10th finish at Bellerive, his best at a PGA Championship. He also still has the motivation of trying to nail down a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team with qualification and wildcard picks just around the corner.
He’s a fantastic driver of the golf ball, hitting over 65% of fairways on average. At Bellerive, he found 71% of fairways throughout the championship and was seven under par on par fours – two key stats he will need to carry into this week if he wants any success.
Chris Kirk
Fantasy Rank: 30
Kirk is on a streak of making cuts on the PGA Tour and hasn’t missed one since the Houston Open, if you discard his missed cut at the Zurich Classic with J. T Poston in the team event.
In between, he has enjoyed some notable finishes including a tied 6th at the FedEx St Jude, tied 11th at Fort Worth and tied 8th at the Valero Texas Open. Kirk also ranks inside the top 15 for par 4 scoring average.
Johnson Wagner
Fantasy Rank: 42
Has had some good finishes in his last four starts, including a T16 at the John Deere Classic where he opened up with rounds of 64 and 66.
He could only manage a pair of 70s over the weekend, which prevented him from having a charge at the title.
Wagner hasn’t missed a cut since June and has a fantastic short game. He sits 16th in strokes gained in putting and 32nd in strokes gained around the greens.
Hudson Swafford
Fantasy Rank: 43
Hasn’t had the best of years but is starting to hit some form having gone T50-T12-T11 in his last three events after four missed cuts in five events.
Like Cabrera Bello, he is a good driver of the golf ball – hitting 65% of fairways on average and he also has a good GIR percentage of 69%.
J. T. Poston
Fantasy Rank: 55
Poston is a streaky player who has missed six cuts this season but who likes to make birdies – with a birdie average of 3.87. He also ranks inside the top 35 on tour for strokes gained off the tee.
He has six top 25 finishes this season, including a fifth placed finish at the Barbasol Championship a couple of weeks ago.
Ryan Blaum
Fantasy Rank: 61
Was forced to withdraw at the Barracuda Championship but was on a good run of form prior to that with five made cuts in six events and form of T18-T12-T23-CUT-T55-T22.
Click here to pick your Fantasy Golf team for the Wyndham Championship
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Matthew Beedle
Matthew has been playing golf since he was around 13 and took up the game at a local nine-hole municipal course with his friends before joining Pontefract & District Golf Club just over the hedge.
Still a member of Pontefract with a handicap of 3, he currently sits on the board of directors to help with digital and marketing initiatives in order to improve membership and visitor income.
Matthew graduated university with a First Class in Sports Journalism from Leeds Trinity University and has been working in the golf industry since graduating.
NCG’s social media & marketing manager, Matthew’s main job role is to increase website traffic to the National Club Golfer website via our email and social media channels as well as driving entries to grow our NCG Top 100s Tour events amongst other tasks.
Not one to change his equipment too often, Matthew currently plays the TaylorMade M2 driver which has lasted the test of time in his bag. Elsewhere, you’ll find him using the TaylorMade Stealth 2 three-wood with a Ping G425 Crossover 2-iron to aid his long game.
Through his 4-iron to Gap Wedge, Matthew uses the Ping i500 irons accompanied by Ping’s Glide 3.0 56-degree and 60-degree wedges.
Another club that has stood the test of time in his bag is a Nike Method Core MC-3i putter which has had to have the SuperStroke grip changed at least three times. Ball of choice is the Titleist ProV1.
