Round 1: Wyndham Championship

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The first groups are ready to tee off at the Wyndham Championship. Here's how it sets up:

Groups We're Watching

Tee time Players   8:00 a.m. ET, Hole No. 10 Brandt Snedeker, Joe Ogilvie, David Toms Snedeker won here in '07 and has top-fives in three of his last five starts. Will he win here again? 1:00 p.m. ET, Hole No. 1 Bo Van Pelt, Lucas Glover, Sergio Garcia Van Pelt and Glover are deep inside the top 125 in points, but Garcia still has to secure his position. 7:40 a.m. ET, Hole No. 1 Carl Pettersson, Steve Lowery, Todd Hamilton Pettersson is looking for back-to-back Sedgefield wins, but the local product has had zero top-15s this year.

EXPERT PREVIEW: PGA TOUR on-site correspondent Bob Stevens previews Thursday's round:

Thursday's forecast

Isolated T-Storms Temp: 89 high/72 low Partly cloudy with a slight chance of thunderstorms. Winds from the southwest at 10 to 15 mph.

I know the TOUR wants you to believe that the PGA TOUR Playoffs for the FedExCup begin next week at the Barclays, but for more than half the field at the Wyndham, the Playoffs begin TODAY. Think of this tournament as the one that cuts the playoff field from "everyone" to 125, and it is amazing that nearly half a dozen players in the field this week who played in the TOUR Championship last year won't play in any of the Playoff events this year if they don't get going -- not the least being defending Wyndham champion Carl Pettersson. Ken Duke, Stuart Appleby and Billy Mayfair also have no margin for error if they want to play in even one Playoff event, let alone earn their way back to East Lake.

Lucas Glover, who has no playoff pressure, told me he's treating this like a home game (he lives within a couple of hours across the border in South Carolina) and is glad to see a Sedgefield course measuring just 7,117 yards after trying to tame the monstrous Hazeltine (that measured over 7,600 yards) in last week's PGA Championship. By now, you've learned that Glover (who plays glove-less) is a bit on the "old school" side and plans on enjoying the tighter Donald Ross layout.

Players told me to expect a lot of darts to be thrown at the flagsticks this week. It has been very hot this week in Greensboro, and the greens staff has had to water the bentgrass greens constantly to keep them from burning out. Remember, Pettersson won last year at 21 under on a course none of these guys had played on TOUR before. A little knowledge could drive scores even lower.

Stat of the day

There have been five first-time winners in '09 but no rookies. The last time the TOUR went an entire year without a rookie winner was 1998. In fact, it has only happened five times in the last 40 years -- '70, '78, '81, '86 and '98. Jeff Klauk, James Nitties and Matt Bettencourt are rookies to watch this week.

The Film Room

Opening Shot: August 19, 2009 Y.E. Yang captures the win at Hazeltine, ten spots are secured for the Presidents Cup teams and players look to secure their spots in the FedExCup Playoffs at the Wyndham Championship. Watch it 16-year-old Thomas to play his first PGA TOUR event Justin Thomas, a 16-year-old junior player from Goshen, Ky., shares his feelings about playing at the 2009 Wyndham Championship. Watch it Carl Pettersson is glad to be playing in North Carolina Carl Pettersson talks to the media at the 2009 Wyndham Championship about the condition of the golf course and his thoughts on playing well. Watch it

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