Wyndham Championship Recap: Herman Brings It Home

Jim Herman's win at the Wyndham Championship wasn't the most out-of-nowhere win in PGA Tour history, not even close, but it nonetheless was still a mind-boggling stunner. Wait until you read the numbers.

First let's say that at age 42, this was Herman's third win on Tour, and they all came in the past five years. So Herman is far from a total scrub. That resume would be a dream for maybe 95 percent of the golfers on Tour. But until Herman edged Billy Horschel by a stroke at Sedgefield Country Club on Sunday, he had not had so much as a top-25 in 13 months – since his last win, at the alternate-field 2019 Barbasol Championship. Before that event, you have to go back another 13 months for his previous top-25 – no, he didn't win that time; it was a tie for 19th at the 2017 Memorial.

So, to review: two top-25s in 26 months, both wins.

Herman was ranked 318th in the world rankings coming in. He had 45 OWGR "counting events" going back to 2018 that formulated his ranking. Of those 45, he missed the cut in 30 of them -- THIRTY -- and some of those were Korn Ferry Tour events. He's now ranked 91st in the world.

Wait, there's more …

Herman entered the week 192nd in the FedExCup Standings. In the prior 13 years since the Tour playoffs started, no player had come from so far back to get into the top 125 at the Wyndham Championship. The previous "worst" was Davis Love III, who remarkably won the event at age 51 after beginning the week 186th in points. Herman moved to the 54th position, so not only is he in next week's Northern Trust at TPC Boston, he'll be in the BMW Championship at Olympia Fields the following week. He, of course, also has secured his card for the next two seasons, a berth in next month's U.S. Open, the Sentry Tournament of Champions in January and the 2021 Masters in April.

This was the 195th PGA Tour event for Herman. He has three wins and 10 top-10s. His biggest win before Sunday was at the 2016 Houston Open, another last-chance moment that got him into the Masters. It also moved him to No. 68 in the world rankings. Like we said, he had some decent years from the 2014-15 seasons through 2016-17 before falling on hard times.

The biggest outlier win in PGA Tour history is likely Shaun Micheel winning the 2003 PGA Championship for his only title in 399 starts. The other one that came to mind in light of Herman's win was Derek Ernst winning the Wells Fargo in 2013 – his only top-10 in 111 career starts.

Every season on Tour, we see quite a few out-of-nowhere wins, some more out there than others. Here are some of the winners this season: Sebastian Munoz, Lanto Griffin, Tyler Duncan and Nick Taylor. Even Brendon Todd's win at the alternate-field Bermuda Championship was a stunner, at least until he won at Mayakoba two weeks later.

It's impossible to know when these long shots will come in – and maybe those names above weren't as long as Herman was (600-1 on golfodds.com) – but it's a regular component of life on the PGA Tour.

MONDAY BACKSPIN

The Top 125

Three guys played their way into the top 125 at the last possible moment. Oddly enough, three guys also fell out. That's in line with the Tour average of 2.6 over the first 13 years of the playoffs. Besides Herman, Zach Johnson registered his first top-10 in almost two years, and his tie for seventh moved him from 129th to 104th. Johnson missed the playoffs last year. Also in is Shane Lowry, moving from 131st to 122nd thanks to a T23. Falling out were Fabian Gomez (122nd to 126th), Russell Knox (124 to 127) and Charl Schwartzel (125 to 128). Those three keep their cards but there is a downside for anyone falling out of the top-125 this season other than missing the playoffs. As Will Gray of Golf Channel tweeted, they will drop a category and be subject to the reshuffle. Other big names missing the playoffs include Sergio Garcia (more on him below), Matt Wallace, Danny Willett and Rafa Cabrera Bello. So while it appeared back in April that the Tour said no one would lose their standing because of the pandemic, that isn't exactly so. And maybe internationals were caught at a little disadvantage there, especially if stuck overseas for a bit. And maybe so were guys planning to play more events later in the season only to have many of them canceled. 

A Look at The Rest

Tiger Woods
Woods will be at The Northern Trust and perhaps the BMW Championship as he tries to get to the Tour Championship. This is a very delicate road to navigate for Woods, who surely knows the biggest prize is not East Lake in three weeks but the U.S. Open in five. In a perfect world, he'd do well enough next week to climb from 49th in the point standings to ensure a berth in the Tour Championship and be able to skip the BMW. But there are indications that Woods has been preparing for all three playoff events, which would make the U.S. Open at treacherous Winged Foot his fourth event in five weeks and fifth in seven.

Brooks Koepka
Koepka's decision to play the Wyndham hinted at desperation. Sure, he could've had a good week or even a great one to ensure another trip to East Lake, but the chances weren't great. Instead, he played a sixth straight week, albeit only two rounds this time, with his goal also to play the next three weeks and four of five. That would be 10 weeks out 11, with renewed questions about him being injured. Koepka begins the playoffs at 97th in the standings and will need a big week simply to reach the BMW. 

Billy Horschel
Horschel had a great week and is peaking at the right time. But he hit two, maybe three, bad shots on the final three holes and that was more than enough to turn the tide. The first was the tee ball on the par-3 16th that came up way short in the front bunker -- bogey. And the second was the missed 9-footer for birdie on 18 that would've forced a playoff. Horschel got a perfect read from playing partner Doc Redman but missed in the exact same spot as Redman did. Still, the Wyndham continued a strong run for Horschel since the restart and he is up to 30th OWGR. More importantly, he's now 25th in the point standings heading to the playoffs.

Doc Redman
Redman is only 22, younger than Collin Morikawa and Viktor Hovland. He is having a pretty good season. This tie for third was his best finish of the season and seventh top-25. He is 60th in the point standings, which pretty much assures two playoff starts. He also cracked the top-100 OWGR for the first time, now 94th.

Si Woo Kim
After a 62 with an ace on Saturday, regression was all but certain on Sunday. Kim shot 70 to fall into a four-way tie for third. He is absolutely a course horse for Sedgefield, but it's hard to ever pull the trigger on guy who can look lights-out great at times but often is the complete opposite. This was his first top-10 since last year's Wyndham event. Note to self: Remember that last sentence for the 2021 Wyndham.

Kevin Kisner
Kisner is playing his best golf of the season at just the right time – thanks mostly to finding his putting stroke. He tied for third, his second podium finish in his past five starts. Kisner was ranked around 90th in SG: Putting about a month ago; he's now zoomed all the way to 19th.

Harold Varner
Varner picked a good time to notch his first top-10 of the season, tying for seventh to move to 73rd in the point standings, on the fringe of qualifying for the BMW. It also moved him to a career-best world ranking of 105th.

Sungjae Im
After seven events that saw three missed cuts and nothing inside the top-30, Im tied for ninth. He was simply too good to keep down for too long (Jordan Spieth fans might disagree with that theory).
 
Russell Henley
Henley (T9) notched his third top-10 of the season – and they've all come in his past nine events. He turned around his dreadful season beginning at the Genesis Invitational, largely because of stellar iron play. He is ranked third on Tour in both SG: Approach and greens in regulation, and that's something to keep in your back pocket for TPC Boston.

Denny McCarthy
Here's another hint for Boston: McCarthy missed only four cuts all season in 21 starts (with one WD). Ranking first in putting on Tour always offers a puncher's chance for a high finish. He closed with a 63 to tie for ninth at the Wyndham, his fourth top-10 this season. Right now, McCarthy would qualify for the BMW.

Talor Gooch
The news here is that Gooch moved from 66th in the standings to 62nd, virtually ensuring him a second playoff event for the first time. He tied for 23rd.

Sergio Garcia
Garcia's season is over. He began the week 134th in the point standings, finished tied for 66th at the Wyndham and dropped a couple of FedEx Cup spots. Garcia has a bad season, with only one top-10 that also doubled as his lone top-25, a tie for fifth at the RBC Heritage. But he also had a short season, playing in only 12 events. He is now married with two young children, and that is likely part of this story.

Justin Rose
Rose's season was enough to give you whiplash, with no better illustration than a missed cut at the Wyndham coming right after a top-10 at the PGA Championship. Rose had a poor start to the season, ditched his Honma clubs, flourished for a few weeks after returning to TaylorMade, then missed three straight cuts before the PGA. He'll enter the playoffs outside the top-100 with only a slim chance to get to the BMW.

Brendon Todd
Todd had a bad week. He missed the cut. Hey, it happens. Especially after the grueling week of a major. It's still a tremendous season in which he's virtually guaranteed to make it to the Tour Championship. He's shown he can be on the first page of the leaderboard even in strong fields, and he should not be downgraded because of this one week.

Akshay Bhatia
We hadn't seen the teenager on the PGA Tour since the American Express tournament back in January, and he missed another cut at the Wyndham, his sixth in as many Tour starts this season. This one was a little different, however, as he opened with a 3-under on Thursday and was still looking in decent shape to make the cut heading to the back-nine on Friday before fading. He's still only 18.