It’s a round that couldn’t come at a better time for Joel Dahmen. The one-off PGA Tour winner, number 101 in the FedEx Cup standings, took part in the 2025 Wyndham Championship, shot Gates at Sedgefield Country Club on Thursday, taking the first round lead in the regular season finale of the PGA Tour.
Painting a 9-under 61 to tie the lowest round of his career, Dermen jumped to the top of the leaderboard to take a one-stroke lead over Alex Noren heading into the second round on Friday.
“I don’t know if I’ve seen the 61 come, but I saw good golf coming,” Damen said. “Last week I went to 45 holes without bogeys to start the tournament. In addition to things like Saturday, I played very well at Truckie at Barracuda. Last week, I like to say it in golf, so it was a trend.
With his place above the leaderboard after the first refrain, Derman is predicted to jump from outside the top 100 to the top 50 in the FedEx Cup standings. The predictions are great, but the friendly right-hander understands that, given his volatile position in the race during the season, there is much to do between the finish line from now on.
Dermen has arrived in the week that I need at least The second-place two-way tie will climb to climb into the top 70. He does well to achieve just that, but the victory removes a lot of calculations from the equation and secures tee time at next week’s St. Jude Championship.
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“I mean, I was like three top two in my career,” Damen said. “I don’t know, maybe four? I mean, it’s not even things, right? Yeah, it’s great to make the playoffs, it’s incredible, it gives us a lot of time this fall. We’ll take some pressure from it. The playoffs are a bonus for me.
While Damen dances with potential playoff pushes, his pursuers are those aiming to approach week two of the postseason. Defending champion Aaron Rye continued his romance with Donald Ross Design on Thursday.
He coincided with former PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Cameron Young to finish the round with six birdies on the final seven holes. Young is still looking for his first PGA Tour victory, and if he wins he will be the 1,000th unique winner in league history.
Meanwhile, 13-time winner Jordan Spieth thrusts his name into the first page of the leaderboard with his own 65 people. In 50th place in the FedEx Cup standings, Spieth is coming to Greensboro, North Carolina, looking to improve his position at the BMW Championship two weeks later and solidify his spot.
leader
1. Joel Damen (-9)
The 2025 Caddy Carousel attacked Damen’s camp in the last month when he said goodbye to longtime Bagman and excellent friend Genobonnary after a decade of partnership. As he needs to acquire more ownership of his game, Damen has put together some better results, including the top 20 in the Barracuda Championship.
It wouldn’t have been a question of how well Damen hit the ball on Thursday, or who was in the bag. He scored three strokes at the scoring club, with eight of the 10 birdies coming in from 15 feet. A 23-23-23-23-7 bonus long-distance connection of 50 feet at No. 7 made up the other two circles of the scorecard.
“Man, I love Geno. We still text almost every day,” Derman said. “He’s doing well. Yeah, I miss him, but sometimes it’s the hardest – you have to do something difficult – that wasn’t an easy decision. I’m not happy about it, but I’m not saying it’s difficult.
“But I had to change something with me. It was my mentality. It was my way of thinking. It was what I was doing and you had to own what I was doing. I wasn’t doing it well. So it’s the way I do it.
Other candidates
2. Who Alex (-8)
T3. Aaron Rye, Cameron Young, Nico Echavalia, Mark Hubbard (-7)
7. (-6)’s sungjae
T8. Jordan Spieth, Chandler Phillips, Adam Scott, Lee Hodges, Matt Wallace, Christia Bezidenhout, Noah Goodwin, Matteo Manassero, Paul Peterson, Mac Meissner, Ricky Castillo (-5)
Spieth came in the week, convinced that his play was better than the results shown, and on Thursday he took a step to match the two. The three-time major champions pieced the rounds together as the three-time major champions fought back from their early birdies and hit golf balls at various stages to position themselves for their first true competitive run of 2025.
Spieth leaned heavily towards the round mid-sized putter in a conversion from 12 feet, 50 feet, 12 feet, 16 feet and 17 feet on the eight-hole stretch. From there he straightened the ship and made four birdies in the final five holes. While the putter pops out, Spieth needs the rest of his game to advance the rest of that game.
“It means everything was fine,” Spieth said. “I didn’t drive the ball particularly well up to the last five or six holes. It was just like ironplay, it was really the last seven holes, etc. So I had a bit of a break. I didn’t have a great warm-up this morning. For the rest of the week.”
Predicted FedEx Cup Bubble
Christiaan bezuidenhout | 66 | 74 | T8 | -5 |
Emiliano Grillo | 67 | 66 | T38 | -3 |
Eric Van Louen | 68 | 64 | T141 | +3 |
Cam Davis | 69 | 67 | T59 | -2 |
Patrick Rogers | 70 | 68 | T110 | e |
Chris Kirk | 71 | 73 | T19 | -4 |
Byeong hun an | 72 | 69 | T64 | -2 |
Mattischmitt | 73 | 70 | T92 | -1 |
Keith Mitchell | 74 | 72 | T64 | -2 |
Nikolai Hodzigard | 75 | 71 | T130 | +2 |
2025 Wyndham Championship updated odds and picks
Odds by DraftKings Sportsbook
- Aaron Rye: 7-1
- Alex: 8-1
- Joel Dahmen: 12-1
- Cameron Young: 12-1
- Nico Echavarria: 16-1
- Jordan Spieth: 18-1
- Mark Hubbard: 22-1
- Robert Macintyre: 28-1
There are several names at the top of the leaderboard, but no one is too afraid with the 54 holes. Instead, let’s take a look at Bezuidenhout, which only four strokes from Damne’s pace after hitting 16 of the 14 fairways and 18 greens with restrictions. Usually, the great putter, South Africa should start moving on top of the leaderboard if its clubs start working together. He’s priced at 30-1, but 60-1 Max Homa could be a fun darts throw even at 4 under.
