This year’s Wyndham Championship is off to an interesting start and the first two rounds already wrapped up. Russell Henry was leading after the second round, with Rory Sabbatini, Webb Simpson, and Scott Piercy following with their T2 finish. However, players like Rickie Fowler and Matthew Wolff did not make the cut.
That being said, Wolff’s elimination came with a prize only less than that of what the champion’s payout will be.
How did Matthew Wolff earn $1 million even after he missed the cut?
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Even though Wolff ended up missing the cut, he was awarded a check which is more than what most of the field will earn at Wyndham Championship 2021. Wolff is the recipient of the Aon Risk Reward Challenge, which earned him the $1 million prize on Friday. He had to reach the 40-round minimum, which happened after his Hole 15 birdie (par-5) during Round 2.
“There’s a lot of money to be made out on Tour, but I’m new out here and every little bit helps,” Wolff explained. “Just happy that I got it done. And I knew about it kind of the last couple months, so on the Aon holes I was a little more nervous than I usually am, but played them pretty well and just came out on top.”
He added that he is a risky player, and the holes did work in his favor. “I feel like I have a pretty good game plan every single week, but seems like those holes I just have a better one”.
On the way to @WyndhamChamp to keep grinding after a solid week in Memphis! Congrats to fellow @Perficient player @Abraham_Ancer on the win! pic.twitter.com/Qw5SzKx8IL
— Matthew Wolff (@matthew_wolff5) August 9, 2021
Wolff also wanted to win the challenge, he needed it to be because he plays the best golf, and not because someone hands it to him. Louis Oosthuizen withdrew on Wednesday, making it easy for Wolff who only had to win two rounds. “I think I was averaging like a stroke under par every single week or according to the contest, so I played those holes correctly, just got to play the rest of the holes right”.
What is the Aon Risk Reward Challenge?
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The Aon Risk Reward Challenge is based around certain holes at certain PGA Tour events. They are scattered across the season and are meant to gauge a golfer’s strategy on those considerably challenging holes. In the end, the best two scores for the hole are counted on a leaderboard maintained for the entire season. Wyndham is the last event of the season before everyone heads to the FedEx Cup playoffs.
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