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GREENSBORO — No matter how it would unfold, Sunday’s final round at the Wyndham Championship offered both a rarity and an opportunity to relish for Rob Oppenheim.
The 40-year-old journeyman, coming off a career-best effort from the day prior, headed out in the final group of a PGA Tour event for the first time as part of his pairing with third-round leader Si Woo Kim.
“It’s what we play for,” Oppenheim said Saturday, “to kind of put ourselves in these situations and see how you handle it. I haven’t been in this situation. I’ve never been in one of the last two or three groups on Sunday, but I’ve been in plenty of situations where I’ve been fighting to keep my job or trying to get out here. Don’t get much more pressure than that, I don’t think.”
Oppenheim, whose professional path of 18 years has authored an underdog story, has struggled to maintain his Tour card and made the cut at only one major, the 2016 U.S. Open.
His list of victories contains an assortment of minor-league moments, including a pair of Canadian Tour wins and the Wichita Open on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2015, which signified the last time he claimed a tournament title entering the Wyndham’s final round.
“A lot of up and down, but I love it,” he said of his winding career. “I love doing what I’ve been doing.”
There was Oppenheim by mid-afternoon Sunday, two shots off the Wyndham lead here and projected to jump from 145 to 78 in the rankings for the FedExCup Playoffs. The top 125 players advance to The Northern Trust later this week and the first stop in the playoffs.
Oppenheim never has qualified for the Tour’s postseason. The Northern Trust, to be held this year in Norton, Mass., would mark a homecoming for the native of Salem, Mass., should he secure a spot.
“That was the main goal at the beginning of the year,” he said of the playoffs. “I’ve never done that. For it to be up in Boston, I know there’s no fans, but just being up there would be pretty special to play that event.”
Never to be confused for a power player at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, Oppenheim delivered a career-low 62 during Saturday’s third round of the Wyndham. He used that 8-under-par performance to climb into contention at 16-under for the tournament, two shots shy of Kim’s leading total, along with Doc Redman.
“Trying to just survive at times throughout my career,” Oppenheim said Saturday, looking ahead to the promise of Sunday’s final round. “To draw back on some of those times where I’ve had some important rounds and got it done. I think the most important thing is I really like this golf course. I feel comfortable with tee shots, the lines feel good, I like the speed of the greens. So I’m comfortable here and I think that helps as much as anything.”
This article originally appeared on Times-News: Wyndham Championship finds underdog story in journeyman Oppenheim
