GREENSBORO, N.C. – As soon as Brendon Todd found out he was grouped in the opening two rounds of the Wyndham Championship with Webb Simpson, he texted Simpson’s caddie, Paul Tesori, and wrote that he’ll try to keep up with the all-time Sedgefield money leader this week.
“Webb owns this place,” Todd said of Sedgefield Country Club, a Donald Ross design that has hosted the Wyndham Championship since 2008.
Simpson, the highest-ranked player in the field at No. 6 in the world, won the title in 2011 and named his third child Wyndham after it, finished second last year and seeks his fourth consecutive top-three finish at the event.
Simpson and Todd being paired together (with South Korea’s Sungjae Im as their third wheel) is old hat for these two, who have been going head-to-head since their formative years.
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“Brendon Todd moving to Cary, North Carolina, might have been the greatest thing for my game,” Simpson said. “From age 11 to 13, I won a lot of tournaments. Brendon comes to town and he was better than me. He inspired me. He made me mad when he beat me. He pushed me to get better and be my best.”
The way Todd remembers it, they dueled back and forth with Simpson beating him at his first tournament, the North State Junior Championship, and the North Carolina Junior Match Play while Todd claimed three individual state titles. At age 17, they teamed up and won the North Carolina Amateur Four-Ball.
Simpson has gone on to win the 2012 U.S. Open among his seven Tour titles, while Todd is a three-time winner, but both have experienced their struggles at times. Simpson went winless for more than four year from 2013 until 2018, which coincided with the USGA banning the belly putter in 2016 that he’d used for his entire career. Simpson resurrected his career using a legal, arm-lock method of putting and ranks No. 18 in Strokes Gained: Putting this season.
“I never thought I would ever be a great putter,” said Simpson, who ranked as high as fifth in putting in 2018.
Along the way, Simpson realized he took for granted his success and has learned to appreciate it more this time around.
“We’re never as far off as we think and we’re never going to play at a top level for as long as we might think or hope,” he said, “so, you’ve got to be thankful for those moments.”
Todd’s slump took him to the brink of quitting as he endured a stretch of missing 37 cuts in 41 starts between 2016 and 2018. The lowest of lows happened in a Monday Qualifier for the 2018 Wyndham Championship when he shot 41 on his first nine and knew he had no chance of earning a berth in the field.
“I told the guys I was playing with, ‘I’m sorry, I’ve never done this, but I’m going to withdraw.’ I started my drive home early. I knew I had nothing left. It was Korn Ferry Q-School or get a job,” said Todd, who considered opening a pizza franchise.
Instead, he took three months off to prepare for the second stage of Q-School, overcame the full-swing yips and became an inspiration for anyone struggling with this maddening game.
“It shows kind of what he’s made of,” Simpson said. “It’s hard to go from where he was to now on top of the world in the game of golf, or close to it.”
Todd won twice earlier this season at the Bermuda Championship and Mayakoba Golf Classic. Since the Tour’s season resumed in June, he’s held the 54-hole lead at the Travelers Championship and WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and 18-hole lead at last week’s PGA Championship. His nine top-25 finishes in 21 starts ranks him as one of the season’s most consistent players, while Simpson claimed the Waste Management Phoenix Open and RBC Heritage and has been a model of consistency with seven top 25s in 11 starts. It’s brought them full circle to another pairing in the state where it all began.
“It’s really special to get paired in North Carolina,” Todd said. “They’re not just throwing us together for old time’s sake. We’re both top 10 in the FedEx Cup and having great years.”
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