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  46º

08/10/2010 09:20 PM

Crunch time at Sedgefield as Wyndham Championship approaches

By: Suzy Stark

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GREENSBORO -- With just a few days left until the Wyndham Championship kicks off, employees at Sedgefield Country Club are working around the clock.

"The final week, this week, is really when pretty much everyone's out here," said Bobby Powell, the director of tournament operations. "The utilities are out here, so phone, cable, Internet, all those types of things. Coke is out here starting to set up. By this point it's high tide."

It takes dozens of people to construct the 12 luxury suites and 18 sky boxes. The buildings alone cost upwards of $1 million to put together.

This year they've added the BB&T Fan Pavilion, a hospitality center for spectators.

"We're really excited about it," said Powell. "We kind of learned from our lessons last year. Being in August is tough. You either have the extreme heat like we have today or you have rain like we had last year. We probably didn't have enough areas on the golf course for the regular spectators to be able to get in out of the elements."

Those projects will need to be completed for inspection by week's end, just in time for the Kevin Harvick Foundation Pro-Am Monday morning. Harvick, the NASCAR points leader in the Sprint Cup Series, is a Kernersville resident and member of Sedgefield Country Club.

"It's great to have the event and us be a part of it with our foundation, and to have the event here in our community is going to be great, hopefully, for everybody involved," said Harvick. "But I'm a little bit nervous just for the people standing around while I play golf because I'm a little bit erratic. But it's all for a good cause and we should have fun."

The Wyndham Championship generates about $11 million a year, about the same cost as their overhead. As a part of the Piedmont Triad Charitable Foundation, the championship donates more than $1 million to the community every year.