The PGA Tour Season Rolls On At The RSM Classic In Sea Island, GA

Streeter Lecka. Getty Images.

If you thought the golf stopped when DJ strolled out Magnolia Lane in his newly tailored green jacket, you were dead wrong. The PGA Tour don't stop, won't stop (it's actually stopping next week). We roll about 200 miles down south to the Sea Island Resort to play the RSM Classic. It's easily my favorite event of the year sponsored by a non Big-4 tax and advisory firm. With that said, as part of the Tour's fall stretch of the wrap-around schedule, it's also traditionally one of the Tour's weaker events. There are definitely some names in this year's edition (Webb, Hatton, Fleetwood, Im, Day, etc), but it's for sure a weak field. This is the time of year where the grinders and newcomers on Tour try to get a head start on those key FedEx Cup points they need to retain their cards, as well as take a crack at putting it all together and locking up a Tour card for 2 years with a win.

Last year Tyler Duncan was able to do exactly that. Duncan came into the event as the world's 387th ranked player and just weeks earlier had had to go down into the Korn Ferry playoffs to retain his Tour card. Duncan left the RSM with his 2 year exemption in hand and a spot in last week's Masters (which he missed the cut in) after beating Webb Simpson with a birdie on the 2nd playoff hole. Duncan hasn't finished Top 10 in any of his 25 events since, which just goes to show how the stars can align for any of these guys in a given week. Here are your recent winners of the RSM Classic, along with their scores to par and their OWGR ranks going into the week they won:

2019: Tyler Duncan (-19), 387th

2018: Charles Howell III (-19), 84th

2017: Austin Cook (-21), 302nd

2016: Mackenzie Hughes (-17), 287th

2015: Kevin Kisner (-22), 24th

And last year's leaderboard:

As you can see, historically this event is a birdiefest. Like a handful of other events on Tour (the Farmers at Torrey Pines comes to mind), this event is played on two different courses with half the field playing on the Seaside course on Thursday and the other half playing the Plantation course. On Friday they flip. After the 36 hole cut (top 65 and ties), all players will play the Seaside course both days on the weekend. 

The Seaside course is a Tom Fazio designed Par 70 measuring 7,005 yards, which is the 6th shortest course on the Tour schedule. The Plantation course is a par 72 measuring 7,060. Both feature fast bermuda greens, relatively wide fairways, and imposing water around the greens. I'm not going to spend a lot of time going over the Plantation course because we won't see it over the weekend so let's just say taking care of business on those two extra par 5's will be important and leave it at that.

As for Seaside, here is what you've got on the card.

With the wide fairways, driving accuracy isn't all that much of a factor. With 8 of the 14 par 4's clocking in between 400-450 yards, there will be a ton of emphasis on short irons and wedges, especially on these elevated Bermuda greens with tight runoff areas. You can make mistakes if you miss in the wrong places here. It's all about precision and not distance. That's why you see CHIII and Kisner on that list of past winners. 

The Weather

Perfect fall golf weather once you dodge those Thursday showers. The wind is something to keep an eye on and is really the one thing that can challenge these guys. The Seaside course is pretty wide open and easily exposed to breezes off the water.

Best hole - 13th hole (409 yard par 4)

Streeter Lecka. Getty Images.

What you see is what you get with this one. And what you get is an unbelievable view of the Saint Simon Sound on your approach. There's not many holes here that are going to bring you to your knees. Little to no carnage. We're going for beauty and aesthetic and #13 has that in spades. Shoutout to Google Maps 3D and myself for nabbing that sick aerial view (drones not yet in my budget).

The Trophy

Ryan Young. Getty Images.

As part of these preview blogs I plan to give my take on each tournament's respective trophies, because there are some MAGNIFICENT prizes to take home on Tour besides the 7 figure checks. Unfortunately this trophy could not be more of a mail-in job by the folks at the RSM Classic. Zero creativity whatsoever. I suppose it's a tried and true design but at heart it's really just a very poor man's Wanamaker. Yawn. 3.8/10.

The Favorite

Stan Badz. Getty Images.

After losing in the playoff last year and following it up with his best season of golf in nearly a decade, #6 golfer in the world Webb Simpson comes in as the solid favorite at +800. 

The sexy pick on this board is probably Sungjae after the brilliant performance he put on at Augusta last week. I mean, his -15 week would have been good enough to win all but 8 Masters Tournaments outright. He's been churning out results week after week after week ever since he stepped on Tour and he rarely takes a week off. However, he actually skipped this event last year and placed T-37 here 2 years ago.

I wouldn't fault anybody for chasing Sungjae (and I like Fleets even better), but I think this is a situation where you don't overthink it. Webb is the #6 golfer on the planet playing in a golf tournament he THRIVES at. This is his course history at Seaside. Guy fires numbers out here.

Don't worry, I crunched those numbers for ya. That's a 67.23 scoring average, most of which was played at a time when Webb was playing far inferior golf to what he is now. On top of that, this place has a lot of similarities to Harbour Town and Sedgefield CC, where the Wyndham is played annually. Webb won the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town earlier this year and has placed T-3, 2, T-2, and 3rd at the Wyndham the past 4 years. Don't think, just shoot. Take Webb to win +800 and take him to Top 5 +200.

If you're looking for a mid-range guy, I actually like Kiz. He's won here before and has a pair of 4th and a pair of 7th place finishes to go with it the past 6 years. Fits the profile for this course to a T. And if you're looking to throw a bomb on a known entity, I'm going Brandt Snedeker at +12500 to win, Top 5 +2800, and Top 10 +1200. Not great history in 4 tries here and has struggled of late but has won twice at Sedgefield (including a 59) and once at Harbour Town. Perfect place for him to figure some things out.

Other plays

Doc Redman To Win +5500, Top 5 +1100, and Top 20 +300

Will Gordon Top 5 +2800, Top 10 +1200

Patton Kizzire Top 5 +3300

Kevin Kisner Group Winner +300 (vs Corey Conners, HVIII, ZJ, and Joel Dahmen)

Tournament matchups: Kiz over ZJ -110, Fleetwood over Oosthuizen -125

There's no tournament next weekend and really just the Mayakoba between now and the Hawaii swing in early January, so we've gotta enjoy this while we can. Gotta wean off the Masters somehow and this is exactly what the doctor ordered. Should be a good one.

Enjoy the RSM Classic.