Talor Gooch has gone from being a promising player on the PGA Tour to an under-the-radar face of LIV Golf in a blink of an eye.
Born and raised just outside of Oklahoma City, Gooch played collegiately at Oklahoma State. Turning professional in 2014, Gooch earned his way to the big time by playing on PGA Tour Canada in 2015 and ’16 before making it onto the now-Korn Ferry Tour in 2017.
With the win and a long track record of game improvement over the years, don’t be surprised if you see his name among the top of leaderboards at majors this season.
On Sunday in Georgia it was Talor Gooch’s world and we were all living in it.
The 30-year-old shot a 6-under 64 in the final round of the 2021 RSM Classic at Sea Island to earn his first PGA Tour win at 22-under. Gooch’s last win came in 2017 at the News Sentinel Open on the Korn Ferry Tour.
The Oklahoma State product made it look easy from the start with birdies on Nos. 2 and 4 to make the turn at 2 under on the day. Playing with the lead, Gooch turned up the pressure on the rest of the field with more birdies on 10, 11, 13 and 15. With three holes to play, Gooch held a five-shot lead. Gooch made par on each of his final three holes to win by three shots. Mackenzie Hughes finished solo-second at 19 under, with Sebastian Munoz in third at 18 under.
Check out Sunday’s fourth-round groupings and tee times below, as well as this week’s complete TV and online streaming schedule. All times are Eastern.
Charles Howell III, Jonathan Byrd, Patrick Rodgers
9:58 a.m.
Adam Long, Corey Conners, Zach Johnson
10:09 a.m.
Russell Henley, Keith Mitchell, Justin Rose
10:20 a.m.
Mito Pereira, Max McGreevy, J.J. Spaun
10:31 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Aaron Rai, Denny McCarthy
10:42 a.m.
Taylor Moore, John Huh, Jhonattan Vegas
10:53 a.m.
Scott Stallings, Webb Simpson, David Skinns
11:04 a.m.
Tom Hoge, Luke List, Mackenzie Hughes
11:15 a.m.
Talor Gooch, Seamus Power, Sebastian Munoz
10th tee
9:14 a.m.
Bill Hass, Tyler McCumber, Brian Gay
9:25 a.m.
Russell Knox, Chez Reavie, Lee Hodges
9:36 a.m.
Mickey DeMorat, Matthias Schwab, Kevin Streelman
9:47 a.m.
Joel Dahmen, Peter Malnati, Wyndham Clark
9:58 a.m.
Brian Harmon, Adam Scott, Matthew NeSmith
10:09 a.m.
Scott Piercy, Vince Whaley, Brendan Steele
10:20 a.m.
Matt Wallace, Nate Lashley, Adam Hadwin
10:31 a.m.
Michael Thompson, Lanto Griffin, Jared Wolfe
10:42 a.m.
Jim Herman, Austin Smotherman, Scottie Scheffler
10:53 a.m.
Doug Ghim, Sung Kang, Brandt Snedeker
11:04 a.m.
Roger Sloan, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Nick Hardy
11:15 a.m.
Kyle Stanley, Davis Love III
[vertical-gallery id=778181710]
TV, radio information
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. All times ET.
Sunday, Nov. 21
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
We called on our Rules Guru, Ron Gaines, to give us a little more clarity.
Rory Sabbatini was disqualified from the RSM Classic this week, due to a reflective sticker on his club. Sabbatini had started the tournament with a 68 on Thursday, but was sent packing from St. Simons Island, Georgia, after a discussion with PGA Tour official John Mutch.
Under Rule 4.1 of the Rules of Golf, Sabbatini was DQ’d for having a non-conforming external attachment on one of his fairway woods. Mutch, senior tournament director equipment standards, said Sabbatini had non-conforming stickers on the face of the club.
Some players use reflective dots (stickers) and a launch monitor to track clubhead speed and distance. Sabbatini likely just forgot he had them on the fairway wood.
And while that assessment is mostly correct, we called on our Rules Guru, Ron Gaines, to give us a little more clarity.
Gaines, Golfweek’s Director of Rules and Competition and the President Emeritus of the Golf Association of Michigan, explained that while a sticker was the issue, it wasn’t technically the violation.
“The reflective sticker causes the club to become non-conforming,” Gaines explained.
To further illustrate the point, here is a statement from Carter Rich, Senior Director of Equipment Rules and Conformance at the USGA. This wasn’t issued specifically on the Sabbatini case, but explains the violation.
“Under the Equipment Rules, such attachments to the face are considered to be external attachments that are not permitted (see Part 2, Section 1a of the Equipment Rules). As a result, they render the club non-conforming when playing a round under the Rules of Golf (see Rule 4.1a of the Rules of Golf). In essence, while certain attachments to the head are permissible provided they meet the criteria provided in the interpretation of Part 2, Section 1a, attachments to the face are not permitted.”
What was the sticker for? For that, we return to DiMeglio’s story:
Some players use reflective dots (stickers) and a launch monitor to track clubhead speed and distance. Sabbatini likely just forgot he had them on the fairway wood.
OK, but how do pros know this is the case?
“In the past when new players came onto the Tour, that was discussed in orientation,” Gaines said via text. “Especially on the LPGA.”
For Sabbatini, the gaffe was a costly one. While he does have a T-3 finish at the Shriners Children’s Open, the South African had missed the cut in the other two Tour events he played in this season.
Everything you need to know for the third round on Sea Island.
Once again, Sea Island, Georgia, is playing host to the PGA Tour’s best this week.
Although play on Thursday and Friday was split between the Plantation and Seaside courses, the weekend will be played only on the Seaside course. Sea Island’s Seaside course plays to a par 70 at 7,005 yards.
Check out Saturday’s third-round groupings and tee times below, as well as this week’s complete TV and online streaming schedule. All times are Eastern.
Tee times
1st tee
9:14 a.m.
Webb Simpson, Cameron Young, Jhonattan Vegas
9:25 a.m.
Patrick Rodgers, Bill Hass, Matt Kuchar
9:36 a.m.
William McGirt, Matthias Schwab, Matthew NeSmith
9:47 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Adam Hadwin, Russell Know
9:58 a.m.
Luke List, Sung Kang, Keith Mitchell
10:09 a.m.
Lanto Griffin, Max McGreevy, Aaron Rai
10:20 a.m.
J.J. Spaun, Chez Reavie, Justin Rose
10:31 a.m.
Lee Hodges, Russell Henley, Brendan Steele
10:42 a.m.
Corey Conners, David Skinns, Jim Herman
10:53 a.m.
Zach Johnson, Seamus Power, Tom Hoge
11:04 a.m.
Taylor Moore, Mackenzie Hughes, Scott Stallings
11:15 a.m.
Talor Gooch, John Huh, Sebastian Munoz
10th tee
9:14 a.m.
Jonathan Byrd, Scottie Scheffler, Troy Merritt
9:25 a.m.
Tyler McCumber, Matt Wallace, Brian Gay
9:36 a.m.
Nate Lashley, Kevin Streelman, Andrew Novak
9:47 a.m.
Mito Pereira, Scott Piercy, Doug Ghim
9:58 a.m.
Michael Thompson, Taylor Pendrith, Michael Gligic
10:09 a.m.
Kyle Stanley, Denny McCarthy, Joel Dahmen
10:20 a.m.
Adam Long, Brandt Snedeker, Vince Whaley
10:31 a.m.
Roger Sloan, Mickey DeMorat, Jared Wolfe
10:42 a.m.
Peter Malnati, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Wyndham Clark
10:53 a.m.
Charles Howell III, Davis Love III, Brian Harmon
11:04 a.m.
Adam Scott, Dylan Wu, Joshua Creel
11:15 a.m.
Nick Hardy, Austin Smotherman
TV, radio information
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. All times ET.
Saturday, Nov. 20
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 21
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Windy conditions led to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside and Plantation Courses.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Jordan Spieth isn’t the only new proud papa of late. Talor Gooch joined the club a little over four months ago. But the 30-year-old former Oklahoma State star claimed he’s getting plenty of rest as his wife and his in-laws are here this week to make his life easy.
“It’s gives me comfort,” he said.
That word summarizes Gooch’s approach to the game. The fifth-year PGA Tour pro says he finally feels comfortable out here and it shows in his results: he’s registered two top-5 finishes and a pair of T-11s during the fall season.
On Friday at the RSM Classic, the wind blew and the temperature barely rose into the 60s, but it didn’t bother an Oklahoma native, who is used to factoring in the wind. Gooch canned a 66-foot eagle putt and made four other birdies en route to shooting 5-under 65 at Sea Island’s Seaside Course.
“It’s easy on days like today to play conservative, but when you’re swinging it well you’ve got to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re trying to win tournaments and to do so you’ve got to be aggressive.”
Well, there was at least one shot that he admittedly may have been just trying to lag his long-range eagle putt at the par-5 seventh into gimme range.
“I saw hopefully a two-putt and it popped in,” said Gooch, who when told he holed 132 feet of putts on the day, cracked, “A 66-footer helps with that.”
Through 36 holes, he’s played the six par 5s in 7 under, including another long eagle putt from 50 feet at the 14th on Thursday, to post a 36-hole aggregate of 13-under 129.
Gooch, who is seeking his first Tour title, didn’t pinpoint when he started feeling comfortable with being in contention, but he said he’s been there, done that enough that he’ll be ready for this weekend.
“We were talking about it today on a hole where I was hitting like a chip 7-iron and it’s like I’ve seen this shot before out here and I’ve made the mistake before out here. So just being out here enough, you start to understand like days like today, I’m comfortable with it because I know what to expect because I’ve seen it before,” he said. “You just can’t put a value on comfort and how much that will do for you.”
[vertical-gallery id=778181710]
Blustery conditions lead to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside Course and its sister, the Plantation Course, where John Huh made six birdies to shoot 67.
“Which is good with these tough conditions,” said Huh, who is tied for second at 12 under along with first-round leader Sebastian Muñoz (70 at PC).
Another shot back is Mackenzie Hughes (68 at SC), who described the difference in playing conditions the past two days as “night and day,” and rookie Taylor Moore, who made an ace at the 17th hole at the Seaside Course.
“It’s a pretty perfect club, 8-iron from about 178 with wind off the right. Just started at that right bunker and let the wind do its job, and got a fortunate bounce,” said Moore, who shot 65. “It looked like kind of like a fringe bounce.”
Moore, 28, finished the 2020-21 combined season No. 6 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings after recording a win and 13 top-10 finishes. Baseball was his first love and he starred as a middle infielder, a good contact hitter who knew how to find the gaps. He was offered a baseball scholarship at Arkansas before switching to golf.
“My dad coached college baseball for 20 years, so I grew up going to the field every day and that was kind of my childhood and first love,” he said. “So it was a tough choice at the time for sure.”
Both Gooch and Moore call Edmond, Oklahoma, home. Could this be the week one of them breaks through for a win? Gooch, for one, knows his time will come.
“Guys like Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth and all these guys that have won early and won often, they’ve kind of put an expectation on a different level than what I think the average golfer understands out here. I know I’m going to win, I know I’m going to compete a lot and it’s just a matter of when it’s my time,” Gooch said. “I’m going to keep working, I’m going to keep getting ready so when it’s my time, I’m going to take it and run with it.”
There’s a shortlist of tournaments he’d love to add to his career resume.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Zach Johnson has two majors and 12 PGA Tour titles, so there’s not much left he has to prove.
But there is a shortlist of tournaments he’d love to add to his career resume before he’s done.
Both are separated by about 75 miles of I-95 and he’s right in the thick of contention for the event he considers a home game, the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Club, near his St. Simons Island home.
Johnson shot 71 on Friday at the Plantation Course, battling gusty wind and chilly temperatures along with the rest of the field. But combined with his opening-round 61 on Thursday under benign conditions at the Seaside Course, and it adds up to 10-under 132 and a tie for sixth, three shots behind leader Talor Gooch.
Not many players post a score 10 shots higher than the previous day’s round, and make the statement: “my round was really good.”
But Johnson would, and it involves a dose of context. The temperature dropped 10 degrees from the previous day and the wind went from calm to 25 mph, gusting even higher coming off the Atlantic Ocean.
“I hit a lot of solid shots,” he said. “Some panned out, some did not. I think when you have winds and gusts of this nature, that’s going to happen. It’s the nature of the beast right now. The only commonality between yesterday and today is that we played 18 holes. It was vastly different but that’s a cool thing, too. It’s a cool thing about golf and these conditions.”
Johnson put some shots in the bank early, with birdies at Nos. 14 and 15, then a spectacular eagle at the par-5 18th. He flew a hybrid 222 yards into the green, with the ball stopping 3 feet from the hole.
It wasn’t an easy putt, with the break going opposite the wind direction. But he dropped it to take the lead at the time.
“It was one of those shots where I was like, ‘I’m going to stay a little left of the right trap and if it goes over the green, because it’s so straight downwind, it’s fine, I’m putting, chipping back into the wind,'” he said. “But it landed right in the tier. My divot was wet and huge and I’m surprised it stayed on the green. It was the longest two-and-a-half-footer I’ve ever had with that wind.”
Johnson was 2-over on the front side, his back, but saved a key par at the par-5 eighth with a 6-foot putt.
Most Tour players don’t like to brag about saving pars at par-5 holes but he was coming off a three-putt bogey from 18 feet at No. 7 and wasn’t complaining.
“The best putt I hit all day,” he said.
The tournament now moves to the Seaside Course for the final two rounds, a track even more open to wind than the Plantation — which is fine by Johnson, who has a British Open title in 2015 at St. Andrews as one of his two crowning achievements in golf, along with his 2007 Masters title.
Johnson is in the best position he’s ever been in 11 prior starts in the RSM Classic. His previous low 36-hole score was 133 last year, which was five shots behind eventual winner Robert Streb. Johnson shot 65 in the third round and was in the final group, three shots behind Streb.
A 68 on Sunday left Johnson three shots out of the playoff involving Streb and Kevin Kisner.
“This tournament means a lot,” he said. “There’s probably two or three tournaments outside of the four big ones that I feel are just … have just a bit more weight than the others. Certainly John Deere (near his home state of Iowa in Silvis, Ill.), I would probably throw Colonial (in Fort Worth, Tex.). Man, The Players is awesome. And this one’s right there, it is.”
But Johnson has won twice at Colonial and once at the John Deere. What’s left are the tournaments on the Golden Isles and Florida’s First Coast and he has family connections in both places: he’s lived on St. Simons Island since 2005 and his wife’s family is from Fernandina Beach.
Johnson has come close. Last year was his third top-10 finish in the RSM Classic.
Then there’s the “St. Simons Curse:” no player who has lived on the Golden Isles at the time has won the tournament.
“Well, it’s hard, it’s hard to win,” he said. “Maybe there’s a little bit of added pressure because of who you’re playing in front of and that kind of thing. I think it’s going to happen. Shoot … every year if we lose one [a player moving out of the area], we get two more guys. And there’s a bunch of mini-tour guys here that will probably be on Tour … I think the odds are in our favor.”
Johnson said he has two key reasons for wanting to break the curse.
“Certainly it has to do with being at home and representing Sea Island and St. Simons, playing in front of friends and family,” he said. “But it also probably more has to do with the fact that the three letters on my chest, [tournament title sponsor] RSM, is very special to me. It sounds cliche, but it’s the opposite of that. It’s a unique situation. The individuals behind — behind that company are just tremendous individuals and I’m very, very fortunate to be with them.”
Everything you need to know for the second round on Sea Island.
Once again, Sea Island, Georgia, will play host to the PGA Tour’s best this week.
Robert Streb is back to defend his title this year at the 2021 RSM Classic, held at a pair of golf courses for the first two rounds. Sea Island’s Seaside course plays to a par 70 at 7,005 yards, while the Plantation course will play as a par 72 at 7,060 yards. The weekend rounds will be only played on the Seaside course. Sebastian Munoz holds the lead after the first round following an impressive 10-under 60.
Check out Friday’s second-round groupings and tee times below, as well as this week’s complete TV and online streaming schedule. All times are Eastern.
Tee times
Seaside – 1st tee
Tee time
Players
9:30 a.m.
Troy Merritt, Kyle Stanley, Jonas Blixt
9:40 a.m.
Tom Hoge, Talor Gooch, Tyler McCumber
9:50 a.m.
Kevin Kisner, Harris English, Robert Streb
10 a.m.
Webb Simpson, Justin Rose, Jason Day
10:10 a.m.
Dawie van der Walt, Max McGreevy, Carl Yuan
10:20 a.m.
Lee Hodges, Curtis Thompson, Kyle Wilshire
10:30 a.m.
Scott Piercy, Luke List, Anirban Lahiri
10:40 a.m.
Jhonattan Vegas, Mackenzie Hughes, Kramer Hickok
10:50 a.m.
Hudson Swafford, Sung Kang, Patton Kizzire
11 a.m.
Tyler Duncan, Keith Mitchell, Davis Love III
11:10 a.m.
Ben Crane, Brandon Wu, Justin Lower
11:20 a.m.
Adam Svensson, Paul Barjon, Davis Thompson
11:30 a.m.
Seth Reeves, Kurt Kitayama, Ludvig Aberg
Seaside – 10th tee
Tee time
Players
9:30 a.m.
Camilo Villegas, Doc Redman
9:40 a.m.
Bill Haas, Scott Stallings, Peter Uihlein
9:50 a.m.
Lucas Glover, Andrew Landry, Chez Reavie
10 a.m.
Richy Werenski, Adam Long, Brandt Snedeker
10:10 a.m.
Vince Whaley, Aaron Rai, Chad Ramey
10:20 a.m.
Taylor Moore, Andrew Novak, J.P. Griffin
10:30 a.m.
Chris Stroud, Russell Henley, Vaughn Taylor
10:40 a.m.
Danny Lee, Nick Watney, David Hearn
10:50 a.m.
Stewart Cink, Charles Howell III, Luke Donald
11 a.m.
Cam Davis, Branden Grace, Kevin Tway
11:10 a.m.
Adam Hadwin, Brian Stuard, D.J. Trahan
11:20 a.m.
Sahith Theegala, Dylan Wu, Joshua Creel
11:30 a.m.
Taylor Pendrith, Ben Kohles, Brett Drewitt
Plantation – 1st tee
9:30 a.m.
Andrew Putnam, Brendan Steele, Matthew NeSmith
9:40 a.m.
Emiliano Grillo, J.J. Spaun, Kelly Kraft
9:50 a.m.
Matt Jones, Jim Herman, Keegan Bradley
10 a.m.
Seamus Power, Brian Gay, Dylan Frittelli
10:10 a.m.
Kevin Streelman, Scott Gutschewski, Joseph Bramlett
10:20 a.m.
Mito Pereira, David Lipsky, Mickey DeMorat
10:30 a.m.
Peter Malnati, John Huh, Brandon Hagy
10:40 a.m.
Alex Noren, Bronson Burgoon, Wyndham Clark
10:50 a.m.
Brendon Todd, J.T. Poston, Jimmy Walker
11 a.m.
Michael Thompson, Martin Trainer, Brian Harman
11:10 a.m.
Russell Knox, Harry Higgs, Sepp Straka
11:20 a.m.
Trey Mullinax, Greyson Sigg, Nick Hardy
11:30 a.m.
Michael Gligic, Alex Smalley, Callum Tarren
Plantation – 10th tee
9:30 a.m.
Austin Cook, Patrick Rodgers, Sam Ryder
9:40 a.m.
Brice Garnett, Denny McCarthy, Matt Wallace
9:50 a.m.
Joel Dahmen, Matt Kuchar, Zach Johnson
10 a.m.
Lanto Griffin, Nate Lashley, Graeme McDowell
10:10 a.m.
Roger Sloan, Hank Lebioda, Stephan Jaeger
10:20 a.m.
Cameron Young, Jared Wolfe, Ryan Armour
10:30 a.m.
Chris Kirk, Kiradech Aphibarnrat, Doug Ghim
10:40 a.m.
Chesson Hadley, Jonathan Byrd, Henrik Norlander
10:50 a.m.
Max Homa, Scottie Scheffler
11 a.m.
Cameron Smith, Adam Scott, Joaquin Niemann
11:10 a.m.
Sebastián Muñoz, Corey Conners, William McGirt
11:20 a.m.
Davis Riley, Matthias Schwab, Austin Smotherman
11:30 a.m.
Hayden Buckley, David Skinns, Kevin Yu
TV, radio information
You can watch Golf Channel for free on fuboTV. All times ET.
Friday, Nov. 19
TV
Golf Channel: 12-3 p.m. PGA Tour Live: 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
Saturday, Nov. 20
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
Sunday, Nov. 21
TV
Golf Channel: 1-4 p.m.
Radio
SiriusXM: 11 a.m.-4 p.m.
We recommend interesting sports viewing and streaming opportunities. If you sign up to a service by clicking one of the links, we may earn a referral fee.
Sebastian Munoz made eight birdies and an eagle en route to shooting 60 as several pros flirted with 59.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Sebastian Muñoz didn’t see any reason to hit the range after his opening round at the RSM Classic. And why would he? The 28-year-old Muñoz went out in 30 and came home in 30 to shoot a career-best 10-under 60 at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Resort.
So how exactly will Muñoz pass the time?
“I’m just going to get lost in video games and wait for tomorrow,” he said.
The Colombia native played something that resembled video golf, making four birdies in a five-hole stretch starting at No. 5 and a 9-foot eagle at 15. His round included three deuces and no score higher than 4 on the card, something he said he always strives for dating to his college days.
“That’s when I know I play my best, when I don’t make a 5,” he said.
His 10-foot birdie putt for a 3 at 18 meant he tied the course record.
“Really? I didn’t know that,” Muñoz said. “I knew I was hitting it good, and I just let it happen.”
Muñoz leads by one over Zach Johnson, who shot 9-under 61 at the par-70 Seaside Course, and Mackenzie Hughes, Scott Stallings and Chez Reavie, who shot 9-under 63 at Seaside’s sister course, the par-72 Plantation. It’s Muñoz’s sixth career 18-hole lead or co-lead on Tour, but he’s winless in the previous five events.
Benign conditions made it a day for record-low scoring. The scoring average of 66.308 at Seaside Course was the second-lowest scoring average on a single course in a single round on Tour since 1983. (The lowest was 66.28 at Indian Wells Golf Club at The American Express in 2003.) As a result, the ‘59 Watch’ started early, with Hughes, Corey Conners and Johnson all flirting with 50’s.
[vertical-gallery id=778181710]
“I was watching the board, watching all my buddies, and then all of a sudden you see 7 under, like holy cow, we’ve only played nine holes,” said Davis Love III, the tournament host who grew up at Sea Island and renovated the Plantation Course two years ago. “You know they’re going to go low on a day like this on any golf course no matter where it is. You give guys no wind and good greens, they’re going to shoot low scores.”
“I was honestly surprised someone didn’t shoot lower,” Stallings said. “Like to be honest, I was surprised someone didn’t shoot in the 50s.”
Johnson, who is one of the local residents in the field, didn’t look at the leaderboard until the 15th green and that was by accident.
“I birdied that hole and I was like, I’m 8 under at T-4?” said Johnson, whose threesome combined to shoot 19 under without a single bogey.
But the weather forecast for the remainder of the week is calling for cooler, windier conditions, and scoring should rise as the temperature falls.
“When it’s windy, which it usually is windy, you’ve got to pucker up and hit some good shots,” Johnson said of the two Sea Island courses. “Today is the anomaly. Today is the Chamber of Commerce. You knew you had to get after it.”
Davis Love III, the unofficial mayor of the island, helped give Southern Soul a new lease on life, and it later returned the favor.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Smoke rolled from the side of the building. Within minutes flames leapt from the roof. By the time the fire department extinguished the blaze, the roof had collapsed and Southern Soul, the half-century-old converted gas station that Harrison Sapp and Griffin Bufkin had turned into a haven for barbecue lovers was gutted.
The fire happened in 2010, just months after Guy Fieri of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” the Food Network favorite, had filmed a segment that was bound to shoot Southern Soul to stardom. But to hear Sapp tell it, something special resulted from their hopes and dreams going up in smoke.
“The whole island took care of us,” Sapp said. “The building was still smoking, I thought our little dream was done and he’s standing there telling me we could use his warehouse for as long as we needed to.”
He is Davis Love III, PGA Championship winner, Ryder Cup captain, host of the island’s PGA Tour stop, the RSM Classic, who grew up on this part of a chain of barrier islands nicknamed the Golden Isles, working in the cart barn as a teenager and cutting the crab grass out of the greens at Sea Island’s Seaside Course with a hook knife. Love, the unofficial mayor of the island, helped give the restaurant a new lease on life.
Just weeks after the fire, Southern Soul was back in business, operating first under a canvas tarpaulin and then a mobile food trailer. Sapp remembers being hot and sweaty and just plain dirty. Every chance he could, he’d escape for some A/C.
“I would go into their office (at Crown Sports Management, which represents Love) like Kramer in ‘Seinfeld’ and just sit on their couch and talk to them forever,” Sapp recalled. “We just became friends.”
Bufkin and Sapp had served Love over the years in their previous lives as bartenders at various island establishments, but they struck up a friendship over food.
“Davis loves barbecue more than anybody you’ve ever met,” Sapp said. “He’d rather be cooking barbecue than anything.”
— Southern Soul BBQ (@southernsoulbbq) April 3, 2020
That segment of “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” aired in the fall of 2010, not long after Southern Soul moved back into a restored version of its original restaurant at the side of a roundabout just a mile off the beach. Business boomed.
“It’s amazing what happens when he comes,” Love said of Fieri. Not long after, Garden & Gun heaped praise and pretty soon it snowballed to Southern Living proclaiming Southern Soul “the best barbecue in the south.”
During the RSM Classic, if you’re looking to meet a professional golfer, just take a seat at one of Southern Soul’s picnic tables and wait. Jimmy Walker and Trey Mullinax were among the first pros to show up. Walker critiqued the brisket, and Mullinax wondered why they closed so early. Zach Johnson, Jonathan Byrd, Keith Mitchell, Hudson Swafford and Harris English – who says, “It’s hard to beat that weekday worker pulled pork sandwich and fries, but I need a nap afterwards,” – are among the local pros who eat there regularly.
“When they are younger they eat there a lot,” Sapp said. “When they get married, their wives don’t let them go there as much. They won’t say that, but that’s the truth.”
On Tuesday of tournament week, Sapp began cooking in the oak-fired Lang and Oyler pits at 1 a.m. to cater lunch on the driving range at Sea Island, which has become a tradition like no other.
Love, who likes to stop by for the Thursday pastrami special, inquired after the fire about expanding the business and ended up going in as a partner in Southern Soul. (In 2019, they opened a second restaurant, Frosty’s Griddle and Shake – you haven’t lived until you’ve tried the Davis Love III pimento cheeseburger – and currently have a building under contract in Brunswick, Georgia, for their first restaurant off island.)
“Yeah, I’m shocked how it has blown up,” said Love, who can be found pitching in to cook Boston butt, smoked for 12-14 hours over oak, at Southern Soul when they are short-handed. “I’m their least talented, highest-priced employee.”
Love moved to the island as a child in 1978, when his father, famed teaching pro Davis Love Jr., was given a blank slate to start an instructional school anywhere in the country he wanted. He chose Sea Island Resort, and Davis has called this place halfway between Savannah, Georgia and Jacksonville, Florida, home ever since. With his golf and business successes, Love, the winner of 21 PGA Tour titles, could have moved anywhere, but he and wife Robin, his high-school sweetheart, never considered leaving and built a home nestled among live oaks and palms on a secluded five-acre lot with prime marsh frontage. For a decade, Love hosted the RSM Classic’s pro-am draft party in a tent in his backyard, where participants feasted on the island’s best low-country cuisine, including barbecue from Southern Soul.
Sapp gets all choked up when he thinks of Love’s contributions to the community, some of which are well-documented through his Davis Love Foundation, which has raised more than $14 million in its first 12 years hosting the tournament to support charities focused on children and families in need. But there are other acts of kindness for which Love seeks no publicity. Take, for one, how Love cooked up all the food in their freezer and gave it away to locals when the island lost power during a hurricane a few years ago, and his efforts to support the restaurant business when COVID-19 hit and threatened many of his regular haunts.
“He would book parties with them and pre-pay for everything – jeez it is hard to talk about – to help them pay their rent,” Sapp said. “He wouldn’t say he was paying their rent, but that’s basically what he was doing. He booked two parties with us that he didn’t have for a year and a half. He was doing that all over the island. I mean, he’s legit. I’d kill somebody for him.”
Flames fully engulf the St. Simons Island home of Davis Love III in 2020. [Kyle Jurgens, Glynn County Fire and Rescue]On March 27, 2020, 10 years to the day that Southern Soul burned to the ground, Love’s home was destroyed in an early-morning two-alarm fire. Thankfully, no one was injured. Just as Love was the first resident on the scene to lend a helping hand when Southern Soul was engulfed in flames, Sapp and his wife returned the favor, cooking breakfast for the Love family and first responders.
“It was really sad that it happened to him,” Sapp said. “We all sat there and watched it burn.”
But just as Southern Soul came back better than ever, Love has proved he can conquer all. When he speaks of the fire, it doesn’t take long for him to shift the conversation to the outpouring of support his family received.
“I feel so blessed,” he said.
Family keepsakes were lost, but what Love learned to appreciate is that he truly is a beloved member of the community, an island institution every bit as much as the avenue of oaks dripping with moss that stand sentinel at Sea Island’s entranceway, or the bag piper playing at sunset. For Love, this whole island will always be home.
