In the last two years, Tour pros from Rory McIlroy (Poppy) to Jon Rahm (Kepa) to Rickie Fowler (Maya) to Jordan Spieth (Sammy) have all joined the first-time father club.
It stretches beyond the big names. Mark Hubbard (Harlo), Hank Lebioda (Henry), Luke List (Harrison) and Harold Varner III (Liam) are proud papas too, and the list goes on. PGA Tour Daycare, or what the kids call Golf School, is going to be busy. But perhaps the happiest of the baby announcements was that of 40-year-old Camilo Villegas, who welcomed son Mateo on Dec. 21.
Villegas and wife Maria suffered the loss of daughter, Mia, who was 22 months old when she died of cancer in 2020. When Villegas spoke to Golfweek in October 2020, he expressed hope that he and his wife would have another baby.
“My wife was nervous at the beginning. We talked to the doctors and they said it was just a bad lottery ticket. There’s nothing that suggests this would happen again,” he said in the earlier story. “We’re looking forward. It took us a while to get pregnant. In the meantime, we’re going to help others, remember the good, and focus on what’s coming.”
Ahead of the Mexico Open at Vidanta, Villegas spoke about being a parent again. “He’s great. He’s fun to be around,” Villegas said. “Mateo’s four months old and the family is doing good. Obviously 2020 was a tough year for us, but to have Mateo in our life is pretty special.
“We have Mia’s Miracles Foundation to just kind of add to the joy of giving back and helping others and giving a little purpose to our life and why we’re here and how we can once again give back. It was a tough experience, but without it we wouldn’t have Mia’s Miracles. And obviously we truly, truly miss Mia, but we’re going to do some great things for others and try to make the best of it.”
Villegas is embarking on a stretch of playing five straight weeks and noted it is difficult to be away apart for so long. “I’m missing him and I can’t wait to just play some good weeks and head back and just give him a hug,” he said.
On Monday, Homa announced on social media that he and his wife Lacey are expecting a boy. They did their “reveal” by having their dog run out with baby-blue balloons attached around its waist and a scarf that read, “Big sis.”
Trevor Immelman will captain the 2022 International squad in Charlotte.
Making his debut as captain of the International team for the upcoming Presidents Cup, Trevor Immelman can call on plenty of experience from his coaching staff.
Immelman, a South African who played in the Presidents Cup twice and was an assistant to Ernie Els in 2019, named his four vice captains Wednesday: Canadian Mike Weir, South Korean K.J. Choi, Australian Geoff Ogilvy and Colombian Camilo Villegas.
The U.S. leads the series 11-1-1. The Americans came from behind on the final day in 2019 at Royal Melbourne in Australia to win, 16-14. This year’s matches are Sept. 22-25 at Quail Hollow Club in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Weir, who competed in the Presidents Cup five times and is one of five International players with 10 more match wins, will make his third appearance as a vice captain. He has eight PGA Tour titles, including the 2003 Masters, and one PGA Tour Champions victory.
Choi, who played in three editions of the Presidents Cup, will be making his third appearance as an assistant captain. He has won eight PGA Tour titles, including the 2011 Players Championship, and one PGA Tour Champions victory.
Ogilvy, who played in three Presidents Cups, has eight career PGA Tour victories, including the 2006 U.S. Open, and won two of Australia’s biggest titles – the 2008 Australian PGA and 2010 Australian Open.
Villegas will make his debut as an assistant. Villegas is the only player from Colombia to compete in the Presidents Cup, doing so in 2009. He’s won four times on the PGA Tour.
“The comradery that continues to grow within this team is irreplaceable,” Weir said in a release. “We can all sense the momentum that is building, and it’s been exciting to see Trevor’s incredible dedication and focus on his role. I can’t wait to see what tournament week holds for us and to be a part of the 2022 team.”
Said Ogilvy: “After getting a glimpse into the future of our team in 2019, I am very excited to return as a captain’s assistant. The collection of international players has only had time to improve and that is evident when you look at guys like Cameron Smith, Hideki Matsuyama and Joaquin Niemann, who have had tremendous success on Tour in the last year.
“I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table under Trevor’s captaincy.”
We look at the 2021 Wyndham Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.
A relatively weak but highly motivated field is at Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina, this week for the Wyndham Championship. The event precedes the beginning of the FedEx Cup Playoffs next week. Below, we look at the 2021 Wyndham Championship odds and make our PGA Tour picks and predictions to win.
The top 125 golfers in the FedEx Cup standings after this week will advance to The Northern Trust at Liberty National Golf Club in Jersey City, New Jersey. That will begin the three-week playoff stretch culminating with the Tour Championship from Sept. 2 to Sept. 5. There’ll then be just a one-week interlude before the start of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season.
Louis Oosthuizen is the top player in the field at No. 2 in the Golfweek/Sagarin world rankings. He enters the week at No. 8 in the FEC standings and is also the top golfer in attendance by that measure.
Some of the biggest names in the field in need of points in order to advance to The Northern Trust include Rickie Fowler (130), Tommy Fleetwood (136), Justin Rose (138) and Francesco Molinari (140).
No one is in greater need of a win this week than Zalatoris. Despite racking up 1,270 points that would have him ranked 26th in the season-long standings, he won’t qualify for the playoffs without a win under Special Temporary Membership status.
The 24-year-old’s accomplishments this season include a T-6 finish at the 2020 U.S. Open, a runner-up at the 2021 Masters and a T-8 at the PGA Championship. He tied for eighth at last week’s WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational and will face a much weaker competition at Sedgefield.
Zalatoris missed the cut in this event in 2018, but he averaged 1.06 Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee per round and lost 1.28 strokes per round on the greens.
2021 Wyndham Championship picks – Contender
Mackenzie Hughes (+6000)
Hughes struggled to a 50th-place finish at the Olympic golf competition in Tokyo, but he previously tied for sixth at the British Open to extend his streak to four straight made cuts. He didn’t play this event last year; however tied for 22nd in 2019 and for 66th in 2018.
The Canadian struggles with accuracy off the tee, but he’s as good of a putter as there is on Tour when he’s on. He’s an excellent value at these odds in one of the weaker fields he has competed against this season. He has four top-10 finishes since the beginning of the fall swing and enters the week 67th in the FEC standings.
Villegas is 129th in the FEC standings despite rising from 404th to 249th in the Official World Golf Ranking since the end of last year. He enters this week on a streak of five straight made cuts and finished in a tie for eighth against a stronger field than this at the Honda Classic earlier this year.
He has played 26 career rounds at Sedgefield CC with an average of 0.92 strokes gained on the field per round. He tied for 16th in his last appearance here in 2017 while ranking fourth among all golfers who made the cut with 2.15 SG: Putting per round.
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Senior writer Adam Schupak chronicles the moments that made covering the golf scene in 2020 a year unlike any other.
Covering golf, at every level and on every tour, in 2020 was unlike anything our writers have experienced. Through the end of the year, our staff is looking back on what will forever stand out from the season of COVID – a season during which every aspect of the game we love was impacted by a global pandemic. Read the whole series here.
I was staying in a boutique hotel in Brussels after the 2018 Ryder Cup when I read a quote on, of all things, a Trip Advisor ad that spoke to me: “Traveling—it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller.”
I looked it up and it’s attributed to Ibn Battuta, a 14th-century Moroccan explorer and scholar. Those are words I’ve very much lived by covering 20-plus tournaments a year for more than a decade, which have taken me to far-flung places such as Singapore, China, Turkey, Israel, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. The list goes on but you get the idea.
All of that came to a screeching halt in March when the PGA Tour and the golf world in general went on hiatus due to a global pandemic. I never left the country this year and avoided flying, well, like the plague. I don’t know about you but I haven’t exercised at a gym, gone to the movies, shaken hands or seen most of my family members, other than via Zoom calls, since March.
Plenty of love for Jordan Spieth at the Waste Management Phoenix Open in late January before the pandemic prevented fan attendance at most PGA Tour events (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
But there were a few early-season trips before the world changed that provided stories worth telling, including to the desert for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. It seems a lifetime ago that 20,000 drunk people ringed the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale like the Romans at the Coliseum. The highlight of that week was a wide-ranging discussion with Golf Channel’s Brandel Chamblee that exploded into a three-part Q&A.
From there, it was on to Pebble Beach, and it doesn’t matter how many times I visit the Monterey Peninsula, it never gets old. The weather even cooperated. I got to break bread with some of my favorite folks that week and squeeze in 18 at Pacific Grove and take a test spin around TPC Harding Park. One evening, I was packing up my belongings from the media center and ready to hit up a sushi joint I discovered during the previous year’s U.S. Open visit, when a local writer that I had been chatting with at breakfast stopped by my desk and invited me over to his house to join his family’s dinner. That was an incredibly kind gesture. Traveling to exotic locales to play or watch golf doesn’t suck, but life on the road isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Having a good home-cooked meal and better conversation hit the spot and I appreciated it even more when the world soon after went into lockdown.
In the year 2020, even Donald Ross was wearing a mask (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
I flew the red eye home from California and I’ll never know for sure if I had coronavirus or just the run-of-the-mill flu but I was as sick as I’ve been for a long time the next two weeks and even had to WD from covering the Honda Classic with a high fever. This was pre-masks, hand sanitizers and runs on toilet paper. What a year!
The other meal I can’t help but think of is the annual Asado night at The Players, held on the eve of the tournament. It began at the Masters and was co-hosted by Spanish golfer Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano and the Argentine Golf Association. I remember one year telling Gonzo, who wasn’t yet eligible for the Masters, that he needed to win and a lot of people were depending on him so we could have asado. He smiled and told me, don’t worry, we’ll do Asado night at the Players if I don’t make the Masters. And that’s been the tradition ever since.
Hideki Matsuyama tied the TPC Sawgrass course record only to have the Players canceled later that night due to the global pandemic (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
It is a gathering of two-dozen or so golf industry leaders from Latin America and elsewhere (including R&A chief Martin Slumbers and his wife) with R&A regional director of Latin America Mark Lawrie as grill master. Held at their oceanside rental property in Ponte Vedra under a tent, it’s become one of my favorite nights of the year – I think I’m still full from all the beef, Argentine wine and dulce de leche – but it became memorable as the last big dinner party I’ve attended. After the ceremonial drive of a few glow balls into the ocean, I drove home just shortly before 10 p.m. and was greeted with news that the Tour had come to its senses and canceled the Players. Not long after, the Masters was postponed and we’d endure a 91-day hiatus before another tournament round was contested. Remember how desperate we were for live competition that we were watching marble races?
During these uncertain times, golf was my salvation. Living in Florida, the courses remained open – though the beaches shut down for a while – and so Gary Koch would have declared my quarantine was better than most. With some extra time on my hands I decided now was the time to learn to hit a baby cut. I’d only been playing a boomerang draw – I prefer not to use that other four-letter word – for 40 years. Trying to overhaul my swing by digging it out of the dirt Hogan style has been an adventure. I remember bragging that I had it down pat but when I went to play Palatka Golf Club with colleagues Julie Williams and Jason Lusk, I kept hitting left of left. It reminded me of the old Bugs Bunny skit where the singing frog only lets out a ribbit in front of a crowd. If you don’t know that one, check it out below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsROL4Kf8QY
I recorded 75 18-hole scores in 2020, which doesn’t include some hit-n-giggle team events and that many of those rounds combined two evening nines. All told, I’m guessing I’m well over 100 days of golf this year. So, 2020 hasn’t been a total loss. My game is still fragile and for all the effort my handicap has gone down a whopping 0.4 strokes … but it didn’t go up this year, so I’ve got that going for me.
Camilo Villegas surprised members of the media with news that his daughter Mia had cancer during a tearful press conference (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
The importance of simply being there couldn’t have been more evident a few weeks earlier when Camilo Villegas broke into tears at the start of his press conference ahead of the Korn Ferry Challenge at TPC Sawgrass as he detailed that his 18-month old daughter, Mia, was battling cancerous tumors in her brain. A little more than a month later her fight was over. I was in Jackson, Mississippi in October when Villegas sat down with me and opened his heart about dealing with loss and how it was his mission to make something good come from Mia’s death. This time, I was the one holding back tears. To hear him talk about seeing one of Mia’s beloved rainbows on the first tee at the RSM Classic and contend for the title until Sunday was almost too good to be true.
Lisa Cink congratulates son Reagan on a job well done on the bag for his father Stewart Cink after his victory at the Safeway Open in September (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
But there was another feel-good story in the fall season that delivered a full payoff. Seeing Stewart Cink end his 11-year victory drought at age 47, and with his son Reagan on the bag, gave me all the feels. I remember speaking to Cink after his wife, Lisa, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016, and here she was cancer-free, a one-woman cheering section for her guys at a spectator-free tournament as Stewart showed he could still close on Sundays. Color me inspired and thank you, Stewart, for these words I’m going to try to live by in 2021: “I just try to squeeze every little bit of juice I can out of my golf game, out of that lemon.”
Let’s all make some lemonade in 2021 out of the lemon that was 2020.
My favorite photo of 2020: Tiger Woods enjoys some quality father-son time watching Charlie practice after the first round of the PNC Championship from the comfort of his golf bag (Adam Schupak/Golfweek).
Stewart Cink ended an 11-year winless streak at the Safeway Open and he’s not alone in getting off the schneid during the 2020-21 season.
That winning feeling never grows old.
Robert Streb, 33, was the most recent PGA Tour winner, nearly holing out his approach to win a playoff over Kevin Kisner at the RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort. It was his first victory in six years and 165 starts. … since the 2014 RSM Classic, or what was then known as the McGladrey Classic.
It continued a current trend of Tour winners finding the winner’s circle after a long dry spell.
Streb’s victory drought was nothing compared to Stewart Cink, who was ranked No. 319 in the world when he claimed the season opener at the Safeway Open. Cink was the first and Streb the latest of five players in the first nine tournaments of the wrap-around season who were ranked outside the top 300 in the world at the time of their victory and hadn’t tasted victory in several years.
For Cink it had been 11 long years since he had won the 2009 British Open, while Martin Laird and Brian Gay had waited seven years respectively between wins (Laird at the Shriners Hospitals to 2013 Valero Texas Open and Gay at the Bermuda Championship to 2013 Humana Challenge). That itch for victory can make the reward even more gratifying, even if the payoff for all the hard work took only half the time for Hudson Swafford, who won the Corales Puntacana Open (2017 American Express) and Sergio Garcia, Sanderson Farms (2017 Masters).
Stewart Cink celebrates with the trophy after winning the Safeway Open at Silverado Resort on September 13, 2020 in Napa, California. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)
“We’re all so close out here,” Cink said. “If you just elevate a couple of little areas in your game and just get a little bit better, then you find yourself in contention or winning. If you go the other way, you find yourself on the outside of the cut or having a bunch of 50th-place finishes. It’s just that close.”
40-somethings
Early-season winners also feature the 40-something brigade. Garcia (40), Cink (47) and Gay (48) turning back the clocks could be just the inspiration these golfers need to get over the hump and hoist another trophy:
Lucas Glover (41), last win: 2011 Wells Fargo Championship
Luke Donald, (42), last win: 2012 Transitions Championship
Kevin Streelman (42), last win: 2014 Travelers Championship
Rory Sabbatini (44), last win: 2011 Honda Classic
“It would be huge,” Sabbatini said of what win No. 7 would mean to him at this stage in his career. “I’m in that dwindling stage of my career. To be out here and still be able to compete is something I’m very happy about.”
A quartet of late 30-somethings also are trying to knock on victory’s door again. Hunter Mahan (38), a six-time Tour winner who reached No. 4 in the world in April 2012, hasn’t won since the 2014 Barclays while Camilo Villegas (38), has suffered a similar drought (2014 Wyndham Championship) and would be the sentimental choice after losing his daughter to cancer in July.
Has it really been since the 2012 Barclays that Nick Watney (39) has KO’d a field? And yet his time without a victory is eclipsed in this week’s Mayakoba field by K.J. Choi (50 – 2011 Players Championship), Bo Van Pelt (45), whose only title was at the long-defunct 2009 U.S. Bank Championship, and D.J. Trahan (39), who won so long ago that Bob Hope’s name still adorned the tournament title: 2008 Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Martin Laird celebrates with the trophy after winning the Shriners Hospitals For Children Open at TPC Summerlin on October 11, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada to end his seven-year winless drought. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
What pro may have the best chance to get off the schneid this week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic?
How about Harris English (31), who will try to pull a Robert Streb and win at the same tournament he last won only seven years later to top Streb’s six-year wait. It was at the 2013 Mayakoba where English captured his second Tour title and the world seemed like his oyster. The only other player 25 years old or younger at the time with two Tour titles was Rory McIlroy. English, however, took a step back as he went through a myriad of swing instructors looking for a quick fix. He revived his career last year and recorded his fifth top-10 finish in the past 12 months at the RSM Classic (T-6) since finishing fifth at Mayakoba a year ago. He’s surged to No. 33 in the world, which is counter to the trend of world No. 300 and above winning, but all that’s left for him to achieve is that elusive victory.
“If I keep getting myself in these positions, it’s going to happen,” English said.
Maybe even this week and at the site of his last triumph.
Camilo Villegas shot 6-under 66 in the second round of the RSM Classic and trails by 2 strokes just four months after his daughter’s death.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Camilo Villegas has been chasing a little white ball around and trying to get it into a hole long enough to know that only half the work is over at the RSM Classic and half is still to come. He’s taking a very pragmatic approach to chasing his first PGA Tour title since 2014.
“A lot of golf to be played,” he said. “We’ll do the same thing tomorrow, come out here, try to be free and just add them up at the end of the day.”
On Friday, the scorecard added up to 6-under 66 at the Plantation Course and combined with 6-under 64 a day earlier at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Resort, Villegas enters the weekend at 12-under 130 and two strokes behind 36-hole leader Robert Streb. For the 38-year-old Colombian native, it marks his career-low 36-hole score on Tour.
Bronson Burgoon, who made six birdies in a seven-hole stretch en route to 63 on Friday, played with Villegas and came away impressed with his performance.
“I tried to just get behind, do what he was doing,” Burgoon said. “He made it look pretty easy yesterday. Made a few putts today.”
It’s all the more remarkable given that it was just four months ago that Villegas’s daughter, Mia, lost her battle with cancerous tumors in her brain at the tender age of 22 months. Villegas and wife Maria have a wonderful attitude about life and are committed to making Mia’s legacy live on through their foundation, Mia’s Miracles.
Earlier this week, Villegas, who wears a rainbow ribbon on his hat when he plays in his daughter’s memory, spent time with sports psychologist Gio Valiante, author of “Fearless Golf,” and someone who he’s had a relationship with since his days at the University of Florida.
“It was perfect to have him,” Villegas said. “We spent some nice time, had a couple meals, talked some crap and a little bit of golf. Obviously, you know how it is with golf, it’s all about being free and I think he’s helped me to be a little more free these last couple days.”
Camilo and Maria Villegas lost their 22-month-old daughter, Mia, four months ago.
Now they are determined that Mia's life will have meaning beyond her time spent on this earth.
Villegas played his first 28 holes without a bogey, but it was how he played after the bogey that he was most proud of.
“I was patient in the middle of the round. I know I was playing good and I just didn’t take advantage of that 8th hole and 9th hole and 10th hole and then I made kind of a silly bogey on 11,” he said. “You start adding those and it’s two, three shots and you feel like you’re leaving some out there. At that point you’ve just got to be patient, know that you’re playing good.”
It all came together at the last hole, the par 5 at the Plantation Course, where he made eagle to cap off the round.
“I got a little lucky to be honest,” he said. “I pushed my drive, it bounced on the cart path. I only had 9-iron in so I was able to be a little more aggressive to a front pin that’s in a tough place with the way it was playing downwind.”
Can Villegas win one for Mia? It’s the type of story that would bring tears to the eyes of the biggest curmudgeon. Villegas, for one, said he feels his confidence building, but reiterated that he has a long way to go to Tour title No. 5.
“It’s not a two-day thing, it’s a process,” he said. “The swing feels good, the speed is better than it was and I’m pain free, so that’s good.”
Villegas, who wears a ribbon of a rainbow on his hat, shot 64 after seeing a rainbow in the sky before he teed off at the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Camilo Villegas arrived at the range before the first round at the RSM Classic and smiled wildly when he noticed a rainbow in the distance. It made him think of his daughter, Mia, who died from cancer at 22-months old in July.
“She loved colors and rainbows and my wife was all about it. And it was cool. It was a nice way to start the day,” said Villegas, who wears a rainbow ribbon on his hat in her honor. “I start thinking about Mia and said hey, ‘Let’s have a good one.’ ”
In blustery conditions, Villegas, the 38-year-old native of Colombia and University of Florida alum, birdied three of his final four holes on his first nine and his final hole of the day as he seeks his first PGA Tour win in six years.
“It was tough out here, but I love this place, had success. I’ve been coming here since 2000 and it’s one of those stops I don’t like missing,” Villegas said.
He recalled playing in the Southeastern Conference tournament here at Florida and said that his years of experience played in his favor.
“You know where to miss it or not to miss it and you know that the wind here plays stronger than you think,” he said. “Walking down one of the holes, my brother [caddie Manuel Villegas] goes, ‘there’s no way it’s blowing 18,’ and I don’t think it was. I think it was pretty strong out there and we managed to keep the ball low. I have no problem keeping the ball low. And roll some putts. The greens are perfect. They’re getting fast, firm and I managed to read them pretty good today.”
Villegas, who with his wife Maria have renamed their foundation Mia’s Miracles, said he was able to participate in four walks on the beach that his wife organized. Mia used to love to walk on the beach.
“We had a lot of close friends and a lot of support,” he said. “It was a great initiative. We raised some funds for those that need it and they’ll be happy about it.”
Though the sight of a rainbow at the driving range triggered happy thoughts of his daughter, Villegas said that the golf course continues to be his salvation.
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“When I’m out there, I’m so focused, there’s so much going on, especially under these conditions,” he said. “It’s about being in the moment, being in the now and this is my now. It’s not with her, but it’s with her at the same time, so you’ve just got to stick to the process.
“I love playing golf, I love doing what I do. The game of golf has been great to me. I happened to have a shoulder injury there for the last couple years that kind of set me back a bit, but I’m excited. I think things are rolling the right way and obviously if I keep doing what I did today, it should be fine.”
He also credited having sports psychologist Gio Valiante with him this week for his fast start.
“It’s tough to be free under these conditions, but I found a way to do it,” said Villegas, who shot his best opening-round score on Tour since a 7-under 64 at the 2016 Mayakoba Golf Classic
After Matt Wallace’s caddie tested positive for COVID-19, he hooked up with a Sea Island Resort club fitter and shot 64 to tie the lead.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – On a windy day better suited for flying a kite than hitting a golf ball more than 150 yards, Matt Wallace could’ve really used an experienced hand on the bag.
Unfortunately, his caddie, veteran Dave McNeilly, tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, forcing Wallace to find other options. Turns out he didn’t have to look far.
“I was like, ‘Oh, no, I’m going to be positive as well because I’ve been hanging around with (Dave) on Sunday at the golf course at the Masters. I don’t know when he would have got it,” Wallace said. “As soon as I found out that Dave tested positive, and luckily he was OK and everything, no symptoms, I messaged JP, Justin Parsons, [Sea Island’s director of instruction and teacher to several PGA Tour pros], who I know. I said, ‘I’ll take a local this week because of the two courses.’ I thought that was a good idea. I didn’t want to step on Dave’s toes as well with another pro caddie.”
Parsons recommended one of his staff members, Jeffrey Cammon, a club fitter, who stepped in and provided local knowledge. Wallace, 30, birdied the first two holes en route to making eight birdies and shooting 6-under 64 on the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club to share the lead with Camilo Villegas and one better than eight golfers. Wallace noted that Cammon was “chill,” and his first question when they met was simply: “What do you want me to do or say?”
“I was like, ‘Listen, mate, I don’t need anything. I’ll ask you a question and you answer it just with pure facts of what you think,’ ” Wallace said. “It worked well today. I said to him, ‘Is the wind more out of the left than it is like helping,’ and he’s like, ‘Yep,’ and that was it. It was really simple. Struck the ball really nicely today and rolled the ball well.”
That would be an understatement. Wallace sank 138 feet of putts and ranked third in Strokes Gained: putting on the day. Wallace, who entered the week ranked No. 53 in the world, visited Sea Island Resort’s Performance Center and the putting lab that is the U.S. base of famed putting instructor Phil Kenyon. Wallace spent about 45 minutes in the putting lab, sending data back to his coach in England and experimented with three different Callaway Toulon Design putters before settling on the Atlanta model without a sightline on the back.
“Because I haven’t been comfortable over the ball, I’ve taken a lot of time over the ball,” said Wallace, who ranks No. 175 in SGP this season. “My putting hasn’t been where it should be and it was the area I needed to work on the most. I chose the no-sightline one and able to roll the ball end over end, which is part of my game that I do really well. I haven’t been doing that, so getting back to that this week has been really nice.”
Wallace said that his fill-in caddie helped with a read on the fourth green. “I said, ‘Don’t read anymore putts because you’re 100 percent,’ ” Wallace said.
The Englishman has won tournaments on the European Tour, but he’s struggled in his transition to the PGA Tour, recording just one top-10 finish last season and failing to qualify for the FedEx Cup.
“The strength and depth is so deep,” Wallace said. “The players are amazing.”
On Friday, Wallace will tackle the Plantation Course, where he walked nine on Tuesday and played nine on Wednesday.
“Having Jeffrey there, that’s another buffer that I feel I’ve got where he’s been around there plenty and knows the misses,” Wallace said. “We spoke about that and we’ll have a good game plan tomorrow.”
About 40 percent of the 155 players broke par on Thursday despite high winds harshly impacting tee shots, approaches and putts.
Rory Sabbatini didn’t have a good warmup session ahead of Thursday’s first round of the RSM Classic.
The weather wasn’t anything to rave about, either, as a biting chill was in the air and winds were whipping across the Sea Island Golf Club in St. Simons Island, Georgia. And Sabbatini would play the Seaside Course, historically the harder and more exposed of the two tracks used for the tournament hosted by Davis Love III.
So Sabbatini, playing in the first group off, naturally birdied his first four holes and finished with a bogey-free 5-under-par 65 to grab a spot on the first page of the leaderboard.
“I was kind of going, I don’t know what’s going on here but I’m enjoying it,” said Sabbatini, who has overcome issues with his neck and is looking for his first win since the 2011 Honda Classic. “I didn’t feel like I hit the ball particularly well on the range and I didn’t feel like I was putting very good and all of a sudden it clicked on the golf course.
“This is a golf course, when you get opportunities, you’ve got to try to maximize them. Yet still, even with the conditions out there, if you try and maximize them, you’ve got to be careful you don’t mess up what you’re trying to maximize.”
Sabbatini wasn’t the only one to get a handle on the tough – or as Zach Johnson said – brutal conditions. About 40 percent of the 155 players broke par despite high winds harshly impacting tee shots, approaches and putts.
Matt Wallace, who is using a local caddie after his regular caddie tested positive for COVID-19, finished with a par on his final hole despite taking a penalty drop and grabbed a share of the lead with a 6-under 64 on Seaside.
Matt Wallace talks with caddie Dave McNeilly on the 18th hole during the first round of the 2020 RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club on November 19, 2020 in St Simons Island, Georgia. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
“Windy day,” said Wallace, who plays the majority of his golf on the European Tour. “The wind picked up as the day went on. It was really blustery and gusting up a good amount around the 13th, 14th where we go out to sea a little bit. Hitting a 5-iron from 150 yards is not normal, but I’m kind of used to that from being back home, just normally playing on links courses rather than these types of courses.
“Putted great. Got off to a nice start and holed a good putt on the third hole for bogey. Good momentum there. Carried it on till the end there.”
Joining Wallace at the top of the leaderboard was Camilo Villegas, whose 22-month-old daughter, Mia, died in July after battling cancerous tumors on her brain and spine. Villegas matched his career low on Seaside with a bogey-free 64.
“It was tough out here, but I love this place,” Villegas said. “I’ve been coming here since 2000 and it’s one of those stops I don’t like missing. I’ve been feeling good, to be honest.
Camilo Villegas watches his second shot on the seventh hole during the first round of the 2020 RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club on November 19, 2020 in St Simons Island, Georgia. Photo by Sam Greenwood/Getty Images
“It was kind of nice this morning. I got on the range and see a little rainbow out there. I start thinking about Mia and said hey, let’s have a good one. She loved colors and rainbows. It was a nice way to start the day. It was a good ball‑striking round, it was a great putting round. I was pretty free all day. Like you said, it’s tough to be free under these conditions, but I found a way to do it.”
Joining Sabbatini at 5 under were seven players, including Cameron Tringale, Adam Long, Keegan Bradley and Doug Ghim, who all posted 5-under-par 67 on the inland Plantation Course.
Ten players, including local favorites Johnson, Harris English and 2015 RSM Classic winner Kevin Kisner, were at 4 under.
“Today was brutal. I mean, I don’t know what other guys are saying, but I played really, really, really good,” said Johnson, who lives within 10 miles of Sea Island Golf Club and played Seaside.
“I had opportunities that I didn’t even capitalize on, but I made some. I made two bogeys from the middle of the fairway straight into the wind, which you’re going to do. It was just very difficult, difficult to judge distance, trajectory. It was a survival test.”
