Brendon Todd could earn his third-straight PGA Tour win if he holds on for the final 18 holes at the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. (AP) — Brendon Todd made six birdies on the front nine to seize control and shot 8-under 62 on Saturday at Sea Island to take a two-shot lead into the final round of the RSM Classic as he goes for his third straight PGA Tour victory.
Todd, who overcame a case of the full yips that nearly drove him from the game, is coming off victories in the inaugural Bermuda Championship and the Mayakoba Golf Classic.
He was at 18-under 194, two shots ahead of Webb Simpson (63) and Sebastian Munoz (66).
Tyler Duncan, who started with a two-shot lead, made 18 pars for a 70 and fell four shots behind.
Todd is trying to become the first player since Dustin Johnson in 2017 to win three consecutive starts.
The fall portion of the 2019-20 PGA Tour season wraps up this week with the Tour’s annual stop at Sea Island Golf Club for the RSM Classic. The event used the new-look Plantation Course and its neighboring Seaside Course for Thursday and Friday’s …
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The fall portion of the 2019-20 PGA Tour season wraps up this week with the Tour’s annual stop at Sea Island Golf Club for the RSM Classic.
The event used the new-look Plantation Course and its neighboring Seaside Course for Thursday and Friday’s rounds. Saturday and Sunday’s golf action held only on Seaside.
Local resident Brian Harman hit 18 greens in regulation for just the second time in his career during the second round of the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Brian Harman is enjoying sleeping in his own bed this week at the RSM Classic. He’s hosting his parents and has his caddie, Scott Tway, in his guest house, and every night they’ve been firing up the grill.
“We had elk tenderloin two nights ago, we had tomahawk pork chops and then we had beef tenderloin last night, so we’re eating well,” Harman said. “We’re dialing it back tonight. Chicken breasts.”
About the only thing better than his home cooking this week is his ballstriking. Harman, 32, hit all 18 greens at Sea Island’s Seaside Course in the second round en route to shooting 4-under 66 and finishing T-11 and five shots back of leader Tyler Duncan. It marked the second time in his career that he hasn’t missed a green in regulation.
“Anytime you don’t have to chip, it’s a fun day,” Harman said. “My ballstriking is as good as it has ever been, probably even better than when I was 20th in the world. I just have to get my putting back to where it was.”
It’s been a challenging year for Harman, who reached No. 20 in the world in February 2018 but slipped to No. 123 entering the RSM. He needed a hot streak late in the season to make the FedEx Cup Playoffs for the eighth straight year. Harman says he suffered from mental fatigue and blamed the Tour’s wraparound schedule – “it’s hard not to think about it,” he said – for the “crippling anxiety” of trying to turn his season around.
“We play so much golf now that it’s impossible to be mentally engaged for a year straight. You need to be able to build in breaks so it is always fresh and you’re not just going through the motions,” Harman said. “I want to take time off until I miss it and I want to come back and work again. With the wraparound schedule you have to be resilient, you have to be tough and I didn’t feel very tough at the beginning of the season.”
Harman turned the corner with a T-6 finish at The Travelers in June, and a few weeks later at the 3M Championship he had a heart to heart with himself before the final round.
“I should be trying to win this golf tournament, not worrying about what’s going to happen. So, I just made the choice that day that whatever happened, I was going to act like I had been there before,” he said.
Harman ended the 2018-19 season with four top 10s in his last seven events. When he didn’t advance past the first FedEx Cup playoff event, Harman had a month-long layoff, which was a blessing in disguise.
“That was my first month off, continuous month off in three years,” Harman said. “Whereas like my rookie year, you could take three or four months off and you could show up in Hawaii and be fresh and ready to go. It’s just a different dynamic. I think it’s probably why the Tour’s getting younger, just because things are kind of ramped up.”
Harman showed no rust after his extended time off, notching a T-3 finish at A Tribute to Military at The Greenbrier in the Tour’s season-opening event.
“That just kind of gives me a little freedom to know that I can take some time off when I need to try to avoid getting too bogged down and too, you know, just golf, golf, golf,” he said.
Harman enters the weekend at the RSM Classic in striking distance, four strokes off the pace set by 36-hole leader Tyler Duncan as he seeks his first win since the 2018 Wells Fargo Championship. In seven previous starts, Harman’s best finish at his home game is a T-4 in 2018, but he’s also missed the cut twice.
“It used to kind of bug me a little bit,” he said of playing at Sea Island, “it’s kind of like I wanted to play well so badly, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve just kind of embraced it. It’s just a fun week, man. Let’s have fun, let’s have a good time. It seems to be helping a little bit.”
And what would it mean to win the RSM Classic?
“It would mean the world, man,” he said. “All of them are important. This one would be really special.”
Robert Garrigus opens up about his 3-month suspension from the PGA Tour for having elevated THC levels during a random drug test.
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ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Robert Garrigus was suspended from the PGA Tour for three months earlier this year for what he says was medical marijuana prescribed by his doctor. Garrigus was randomly drug tested by the Tour after the opening round of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February, and failed based on elevated levels of THC, one of the active ingredients in marijuana.
“When I failed my test for THC, I hadn’t taken a drop for 10 days. I didn’t do it that morning,” said Garrigus, who was suspended under the conduct policy that applies to substances of abuse. “I shot 81. It was the worst round of my PGA Tour career.”
That wasn’t the worst of his problems. Of the suspension, which began in March and caused Garrigus, 42, to miss as many as 12 tournaments, he said, “it crushed my year.”
So what is Garrigus, who shot 73 in the opening round of the RSM Classic, taking these days for his pain relief?
“Advil,” he said. “That’s good for my liver. I can’t wait for that test.”
While marijuana is legal in some states, it is on the banned substance list under the Tour’s anti-doping policy. Garrigus became the first player to be suspended for a drug of abuse.
Garrigus, whose lone Tour victory came at the 2010 Children’s Miracle Network Classic, has a history of drug problems and has spoken publicly about it numerous times before, dating back to when he checked himself into a rehab program in 2003. But Garrigus claims that he was prescribed marijuana to treat knee and back pain, and had been monitoring his THC levels to make sure he remained within Tour guidelines.
“There’s something new that hurts every single day. Being a golfer for 25 years I guess that’s going to happen,” he said. “But I could be on Oxycontin on the golf course and get a TUE (Therapeutic Use Exemption) for that. I think that is ridiculous. The Tour can talk to me all they want about it but that is a double standard. If you think I’m better on the golf course on Oxycontin than I am on THC then you’ve lost your mind. It makes me laugh.”
“Under the WADA guidelines, there are exemptions for narcotics (such as Oxycontin) under certain circumstances but those circumstance would have to be extreme,” said Andy Levinson, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of administration. “Those aren’t the type of medications that would be given an exemption on an ongoing basis. It would be a limited time exemption.”
Getting back on track
While sidelined for three months, Garrigus lost 20 pounds and dropped to 175. He said it took 120 days for THC to leave his system. Garrigus returned to the Tour at the 3M Open in early July after two Korn Ferry Tour starts and said the pressure he felt to retain his playing privileges with only four events remaining in the regular season was overwhelming. He met with Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan at the John Deere Classic.
“It was a good conversation and I let him know my peace,” Garrigus said. “They had to deflect. They have an image to protect and uphold. There’s nothing the Tour can do right now because we’re following WADA’s guidelines. We’re not partners with WADA. If we were partners, every single drug test would be known, but since we’re following their guidelines there is Commissioner discretion and the Commissioner’s discretion, Rule 28-1, says he has discretion whether he wants to put it out into the public. I urged him to make sure there are no discrepancies.” (Levinson disputes this claim by Garrigus, stating via text: “Discretion on the section is wholly different than the public reporting. All suspensions for PED’s or drugs of abuse are reported under our regulations.”)
Garrigus also voiced his displeasure that the 12-week suspension isn’t created equal for all players, noting that Matt Every, who was suspended in October, will miss fewer tournaments based on the time of his violation.
“I get suspended in the middle of the year. Matt Every gets suspended at the end of the year and he misses three tournaments,” Garrigus said. “There also needs to be some discrepancy there. There’s a gray area there, but the Tour has always been black and white.”
So are Garrigus’s thoughts on the benefits of taking CBD and THC.
“The fact that it is socially unacceptable for cannabis and CBD right now blows my mind. It’s OK to take Oxycontin and blackout and run into a bunch of people, but you can’t take CBD and THC without someone looking at you funny. It makes no sense,” Garrigus said.
“I’m not mad at anybody but it makes me laugh at the whole way it is set up. There needs to be something different.”
After the opening round at the RSM Classic, Davis Love spoke to Golf Channel about his new role at CBS and why he’s not done with golf.
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After shooting an opening-round 68 at the RSM Classic on Thursday, Davis Love III was candid about his struggles translating his game from the range to the course.
Love told Golf Channel on Wednesday he was struggling on the course in a way he wasn’t on the range and despite finishing the first round at 2 under, those struggles continued Thursday.
“I did the same thing today on the front nine,” Love said in an interview with Golf Channel. “I didn’t get it from the range to the course. … I didn’t get off to a great start but I hung in there and was patient, made some putts on the back nine and got a decent score. Obviously not the score I wanted for a start, but if you’re on par you’re always in pretty good shape.”
Love, who played the Seaside Course during the first round, was 1 over on the front nine with one birdie and two bogeys, but corrected on the back nine adding three more birdies.
The 55-year-old Love said in addition to adjusting his game, he will also have to adjust his schedule as he is becomes an analyst for CBS beginning in 2020.
“My No. 1 job is going to be be prepared for CBS,” Love said. “My No. 2 job is to have fun and play golf and I think that will free me up a little bit, but obviously I’m not going to be playing in CBS events. I’ll have to play around it which means a lot more Champions Tour events.”
Love’s TV debut will be in January at the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines.
“It’s disappointing when I come down the 18th hole with the Commissioner of the PGA Tour, the CEO of RSM, one of his guests, and (rock star) Darius Rucker and it’s the prettiest day of the year and you see a barge with port-o-lets on it and a sunken ship in the background,” he said.
Check in for live updates from the RSM Classic throughout the event.
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The fall portion of the 2019-20 PGA Tour season wraps up this week with the Tour’s annual stop at Sea Island Golf Club for the RSM Classic.
The event will use the new-look Plantation Course and its neighboring Seaside Course for Thursday and Friday’s opening rounds. Saturday and Sunday’s rounds will be held only on Seaside.
Brendon Todd will look for a third consecutive PGA Tour win this weekend among a field that includes the likes of Webb Simpson, Billy Horschel, Kevin Kisner and Matt Kuchar.
Keep up with live updates here throughout the tournament.
Here are the odds, predictions, picks and PGA Tour best bets for the RSM Classic beginning Thursday.
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The PGA Tour’s final full-field event on the 2019 calendar takes place this week in Glynn County, Georgia, at Sea Island Golf Club with the RSM Classic.
The key stats for this week via historical data from Fantasy National are:
Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green
Strokes Gained: Approach
Strokes Gained: Short Game
Strokes Gained: Scrambling
Par 4 Efficiency: 400-450 Yards
My model looks at the most recent 50 rounds for each golfer in the field.
Simpson is the top golfer in the field with a rank of 12th by the Official World Golf Ranking. He finished solo third here last season and finished T-7 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in his most recent event. He leads the stat model with top-five ranks in four of the five key stats.
Kevin Kisner +2200
Kisner won at Sea Island in 2015. After missing the cut the following year, he was T-4 in 2017 and T-7 last season. Ranked No. 34 in the world, he’s third in the field in par-4 efficiency from the key distance. He has gained more strokes per round at this venue than anyone other than Simpson (minimum 20 rounds played) since 2010, according to Data Golf.
RSM Classic – Tier 2
Photo Credit: Mark Konezny – USA TODAY Sports
J.T. Poston +5000
Poston missed the cut here each of the last three years, but he’s coming off of a T-24 at the HSBC Champions and T-27 at the Zozo Championship in far stronger fields.
Stuard ranks third by my stat model this week with a top rank of 11th in the field in SG: Around-the-Green. He finished T-23 last week at the Mayakoba Golf Classic and tied for fourth at the Shriners earlier this year.
RSM Classic – Longshots
Photo Credit: Orlando Ramirez – USA TODAY Sports
Luke List +10000
List finished in a tie for fourth last season and tied for 13th in the fall of 2016.
Mackenzie Hughes +15000
The 2016 champion missed the cut each of the last two years, but he’s priced near the bottom of the board with a $10 bet returning a profit of $1500. He missed the cut at the OHL Classic the week before his 2016 victory so his current poor form isn’t a huge concern.
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Previewing the 2019 RSM Classic and looking at the best fantasy golf selections for Sea Island Golf Club.
The RSM Classic will be the final PGA Tour event of 2019 with FedExCup Points on the line. It’s the final full-field event of the early portion of the 2019-20 Tour season and takes place at Sea Island Golf Club in Glynn County, Ga.
A select group of golfers will be in The Bahamas in two weeks for Tiger Woods‘ Hero World Challenge. The Presidents Cup and QBE Shootout will then conclude the 2019 calendar year. The 2020 portion of the schedule will begin in Hawaii with the Sentry Tournament of Champions and Sony Open, played in the first two weekends of the new year.
Fantasy Golf Rankings: Top 30
Here are my top-30 fantasy golf rankings for the 2019 RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club.
30. Ryan Armour
Made the cut at Sea Island in each of his last four tries with a top finish of T-15 last year.
29. Peter Uihlein
In the top 10 of the field in both Strokes Gained: Around-the-Green and SG: Scrambling.
28. Bronson Burgoon
Tied for 13th at the Houston Open and followed it with a T-33 at the Mayakoba Golf Classic last week after more than a month off of competitive play.
27. Alex Noren
Has been playing often this fall after slipping to No. 64 in the Official World Golf Ranking. Has one of the top world-wide resumes in the field.
26. Cameron Tringale
Ranks ninth in the field in SG: Approach over everyone’s most recent 50 rounds. Tied for 66th at the Mayakoba Golf Classic in his last event.
25. Patrick Rodgers
Tied for 10th in 2016 and finished as the runner-up last year but missed the cut in 2017.
24. Luke List
Started the season with two straight missed cuts but made three in a row before missing last weekend at the Mayakoba Classic. Tied for fourth here last year.
23. Vaughn Taylor
Tied for second last week for his best result in four straight made cuts. Missed the cut last season but was T-8 in 2017.
22. Mackenzie Hughes
Mackenzie Hughes. Ray Carlin – USA TODAY Sports
Hasn’t been in good form this season but he missed the cut the week before his 2016 victory at Sea Island.
21. Rory Sabbatini
Collected finishes of T-33 and T-31 in much stronger fields during the Tour’s swing through Asia last month.
20. J.T. Poston
Three straight made cuts going back to the Zozo Championship. Has a poor history at this event but has just one missed cut since the John Deere Classic in July.
19. Russell Knox
Hasn’t missed a cut since A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier to open the 2019-20 season and ranks second in the field in SG: Approach over everyone’s last 50 rounds.
18. Austin Cook
The 2017 champ followed it up with a T-11 last year but missed the cut last week.
17. Dylan Frittelli
Ranks fourth in the field in SG: Around-the-Green and 15th in SG: Approach.
16. Russell Henley
Has gained 1.07 strokes per round at Sea Island GC over 15 rounds played since 2010, according to Data Golf.
15. Jim Furyk
Jim Furyk. Photo Credit: Brian Spurlock – USA TODAY Sports
Leads this year’s field with 2.10 strokes gained per round since 2010, despite missing the cut last year.
14. Kyle Stanley
The best approach game in the field over everyone’s last 50 rounds. Has been held back by his play around the greens.
13. Brian Stuard
Excels on the approach and around the greens. Needs to avoid trouble.
12. Brendon Todd
Can’t be ignored following back-to-back wins. Made the cut at this venue in each of his last three appearances.
11. Brian Harman
Tied for fourth in 2017 and finished T-32 last year. Ranks fifth in the field in SG: Scrambling.
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10. Sebastian Munoz
This venue has rewarded hot putters in the past if he can recapture his form from his Sanderson Farms Championship win.
9. Zach Johnson
A local resident who picked up his lone top-10 finish of last season at this tournament.
8. Lanto Griffin
The third golfer in the field to have a win already this season. He has been riding a hot putter and is ninth in the field in SG: Scrambling.
7. Billy Horschel
Two top-10 finishes to open the season strong, including a T-8 result last week.
6. Scottie Scheffler
Hasn’t missed a cut in six events since graduating from the Korn Ferry Tour. Has a good all-around game and just needs to get some luck on the putting surfaces.
5. Charles Howell III
Last year’s champ picked up three other top 10s last season and has two already in the 2019-20 campaign.
4. Adam Hadwin
Consistently one of the top putters on Tour and will be making his final preparations for the Presidents Cup.
3. Kevin Kisner
Kevin Kisner. Photo Credit: Adam Hagy – USA TODAY Sports
The 2015 champion has three other top-10 finishes here since 2014. Ranks second in the field in strokes gained at Sea Island among those with 20 rounds played since 2010.
2. Matt Kuchar
Typically a strong early-season performer, he hasn’t finished higher than T-22 at this event since 2014. He’s coming off of a T-14 result in his defense of the Mayakoba last week.
1. Webb Simpson
Finished solo third here last year and enters the week as the betting favorite despite playing just one event this season — where he finished T-7 at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open.
