The bite returned to Sea Island Resort’s two courses—Seaside and Plantation—on Friday.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — The bite returned to Sea Island Resort’s two courses—Seaside and Plantation—on Friday after a day of record scoring on Thursday. Some players in the 155-man field found it more challenging than others.
South Africa’s Louis Oosthuizen, for one, didn’t make it to the first tee, withdrawing from the RSM Classic with a back injury. Robert Streb won’t defend his title as he missed making the weekend by a shot.
Those two weren’t the only notable names to be sent home from the final tournament of the fall portion of the 2021-22 PGA Tour season.
Here’s a list of some of the big names who have the weekend off after flaming out with a not-so golden performance on the Golden Isles of South Georgia.
Adam Scott’s runner-up finish at the Wyndham and tie for fifth at the CJ Cup has renewed his hope of a 15th Tour title.
SAINT SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – When Adam Scott competes, he’s usually the picture of the poised golfer, often wearing an inscrutable look on his face that makes it hard to tell if he’s shooting 62 or 82.
“I know he gets mad, everyone does, but he holds himself together better than anyone I’ve ever seen,” said fellow PGA Tour pro Harris English.
But leaving the scoring area at the British Open in July after another middling performance and another lost opportunity to add to his major haul that has been stuck at one since he won the 2013 Masters, Scott couldn’t hide his disappointment. One reporter on the scene said he cut the look of a dejected figure.
“That was kind of rock bottom of frustration for me with everything,” Scott said. “It had been a challenging season of golf for me, and of course that affects my general attitude. I put so much into my career and sacrificed a lot of things, including time at home to do this, and I just wasn’t getting the results, and that’s what it’s all about. It’s a result-based kind of industry or profession that I’m in. I found that very frustrating.”
Scott, 41, kept grinding away and seemed to turn the corner with a few promising starts, including a playoff defeat at the hands of Kevin Kisner at the Wyndham Championship, where Scott missed a short putt to win on the first playoff hole. How did he break out of his funk?
“In the down times,” Scott said, “I come to the realization it’s the only thing I know how to do, so I don’t have a lot of options outside of that and I’d better get my head back on and figure it out. I love doing it.”
The runner-up finish at the Wyndham, his 100th career top-10 finish on the PGA Tour, and a tie for fifth at the CJ Cup last month has renewed his hope that a 15th career Tour title is right around the corner, perhaps even this week at the RSM Classic. The tournament is played over two courses at the Sea Island Resort, and Scott is making his debut in this event.
The other key to Scott’s turnaround may be as simple as a tuneup to his Titleist TSi4 driver, which had been sending balls astray. He stuck with the same model, but adjusted the hosel mechanism to add .75-degrees of loft to obtain extra spin. It didn’t happen instantly, but he’s been finding fairways with regularity again.
“The driver for me is a sensitive area because I feel like I’m a good driver of the golf ball and when I drive it well, it kind of trickles through the rest of the game, the confidence and the freedoms and all those kind of things,” he said. “It’s amazing just how that calms you down, standing on a tee, and you stand on the tee more often in a confident state and I feel like golf isn’t as hard as it was earlier in the year.”
Scott is making his fourth start of the new season, more than he typically plays in the fall, and said he plans to play tournaments as part of the European Tour’s Middle East Swing in Abu Dhabi and Dubai before returning to the PGA Tour at the Genesis Invitational in February.
“I’m here to win some FedEx Cup points,” he said. “I’d love to win the tournament. I was close a few months back and I feel like my game generally is in a pretty good spot. I think it’s good enough to contend here this week and I’d like to make the most of that.”
The first five champs won by either one shot or in a playoff, and four of the last five winners have survived playoffs.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — The Golden Isles got a taste of what normal feels like post-pandemic when the Florida-Georgia football game on Oct. 30 played to full capacity, which meant visitors, buzz and business.
Step two for a normal fall comes this week with the 12th playing of the RSM Classic at the Sea Island Club’s Seaside and Plantation Courses, which begins on Thursday and will be aired on Golf Channel from 1-4 p.m. through Sunday.
Florida-Georgia week on the Isles is about a rollicking good time for football fans, with garish displays of school colors, trash-talking and yes, imbibing at Frat Beach, Brogen’s, the Beachcomber or Gnat’s Landing, then again on game day in the parking lots of Jacksonville’s TIAA Bank Field.
This is golf, as laid-back a sport as it gets. But this week will come with a sense of urgency as a field of 156 players will tackle the windswept courses to pick up some extra cash and FedEx Cup points before the Tour goes dark for six weeks until early January.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t just as important to the area — and to tournament host Davis Love III, who said his initial vision for a PGA Tour event at the historic resort has gone beyond the hopes he had in 2010 when the winner didn’t get a full boat of 500 FedEx Cup points and didn’t get an invitation to the Masters.
“It’s grown a lot more than we ever expected,” said Love, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame and two-time Players Champion. “It’s exceeded expectations, but that’s what happens at Sea Island and with a great team in our [Davis Love] foundation office.”
The tournament was a big money-maker for charity from the start, most notably the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Georgia and Special Olympics. This week, the tournament announced it has passed $25 million in charity.
And the golf has been dramatic — the first five champions won by either one shot or in playoffs, and four of the last five winners have survived playoffs.
The only time the issue wasn’t in doubt late on Sunday was in 2016 when Kevin Kisner won by six shots.
The tournament was elevated in 2014 when the PGA Tour created its “wraparound schedule,” making the fall events a part of the FedEx Cup and dangling the carrot of a trip to Augusta National with a victory.
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“Guys have realized over the last few years that you need to get some points in the fall if you want to win at the end,” Love said. “Every point counts so it’s important for guys to get to play. Obviously, we see that in our field this year.”
There will be 14 major champions starting on Thursday, including Adam Scott, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Webb Simpson and Louis Oosthuizen, along with U.S. Ryder Cup player Scottie Scheffler and defending champion Robert Streb.
Like many PGA Tour events in 2020, the RSM Classic was conducted without fans as Streb birdied the second playoff hole to beat Kisner.
But the fans are back and so are the family-oriented activities for the players, caddies, volunteers and their families, ranging from a charity wiffleball game between the players and wives, Southern Soul barbecue on the practice range, horseback-riding and beach trips for the kids.
There are two pro-ams this week, on Monday and Wednesday.
“It’s nice having the people back,” said Streb, whose two PGA Tour titles have come at the RSM Classic. “That little bit of extra energy, I think it’s fun for the players, too, and obviously the fans are kind of itching to get back out on the course.”
Love said last year’s event was “weird” — from no fans, masked volunteers and an injury that cost him the pleasure of teeing it up in his own event.
“Obviously the whole world’s been weird for a year and a half,” he said. “But nice to have the fans back, nice to have our sponsors back. RSM already had one pro-am event and several events outside, but several fun events at night. It’s moving along and we’re excited that things are back to normal and our community is going to get to come out and participate this year.”
Davis Love III plays a tee shot on the third hole during the first round of the 2019 RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort Seaside Course. (Photo by Stan Badz/PGA TOUR via Getty Images)
The RSM Classic brings another round of revenue for South Georgia businesses during the tournament week. The Golden Isles Convention and Visitors Bureau has estimated the economic impact of the golf tournament at around $10 million, with weekly attendance between 25,000-30,000.
Not bad, for a tournament Love envisioned as one similar to the Tour’s late-summer event in Callaway Gardens, another notable Georgia resort.
“We wanted it to be family-friendly, one that everybody likes to come and has a great time, show off Sea Island, show our community hospitality,” he said. “It’s more than just a golf tournament to them. It’s a family trip. Now we’ve got new young families like Trey Mullinax — can’t wait to get to Sea Island, can’t wait to go to Southern Soul Barbecue, can’t wait for his kids to see the ocean. That makes it even more special for us.”
Webb Simpson said his kids can’t wait for RSM week, mainly to visit the candy store at The Cloister.
“This is a destination spot for families to come and relax … there’s so much to do,” said Simpson, a father of five.
“Just a lot of good stuff here,” Streb said. “It’s been really good for me and my family, obviously a really cool venue and setup, and the Davis Love Foundation, they just run a great golf tournament.”
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.”
The ace was a bright spot on an otherwise forgettable final round for Patton Kizzire, who shot a 75 on Sunday.
It took an entire week but the PGA Tour has another hole-in-one.
On Sunday, in the final round of the RSM Classic in Sea Island, Georgia, Patton Kizzire aced the par-3 sixth hole.
He used an 8-iron from 181 yards.
The ace was a bright spot on an otherwise forgettable final round. Kizzire shot 69-69-67 the first three days but just didn’t have his best stuff on Sunday.
Two holes before his ace, he triple-bogeyed the 4th hole to fall to 8-over on the day. He ended up shooting a 75 and after his round quipped that he needed the ace to break 80.
The National Hole-in-One Registry says that the odds of a PGA Tour pro getting a hole-in-one is 3,000-to-1. (It also says the “average” golfer has a 12,000-to-1 shot at making an ace).
