Tag: Sea Island Resort

RSM Classic takes over role of ‘last chance saloon’ as final FedEx Cup Fall event

For the first time, the top 125 for 2024 will be finalized at the RSM Classic.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The view of St. Simons Sound from the driving range at Sea Island Resort is one of the most idyllic settings on the PGA Tour. Yet this week at the RSM Classic, tensions are high, jobs are on the line and not everyone will leave with a smile on their face.

“You don’t want to come in here worn out and grinding and trying to keep your job and not get to enjoy the islands,” World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, the tournament host, said Tuesday during a pre-tournament press conference.

The RSM Classic has a different feel this year. In the past, it has been the final tournament of the fall schedule before the Tour’s wrap-around season resumed in the first week of January, giving it a last-day-of-school feel. But the wrap-around season is no more and players outside the top 50 in the regular season have had seven tournaments in what was dubbed the FedEx Cup Fall to earn their way into the top 125. For the first time, the top 125 for the following season will be finalized at the RSM Classic.

“We’re the new Wyndham Championship,” Love III said, referring to the tournament that previously was the final opportunity for players to secure top 125 status, which gives players access to all full-field events and the Players Championship. (Numbers 126-150 will earn conditional status, unless otherwise exempt.)

‘Mini Q-School’

Players who finished Nos. 1-50 through the FedEx Cup Playoffs locked their position in the FedEx Cup, earned full exempt status for 2024 and qualified for all eight Signature Events in 2024. All players ranked No. 51 and beyond carried FedEx Cup points and continued to accumulate points through the FedEx Cup Fall.

All 20 players from Nos. 121-140 in the FedEx Cup Fall standings entering the week are in the field. Carl Yuan, a 26-year-old native of China who finished fourth last week at the Butterfield Bermuda Championship, heads into the RSM Classic as the ‘Bubble Boy’ at No. 125.

“It’s almost like a little mini Q-School this week for those guys,” said Eric Cole, the leading candidate for Tour Rookie of the Year who already locked up his card for next season. “Depending on where you are, being right around that 125 bubble is tough.”

Veteran pro Zach Johnson, who has played in the RSM Classic 13 times, tied for the most appearances with Chris Kirk, has sensed a different vibe at his hometown event this week.

“It is the last week for some of these guys and they’ve got to make a dent. That’s golf, that’s competitive golf, that’s meritocracy, that’s PGA Tour golf and I think that’s a beautiful thing,” he said. “It’s also extremely brutal because it’s hard. Everybody’s really good and everybody essentially has the same goals and that’s to win.”

Patton Kizzire, who enters this week on the wrong side of the cutline at No. 130, said he spends too much time on Instagram and is trying to adopt the philosophical message of a Chinese proverb he read there and noted it may be for the best if he doesn’t keep his card.

“You know, the farmer’s horse dies and people come up to him and say, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry.’ He’s like, ‘Maybe.’ Then the next day seven wild horses come up. ‘Oh, this is great.’ He’s like, ‘Maybe.’ It goes on and on down the line,” Kizzire recounted. “I’m at peace either way. I think whatever happens, happens.”

Access to Signature events

There are other consequences set to be determined at week’s end, including the “Next 10,” an eligibility pathway to earn access into Signature Events. Numbers 51-60 in the final FedEx Cup Fall standings, not otherwise exempt, will earn spots into the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am and Genesis Invitational with $20 million purses. Nine of the 10 players currently in position for one of the spots in The Next 10 are in the field – Beau Hossler, No. 51, has mathematically secured a place in The Next 10 and took the week off – as are seven of the players between Nos. 61-70. Sam Ryder is the bubble boy at No. 60 and knows what is at stake this week – a chance to have a head start on next season and play against the top fields.

“It’s been my very clear goal since the FedEx Cup Playoffs started,” said Ryder, who had his best regular season in six years on Tour, finishing the regular season at No. 61. “My schedule is subject to change depending how things go this week. I think it can really set me up for my whole year.”

The jockeying for position has forced Ryder to tee it up in six of the seven fall events.

“The nature of where I’m at, I felt like I had to (play),” he said.

It all comes down to this week. For those that come up short of their goal, all is not lost. This year, the Tour’s Q-School in December will offer cards to the top five and ties for the first time in over a decade. But no one wants to have to sweat out that pressure-cooker. Justin Lower, a 34-year-old journeyman pro who enters the week at No. 98, has been a poster child for the bubble boy role, and has endured the ecstasy of being on the right side of the cutline and the agony of his bubble bursting on too many occasions. Asked what he will miss about being on the bubble this week at the RSM Classic, Lower didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Absolutely nothing,” he said.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1375]

Field for the 2022 RSM Classic features Tony Finau, six past champions and eight major winners

The RSM Classic will be the final official event on the Tour’s schedule for 2022.

For what it lacks in top-ranked players, the field for the final official PGA Tour event of 2022 makes up with fan-favorite names.

The Sea Island Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia, plays host once again to the RSM Classic this week. The highest-ranked player in the field, Tony Finau, returns to Sea Island for the first time since 2014 and leads the short list of top-50 players in the world, including Brian Harman, Sepp Straka, Tom Hoge, Kevin Kisner and Seamus Power. Finau will come in fresh off his win in Houston. He’s also the last golfer to win consecutive events on the PGA Tour, doing so last summer.

Past champions teeing it up this week are Kisner (2015), two-time winner Robert Streb (2014, 2020), Chris Kirk (2013), Mackenzie Hughes (2016), Austin Cook (2017) and Tyler Duncan (2019). Sea Island resident Davis Love III will play the role of tournament host and highlights a small group of major champions in the field, which includes the likes of Stewart Cink, Jason Day, Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Francesco Molinari, Justin Rose and Webb Simpson.

RSM Classic: PGA Tour Live on ESPN+

Last year’s winner, Talor Gooch, has moved on to LIV Golf and will not defend his title this year. Charles Howell III, the 2018 RSM champion, has also moved to LIV Golf.

If you’re a fan of bonus golf, the RSM Classic is the event for you as four of the last six editions of the tournament have gone into a playoff, including three consecutive events from 2018-2020. Fans will clamoring for a playoff as this week’s Tour stop in Georgia will be the last of 2022 until the Sentry Tournament of Champions, Jan. 5-8 in Hawaii.

Following a Thanksgiving break, Tiger Woods will play in and host his 2022 Hero World Challenge, an unofficial event, Dec. 1-4 in the Bahamas. A week later, the QBE Shootout returns to Naples, Florida, Dec. 9-11, without longtime host Greg Norman, now the CEO and commissioner of LIV Golf.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01es6rjnsp3c84zkm6 player_id=01evcfxp4q8949fs1e image=https://golfweek.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

It’s island time: A look at the island stops on the PGA Tour

The PGA Tour follows the sun to some of the most beautiful spots around and is currently swinging through a series of our favorite islands.

The famed island green at the 17th hole at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, may be the best known island on the PGA Tour, but it’s not the only one. In fact, the PGA Tour enjoys its own island swing.

Bermuda (October), Bahamas (December) … it sounds like a Beach Boys song including all the island paradises where the Good Ship PGA Tour drops anchor to spend a week and play 72 holes. This week: St. Simons Island, Georgia, for the RSM Classic.

Jimmy Buffett would enjoy the Tour’s island fever, hopping to the Riviera Maya in Mexico (October), Puerto Rico (March) and places such as the Dominican Republic (March). When it’s sweater weather for much of the contiguous 48 states in January, the Tour heads to Maui and Oahu and returns for stops along the eastern seaboard at Ponte Vedra Beach and Hilton Head Island in March and April, respectively. And this list doesn’t even include the British Isles because, well, you get the idea: These guys are living the dream.

After all, island time is the best time. Here’s a closer look at these island destinations.

Sea Island adds to amateur tradition with creation of Women’s Amateur for 2021

Sea Island has a long history of hosting amateur events. Now the Sea Island Women’s Amateur will be part of the annual lineup.

Sea Island, Georgia, has long been an important stop in men’s amateur golf, having hosted the Jones Cup tournaments (together with Ocean Forest Golf Club) since the early 2000s. Now, women will get the chance to compete there annually, too. The Georgia resort has announced the creation of the Sea Island Women’s Amateur, to be played for the first time July 27-29, 2021.

“With Sea Island’s strong commitment to amateur golf and hosting multiple amateur championships over the years, creating the Sea Island Women’s Amateur was an important and natural next step, one that we are very pleased to be taking,” said Brannen Veal, Director of Golf. “This opportunity will give the best female golfers a stage on which to showcase their talents.”

The 54-hole tournament will be held on Seaside, Sea Island’s signature course, with a field limited to 84 players.

Sea Island has long been a site for big competition. The PGA Tour’s RSM Classic makes an annual fall stop there, and Sea Island has also hosted eight USGA championships, the U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur, U.S. Senior Amateur and U.S. Mid-Amateur among them.

The inaugural Sea Island Women’s Amateur will be open to females of all ages, with registration beginning in April and closing June 18 (players can register on the tournament’s web site).

Sea Island becomes the latest venue to either expand an established men’s field to include women, or to create a new event solely for women. Augusta National is perhaps the most notable entity to do so with the first playing of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur in 2019. Last spring, Sage Valley Golf Club, which has hosted the prestigious Junior Invitational since 2011, announced it would also host a women’s event beginning in 2021.

Recently, the Gator Invitational, a junior event played at Country Club of Jackson (Mississippi), announced it was creating a women’s field for its event, too. The Donna Andrews Invitational at Boonsboro Golf Club in Lynchburg, Virginia, was played for the first time in 2019 and back-to-back 54-hole women’s amateur events in Florida, dubbed the U.S. Women’s Elite Amateur, were put on the calendar for this June only to be postponed because of COVID. The R&A, together with the ANNIKA Foundation, also announced in January the creation of the first Women’s Amateur Latin America, but that event also was canceled because of COVID.

[lawrence-related id=778024316,778051998,778068918]

Robert Streb holds off Kevin Kisner to win RSM Classic in a playoff

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak recaps Robert Streb’s win at the 2020 RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort.

Golfweek’s Adam Schupak recaps Robert Streb’s win at the 2020 RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort.

Robert Streb holds off Kevin Kisner to win RSM Classic in a playoff

With no wind on Sunday, golfers attacked the Seaside Course in the final round. Only 12 of the 65 golfers were unable to break 70.

Cameron Tringale and Harris English roared through the final round of the RSM Classic on Sunday, each posting 8-under 62 at a windless Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course to make a run to the top of the leaderboard.

The course could be had on Sunday as 53 of the 65 golfers shot in the 60s on the par-70 layout.

That included third-round leader Robert Streb, who shot a 68, and Kevin Kisner, who fired a 63. After Streb missed a birdie putt on 18, he and Kisner, two former RSM champs, went to a playoff.

After each golfer parred the first playoff hole, Streb almost holed out from the fairway with his second shot on 17, the ball rolling over the left side of the cup and stopping inches away. Kisner flew the green and needed to chip in for birdie to extend the event to a third playoff hole but could not.

Streb tapped in for birdie to nab his first PGA Tour win since he won the RSM in 2014 when the event was called the McGladrey Classic. He shot in the 60s all four days (65-63-67-68) after having done so just three times in 12 rounds this season entering the tournament.

Kisner, who is now 0-for-5 in playoffs, was seeking his fifth win on Tour.

Streb is the first two-time winner of the RSM.

RSM CLASSIC: Leaderboard | Photo gallery

Tringale finished solo third. Bernd Wiesberger and Andrew Landry finished T-4 at 17 under. English, Camilo Villegas, Kyle Stanley and Zach Johnson finished T-6 at 16 under.

Corey Conners and Patton Kizzire finished T-10 at 15 under.

The PGA Tour is off next week for Thanksgiving. The final official event on the 2020 calendar is Dec. 3-6 at the Mayakoba Classic in Mexico. The QBE Shootout, an unofficial event in Naples, Florida, is Dec. 11-13.

[jwplayer 7q8KPD1Q-9JtFt04J]

[lawrence-related id=778077496,778077484,778077456]

RSM Classic: Camilo Villegas, two back, trying to win for Mia

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.”

RSM CLASSIC: Leaderboard | Photos | Tee times, TV info

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.”

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.”

[jwplayer 7NBaZ2A0-vgFm21H3]

[lawrence-related id=778077293,778077263,778077245,778077209]

RSM Classic: Robert Streb shoots 63, leads by 2 at midway point

Robert Streb equaled his lowest score on the PGA Tour to claim the 36-hole lead at the RSM Classic, which he won six years ago.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Robert Streb had only shot in the 60s three times in 12 PGA Tour rounds this season, so he might not have been the most likely player to open with a pair of rounds in the 60s and equal his lowest score on Tour on Friday, a 9-under 63 at the Plantation Course at Sea Island Resort.

Streb said he’d like to say he found something but had a hard time explaining why, after recording only one top-10 finish last season, his game suddenly clicked during the first two rounds of the RSM Classic, allowing him build a two-stroke lead over Camilo Villegas. But this Streb knows about putting: “It seems a lot simpler when they’re going in.”

Indeed, it does. Streb’s putter heated up at the end of his opening round on the Seaside Course on Thursday as he finished with four straight birdies en route to posting 5-under 65. He made more than 142 feet of putts and ranked first in Strokes Gained: Putting, and picked up where he left off on Friday making nine birdies, including at his final two holes of the day.

It was reminiscent of his performance in the final round of the 2014 RSM Classic when Streb’s putter caught fire and he had 11 one-putt greens, including five from more than 10 feet and shot 63 at the Seaside Course to rally from five strokes back, force a playoff and eventually win his first Tour title.

“Just got on a hot run there at the end and ended up in the right place,” he said.

Streb, 33, left that night with a trophy, the biggest check of his life and the security that he’d have a Tour card long enough to secure his pension. He ranked No. 18 in the FedEx Cup that season, but he wasn’t able to build on what looked to be his breakthrough year.

RSM CLASSIC: Leaderboard | Photos

“Kind of thought I would just keep trucking along,” he said. “Didn’t play quite as well and I guess kind of gone through a lull for a little while. I don’t really have a good answer for you other than it’s just taken me too many shots to get the ball in the hole.”

The last few years he’s struggled to maintain his Tour card, including last season when he missed the cut at 12 of 19 events.

“I haven’t been doing anything all that exciting for quite a while,” he said.

But he hit 17 of 18 greens on Friday and he feels comfortable at a place where he takes his kids to look for crabs in the sand and where he enjoys looking at his mug on one of the tournament banners as he drives into the property. Given that he’s unable to explain his sudden good form, he shouldn’t even bother wrestling with this stat and just go with it: The last four winners of the RSM Classic all have held the 36-hole lead.

“I don’t want to be the one that breaks it,” he said. “There’s still a lot of golf left, still got to go play and we’ll see what happens.”

[jwplayer 7NBaZ2A0-vgFm21H3]

[lawrence-related id=778077209,778076854,778076784]