Tag: Sea Island

Watch: British Open champ Brian Harman guzzles beer from Claret Jug at surprise airport celebration

“It’s so cool. It warms my heart seeing everyone here.”

Brian Harman received a hero’s welcome when he arrived home to McKinnon St. Simons Island Airport in Georgia on Friday.

Fellow major winner Davis Love III, PGA Tour pro and fellow Georgia alum Harris English and Harman’s swing coach, Justin Parsons, were among more than 50 friends and fans that surprised The Champion Golfer of the Year upon his arrival.

“It’s so cool. It warms my heart seeing everyone here,” Harman told PGA Tour.com. “My wife played it off pretty good. I was thinking we would just scoot home and not see anybody, so I’m thrilled everyone came out. It’s really touching.”

Harman, who won for the first time in more than six years on Sunday and collected his first major championship, stepped off the plane holding his youngest of three children in his left arm and the Claret Jug, the famed trophy that the winner of the British Open is awarded custody for one year, in his right.

Harman hung around and posed for pictures, signed autographs and drank a Coors Light from the Claret Jug.

“There’s booze in there, sorry,” Harman said with a grin in a video posted to social media by the PGA Tour.

Young fans settled to touch the trophy.

Harman flew back to the U.S. early Monday morning following a celebration the night before at Hickory’s Smokehouse, not far from where he won the British Open at Royal Liverpool in Hoylake, England. Harman met up with his wife and three kids, who watched his victory from her family’s home in the Syracuse, New York, area.

“The last three or four days have been really nice,” he said. “We’ve been secluded up there by the lake. But it’s nice to get back and see a bunch of familiar faces and get to celebrate with them.”

Harman has called St. Simons Island, part of a chain of barrier islands nicknamed the Golden Isles, for most of his career. Based on his arrival home, the party is just beginning for Harman’s career-defining moment in this picturesque corner of southern Georgia – halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida.

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Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play 2023: State-by-state rankings for public-access layouts

State-by-state rankings of the best public courses you can play in all 50 states.

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Want to play the best public-access golf courses in each state? Keep reading.

Fresh for 2023, we present the Golfweek’s Best Courses You Can Play list for the top public-access layouts in each state, as judged by our nationwide network of raters.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them on 10 criteria on a points basis of 1 through 10. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings are averaged to produce all our Golfweek’s Best course rankings.

The courses on this list allow public access in some fashion, be it standard daily green fees, through a resort or by staying at an affiliated hotel. If there’s a will, there’s a tee time – no membership required. (There are a handful of courses on this list that some players might consider to be private, but they do allow non-hosted, non-member guest play in some limited form, normally through a local hotel or similar arrangement.)

There’s one course of particular note this year. Of the dozens of courses new to this list, only Landmand Golf Club in Homer, Nebraska, debuts in the No. 1 spot in its state. Designed by Tad King and Rob Collins, Landmand opened in 2022.

KEY: (m) modern, built in 1960 or after; (c) classic, built before 1960. For courses with a number preceding the (m) or (c), that is where the course ranks on Golfweek’s Best lists for top 200 modern and classic courses in the U.S.

* indicates new or returning to the rankings

Editor’s note: The Golfweek’s Best 2023 rankings of top private courses in each state will be published Monday, June 12. More lists, such as the top 200 Modern and top 200 Classic Courses lists for 2023, will be published in the following weeks.

More Golfweek’s Best for 2023:

Golfweek’s Best 2023: Top 200 resort courses in the U.S.

From Oregon to South Carolina, we offer the Golfweek’s Best ranking of top resort courses in the U.S.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2023 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.

This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.

* New to or returning to the list

Other popular Golfweek’s Best lists include:

Adam Svensson goes from barely making cut to winning 2022 RSM Classic for first PGA Tour win

Svensson went bogey-free in the final round and made two clutch birdies late on Sunday.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Until Adam Svensson sank a 6-foot eagle putt at the 15th hole of his second round, he appeared to be in danger of missing the cut at the 2022 RSM Classic. Winning his first PGA Tour tournament wasn’t a thought in his mind.

“I was just trying to make the cut,” he said. “I didn’t want to go home when I knew I was playing this well.”

So, Svensson first grinded out the cut, then vaulted into contention with a 62 on Saturday and fired a 6-under 64 at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course on Sunday to win the RSM Classic by two strokes over Brian Harman, Callum Tarren and Sahith Theegala.

“I knew if I just kept doing what I’m doing I will work my way up, but to come out on top, it’s unbelievable,” Svensson said.

The 28-year-old Canadian’s slow start at Sea Island’s Plantation Course, a 1-over 73, was the highest opening-round score by a winner since Jon Rahm at the 2020 BMW Championship. It left him T-108 entering the second round and he was seven strokes back at the start of the weekend. The last player to be outside the top 100 through 18 holes and go on to win was Ian Poulter at the 2018 Cadence Bank Houston Open. It didn’t hurt that Svensson played the last 52 holes bogey-free.

“It’s been a dream of mine since I was 10 years old, 8 years old,” Svensson said. “It’s just incredible.”

Svensson’s ball striking has never been questioned, but ever since he began working with putting coach John Graham a year ago, he’s made leaps and bounds on the greens. This week, he led the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.

“When you have confidence when you’re putting, you feel like you can make everything and those two-, three-footers, you just bang them in,” he said.

Svensson, bundled up in a winter hat and windbreaker on an unseasonably cold day in the Golden Isles, was on fire with his putter. He holed more than 150 feet of putts in the final round. After failing to make birdie at the easy par-5 15th hole and watching Harman and Theegala join the tie at the top with Tarren, Svensson canned an 18-foot uphill, left-to-right birdie at 16. He walked it in from more than 2 feet out and pumped his fist as he assumed sole possession of the lead.

One hole later, he stuck an 8-iron to 10 feet at the par 3 and pumped his fist again – this time with authority – as his ball circled the cup to give himself a two-stroke cushion.

“It looked like we’d have a four-way playoff and next thing you know it wasn’t even close,” the winning U.S. Presidents Cup Captain Davis Love III and RSM Classic host said.

Svensson, who closed with a 6-under 64 for a 72-hole total of 19-under 263, originally earned his PGA Tour card in 2019. He showed flashes of brilliance but lacked consistency. He concedes that he relied on talent alone and didn’t work hard enough at his game. Too many weeks he’d finish a tournament, go to the bar and nurse a hangover for a day or two.

“If you’re doing that,” he said, “you’re falling behind.”

He spent a humbling season on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2020, but considers it a blessing.

“It changed my path,” he said.

During that time he looked himself in the mirror – “probably after one of those hangovers,” he said – and decided he had to make some changes if he wanted to reach his full potential. He committed to treating golf like a job and “made a choice to give it 100 percent.” The changes included quitting drinking, or as he put it, “no more going out with the boys.”

“It’s turned my life around,” he said.

Svensson turned his week around with a flurry of birdies on the weekend and earned his first trip to the Masters – or any major for that matter. One person who didn’t doubt that Svensson had the ability to get to the winner’s circle was his caddie A.J. Montecitos.

“I told him when I first got on his bag that we’d win in six weeks,” Montecitos said. “I was wrong. It took him 10.”

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RSM Classic tournament host Davis Love III withdraws with injury

Love withdrew from the tournament before play began, citing a left wrist injury.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Tournament host Davis Love III pulled out of his own tournament on Thursday.

The 58-year-old Love, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, was expected to make his 788th PGA Tour start this week at the RSM Classic. But he withdrew from the tournament before play began, citing a left wrist injury. He had made the cut six times in 12 previous appearances in the tournament, with a T-4 in 2012.

Scott Brown was the benefactor of Love’s decision not to play. Brown teed off at 9:20 a.m. ET on the Plantation Course with Cameron Champ and Sahith Theegala.

Love, winner of 21 PGA Tour titles including the 1997 PGA Championship, is the unofficial mayor of this barrier island, and will still be involved in tournament activities including the trophy presentation on Sunday. The Davis Love Foundation is the tournament’s main benefactor.

Anders Alberts also withdrew from the tournament due to a back injury, but there were no more alternates on site to take his spot so the field size has been reduced to 155.

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Check the yardage book: Sea Island’s Seaside Course for the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic

See StrackaLine’s hole-by-hole maps of the Seaside Course in Georgia, which along with the Plantation Course hosts the RSM Classic.

Sea Island’s Seaside Course is one of the two courses in play for this week’s RSM Classic on the PGA Tour. The first two rounds also include the popular resort’s Plantation course – each player competes one round on each course – before all weekend play moves solely to the Seaside Course in St. Simons Island, Georgia.

The Seaside Course originally was laid out by famed designers Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison in 1929 and was redesigned by Tom Fazio in 1999. It will play to 7,005 yards with a par of 70 for the RSM Classic. The Plantation Course – renovated by tournament host Davis Love III and his brother, Mark, in 2019 – will play to 7,060 yards with a par of 72.

The Seaside Course ranks as the No. 1 public-access layout in Georgia and also is No. 83 on Golfweek’s Best list of modern courses since 1960 in the U.S. The Plantation Course is the No. 7 public-access track in Georgia.

Thanks to yardage books provided by StrackaLine – the maker of detailed yardage books for thousands of courses around the world – we can see exactly the challenges the players face this week on the Seaside Course. Check out the maps of each hole below.

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.

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Notre Dame’s Palmer Jackson is Jones Cup Invitational champion

Jackson joined some nice company with this victory.

Notre Dame’s Palmer Jackson was the best golfer at this year’s Jones Cup Invitational, and it only could end with him as the winner. Indeed, Jackson is this year’s champion with a 5-under-par 211, three shots better than Logan McAllister of Oklahoma. Jackson joins a list of previous winners that includes Justin Thomas, Patrick Reed, Kyle Stanley, Luke List and Nicholas Thompson.

Jackson struggled in his final round at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. He shot a 4-over 76 with three of his four bogeys coming on the back nine, and he had no birdies throughout the round. Fortunately, the five-shot lead he had going into the final round gave him enough of a cushion that he could afford a few mistakes.

Also struggling was Davis Chatfield, Jackson’s Irish teammate. He shot a 5-over 77 to give himself a final score of 7-over 223 and a share of 16th with seven others. Unlike Jackson, Chatfield made a birdie, which came on the 15th hole. However, that moment was overshadowed by six bogeys during the round.

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Notre Dame’s Palmer Jackson leads at Jones Cup Invitational

Keep an eye on the links this weekend.

College golf might be on hiatus right now, but that doesn’t mean players aren’t competing. In fact, one Notre Dame golfer is doing quite well right now. Palmer Jackson shot a 6-under-par 66 at the Jones Cup Invitational to give himself a one-shot lead at the end of the first round. Just behind Jackson is Michael Brennan of Wake Forest.

On the first day of the annual amateur tournament at Ocean Forest Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia, Palmer got off to a hot start with three straight birdies. He stayed at 3-under until making an eagle on the 10th hole. Later on the back nine, he alternated between bogeys and birdies on four consecutive holes. His birdie on the 18th gave him his final first-round score.

Also competing in the 54-hole tournament is Notre Dame’s Davis Chatfield. He shot a 2-over 74 to tie for 39th with seven other players. A double bogey on the seventh prevented him from finishing with even par.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

Golfweek’s Best 2022: Top 200 Resort Golf Courses in the U.S.

The top 200 resort courses in the U.S. stretch from Pebble Beach and Bandon Dunes to Whistling Straits and Pinehurst.

Welcome to Golfweek’s Best 2022 list of top resort golf courses in the United States.

The hundreds of members of our course-ratings panel continually evaluate courses and rate them based on our 10 criteria. They also file a single, overall rating on each course. Those overall ratings on each course are averaged to produce a final, cumulative rating. Then each course is ranked against other courses in the region.

This list focuses on the golf courses themselves, not the resorts as a whole or other amenities. Each golf course included is listed with its average rating from 1 to 10, its location, architect(s) and the year it opened.

Other Golfweek’s Best lists include: