Harry Higgs shot 63 to vault into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12 under in the RSM Classic.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — After shooting 7-under 63 on Friday, Harry Higgs was asked whether he has been putting pretty well of late. He smiled and corrected the writer. “No, I’ve been putting really good,” Higgs said.
Indeed, he has. Higgs gained more than three strokes to the field on the greens at Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course on Friday, the second best performance in the field and it propelled him into a share of the 36-hole lead with Cole Hammer and Andrew Putnam at 12-under 130 in the RSM Classic.
“It’s usually pretty good,” Higgs said of his putting. “I feel like I have very good touch, and I feel like I read the greens really well, so that should be pretty easy. The only poor putt I hit today was kind of the first one that I had that was slow and I just kind of laughed.”
His ballstriking has been equally as impressive. Higgs has hit 33 of 36 greens in regulation through two rounds.
“The way that I’m putting, I just have to get it somewhere on the green and it’s probably going to come close to going in the hole,” he said.
Higgs struggled last season and is playing out of the Nos. 126-150 category this season. His confidence lagged and it took a hard look in the mirror to realize he’s been his own worst enemy.
“It’s miserable, it sucks, but it’s part of what we have to do,” he said of battling to keep playing privileges each season. “You have to deal with it. It’s OK to be fearful, it’s OK to feel the pressure. It’s just kind of how you react to it, right? Whether you kind of want to run and hide in the corner. Like I wouldn’t say I necessarily ran and hid in the corner, but I was very down on myself.”
Higgs spoke recently about how instead of spiraling down, he’s trying to spiral up and not be so hard on himself. His attitude on the course has improved, and he’s shown some signs of finding life in his game. His Friday 63 marked his fourth bogey-free round of 65 or less already this season.
“I’m going to at some point get out of this rut, which I felt like I was really close to doing in Bermuda and then played a poor day Friday. You know, a couple weeks ago in Mexico it felt like I was at least – the tires were spinning the other way, I was going to get out of it,” he said. “Come here and sure, I could do a lot of things better than I did this week so far, but I think I’m tied for first place, so you can take it easy, man. Like it’s OK to hit a few poor shots and smile a little bit and joke.”
These golfers have the weekend off and an early start to their Thanksgiving week.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — The fall portion of the 2022-23 PGA Tour season comes to an end this Sunday with the conclusion of the RSM Classic at Sea Island Resort. But for some players, the end came prematurely with a Friday missed cut.
Sixty-nine golfers from a field of 155 are on to the weekend and a chance to hoist a trophy and collect a winner’s check for $1.24 million. That should make Thanksgiving turkey taste a little better. But it took some quality golf to be in the trophy hunt, as 4-under 138 was necessary to survive the 36-hole cut after a round at Sea Island’s Seaside Course and Plantation Course. Here’s a closer look at some of those who weren’t so lucky.
Davis Love III has a veritable museum of his achievements on display all over the island at Sea Island Resort.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – In 1978, Davis Love III’s father, renowned instructor Davis Jr., was given a blank slate to start an instructional school anywhere in the country. He chose Sea Island Resort here in this picturesque corner of southern Georgia—halfway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida—and it’s been Love’s home ever since.
Love, who was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2017, has a veritable museum of his achievements on display all over the island. A local restaurant, Brogen’s North, has a caddie bib worn by brother Mark at the 1995 Ryder Cup matches at Oak Hill and a framed print of Love after his cup-clinching putt at The Belfry in 1993. Some of Love’s winning hardware have been the focal point of an elegant trophy room at Sea Island Resort.
When Love won the 1997 PGA Championship, hand-painted banners and a billboard along U.S. 17 offered congratulations. After the 2016 Ryder Cup victory, Love was welcomed home by a live band at McKinnon Airport, a small airstrip on the island favored by players who fly private.
Love has returned the community’s affection by hosting the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, a tournament that has raised nearly $29 million for local charities. He does everything from handing out the trophy to hosting the pro-am party, and is making his 788th Tour start in the tournament this week, which kicks off its 13th year on Thursday at the Resort’s Seaside and Plantation courses.
Sea Island Golf Club in Sea Island, Georgia. (Photo: Hunter Martin/Getty Images)
“The community rallies behind it every year,” said Zach Johnson, a Sea Island resident who is one of two players in the field that has competed in every edition of the RSM Classic to date (the other being Chris Kirk).
Johnson, who grew up in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, already has claimed the John Deere Classic, his true home game, and now he’s gunning for his adopted hometown tourney. Somehow, none of the local boys, who are collectively known as the Sea Island Mafia, have ever had bragging rights as champion of the RSM Classic.
“Based on the amount of talent that lives here, based on the resumes that live here and having that course knowledge, it is a little bit surprising. I find it a little bit odd. But it’s hard,” Johnson said. “At some point that’s probably got to happen.”
Johnson, who has three top-10 finishes in his last five RSM starts, would love nothing more than to set off a celebration on the island. But the 12-time Tour winner hasn’t won on the since hoisting the Claret Jug in 2015 at St. Andrews.
“It completely and utterly eats at me,” Johnson said of his victory drought. “But I know how hard this game is and typically, you know, when I’ve had valleys, if you will, the motivation to go work and try to get out of that valley has never been an issue.”
It should be noted that technically a resident already has won the RSM.
Kevin Kisner, a longtime Sea Island member, won the 2015 title and was living on the island while his home in Aiken, South Carolina, was being renovated. But Kisner’s home course is Palmetto Golf Club and he’s only an unofficial member of the Sea Island Mafia. Harris English, who is attempting to climb back into the top 50 in the world, counts as a full-blooded member, one of 16 local residents in the field this week, and plays enough at the two Sea Island courses that he figures he should have an advantage.
“I never get tired of playing this place,” English said. “The challenging part about playing this week is we never play it in these kind of conditions.”
A view of the sixth green during the final round of the 2020 RSM Classic at the Seaside Course at Sea Island Golf Club in St Simons Island, Georgia. (Photo: Sam Greenwood/Getty Images)
Asked where he would head on the island to celebrate with the local folks should he hoist the trophy, English smiled and said, “I don’t think Ziggy Mahoney’s will be open on Sunday, but that’s a pretty good celebration spot.”
Stat of the week
116. That is how many birdies Patrick Rodgers has made during the first seven events of the 2022-23 season, the most of 10 players who have topped 100 birdies. The annual RSM Birdies Fore Love competition concludes this week at The RSM Classic, with the player making the most birdies (or better) throughout the fall portion of the schedule receiving $300,000 to donate to a children- or family-focused charitable organization of his choice ($150,000 for second, $50,000 for third). With this being the final week of the competition, each birdie (or better) will count for two.
Windy conditions led to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside and Plantation Courses.
ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – Jordan Spieth isn’t the only new proud papa of late. Talor Gooch joined the club a little over four months ago. But the 30-year-old former Oklahoma State star claimed he’s getting plenty of rest as his wife and his in-laws are here this week to make his life easy.
“It’s gives me comfort,” he said.
That word summarizes Gooch’s approach to the game. The fifth-year PGA Tour pro says he finally feels comfortable out here and it shows in his results: he’s registered two top-5 finishes and a pair of T-11s during the fall season.
On Friday at the RSM Classic, the wind blew and the temperature barely rose into the 60s, but it didn’t bother an Oklahoma native, who is used to factoring in the wind. Gooch canned a 66-foot eagle putt and made four other birdies en route to shooting 5-under 65 at Sea Island’s Seaside Course.
“It’s easy on days like today to play conservative, but when you’re swinging it well you’ve got to be aggressive,” he said. “We’re trying to win tournaments and to do so you’ve got to be aggressive.”
Well, there was at least one shot that he admittedly may have been just trying to lag his long-range eagle putt at the par-5 seventh into gimme range.
“I saw hopefully a two-putt and it popped in,” said Gooch, who when told he holed 132 feet of putts on the day, cracked, “A 66-footer helps with that.”
Through 36 holes, he’s played the six par 5s in 7 under, including another long eagle putt from 50 feet at the 14th on Thursday, to post a 36-hole aggregate of 13-under 129.
Gooch, who is seeking his first Tour title, didn’t pinpoint when he started feeling comfortable with being in contention, but he said he’s been there, done that enough that he’ll be ready for this weekend.
“We were talking about it today on a hole where I was hitting like a chip 7-iron and it’s like I’ve seen this shot before out here and I’ve made the mistake before out here. So just being out here enough, you start to understand like days like today, I’m comfortable with it because I know what to expect because I’ve seen it before,” he said. “You just can’t put a value on comfort and how much that will do for you.”
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Blustery conditions lead to higher scoring on Friday at the Seaside Course and its sister, the Plantation Course, where John Huh made six birdies to shoot 67.
“Which is good with these tough conditions,” said Huh, who is tied for second at 12 under along with first-round leader Sebastian Muñoz (70 at PC).
Another shot back is Mackenzie Hughes (68 at SC), who described the difference in playing conditions the past two days as “night and day,” and rookie Taylor Moore, who made an ace at the 17th hole at the Seaside Course.
“It’s a pretty perfect club, 8-iron from about 178 with wind off the right. Just started at that right bunker and let the wind do its job, and got a fortunate bounce,” said Moore, who shot 65. “It looked like kind of like a fringe bounce.”
Moore, 28, finished the 2020-21 combined season No. 6 in the Korn Ferry Tour points standings after recording a win and 13 top-10 finishes. Baseball was his first love and he starred as a middle infielder, a good contact hitter who knew how to find the gaps. He was offered a baseball scholarship at Arkansas before switching to golf.
“My dad coached college baseball for 20 years, so I grew up going to the field every day and that was kind of my childhood and first love,” he said. “So it was a tough choice at the time for sure.”
Both Gooch and Moore call Edmond, Oklahoma, home. Could this be the week one of them breaks through for a win? Gooch, for one, knows his time will come.
“Guys like Justin Thomas and Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth and all these guys that have won early and won often, they’ve kind of put an expectation on a different level than what I think the average golfer understands out here. I know I’m going to win, I know I’m going to compete a lot and it’s just a matter of when it’s my time,” Gooch said. “I’m going to keep working, I’m going to keep getting ready so when it’s my time, I’m going to take it and run with it.”
