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The post 2020 RSM Classic Purse: Payout, winner’s share at Sea Island appeared first on Golf.

The post 2020 RSM Classic Purse: Payout, winner’s share at Sea Island appeared first on Golf.

It’s Sunday at the RSM Classic at Sea Island, Ga. and things are heating up. Here’s everything you need to know about Sunday’s purse, including payout information and winner’s share.

Unlike the major championship that preceded it on the schedule, the RSM Classic is back in its traditional schedule slot in 2020. Held every November in Sea Island, Ga., the first post-Masters PGA Tour event has featured a litany of low scores, including from a few familiar faces.

Robert Strebb leads the field heading into the final round, carding a trio of scores in the 60s en route to a three-stroke lead beginning the day on Sunday. Closely trailing Strebb (-17) are a pair of familiar names for golf fans — Camillo Villegas (-12) and Zach Johnson (-14).

Villegas and Johnson are joined in the hunt by Kyle Stanley, Harris English and Kevin Kisner, though all five will need strong Sunday performances to chase down Strebb’s comfortable lead.

Below is the payout information for the RSM Classic’s $6.6 million purse; you can watch all the action Sunday on Golf Channel from 1-4:00 p.m. ET.

RSM Classic payout information; winner’s share

1. $1,188,000

2. $719,400

3. $455,400

4. $323,400

5. $270,600

6. $239,250

7. $222,750

8. $206,250

9. $193,050

10. $179,850

11. $166,650

12. $153,450

13. $140,250

14. $127,050

15. $120,450

16. $113,850

17. $107,250

18. $100,650

19. $94,050

20. $87,450

21. $80,850

22. $74,250

23. $68,970

24. $63,690

25. $58,410

26. $53,130

27. $51,150

28. $49,170

29. $47,190

30. $45,210

31. $43,230

32. $41,250

33. $39,270

34. $37,620

35. $35,970

36. $34,320

37. $32,670

38. $31,350

39. $30,030

40. $28,710

41. $27,390

42. $26,070

43. $24,750

44. $23,430

45. $22,110

46. $20,790

47. $19,470

48. $18,414

49. $17,490

50. $16,962

51. $16,566

52. $16,170

53. $15,906

54. $15,642

55. $15,510

56. $15,378

57. $15,246

58. $15,114

59. $14,982

60. $14,850

61. $14,718

62. $14,586

63. $14,454

64. $14,322

65. $14,190

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The post Why a part of Georgia not named Augusta is buzzing with pro golfers appeared first on Golf.

The post Why a part of Georgia not named Augusta is buzzing with pro golfers appeared first on Golf.

You hear a lot about three great American enclaves for the modern professional golfers: Palm Beach Gardens and its neighboring burgs; Orlando; and Scottsdale. But there’s a fourth hotspot that’s more under-the-radar: St. Simons and Sea Island, the East Egg and West Egg of coastal Georgia. There’s a whole lot of golf going on there these days. There always is, but now there’s even more.

Why there’s Zach Johnson, working with Morris Pickens, author of The Winning Way in Golf and Life. Zach would be Exhibit A of that, right? (We’re saying it loud and we’re saying it proud: Johnson will someday be enshrined in the World Golf Hall of Fame.) And here comes Michael Thompson, winner of the 2013 Honda Classic, looking for some of that Doc Mo performance love.

News

Davis Love III just made his first bold Tiger prediction in his new role as CBS analyst

By: Michael Bamberger

Speaking of love: There’s DL3, father, grandfather, godfather of the Sea Island golf scene, trying out his bagful of new Titleist clubs. Papa’s got a brand new bag. Davis is walking the local courses, carrying his own sack, a slender carry bag. All the fellas are carrying their own; they’re all kosher for Covid. Six feet way, don’t touch a rake, flagstick stays put.

Well, most everybody is carrying. Lucas Glover comes up from South Florida for two-a-days: workout, morning game, workout, afternoon game. Next day, same thing. Next day, same thing. That’s work, and that’s cart golf. Then home, for some R&R. The draw north for Luke is his teacher, Tony Ruggerio, who has a local shop called the Frederica Learning Center.

You wanna see a lefthander? St. Simons is proud to present you with the toy cannon himself, Brian Harman, working with a teaching legend, Jack Lumpkin. Dude’s 84 but don’t tell him that. Brian also works with Justin Parsons. Parsons used to work for Butch Harmon. Lumpkin, way back when used to work with Claude Harmon, Butch’s father. These are the ways of golf.

Tournaments

3 things to know about Sea Island Resort, home of the RSM Classic

By: Pat Ralph

Joey Garber is making the scene. Don’t know the name? You will, you will. Patience, grasshopper. Ditto Mookie Demoss. (Where have you gone, Mookie Wilson?!) Patton Kizzire is around. Of course he is. Harris English, too, though a little less so. Hudson Swafford, about the same. Tom Lovelady, going long and going low. Jonathan Byrd and all that legacy (five PGA Tour wins, same as Rickie Fowler). He’s playing. J.T. Poston. J.T, you know, won at Greensboro last year, got himself paired with Tiger the next week, and wouldn’t you know it: Tiger knew all about his win. Good stuff. The Colonial begins June 11.

Nobody has seen Kooch. Matt’s like the wind. He comes, he goes. When, no one can say.

They play at Sea Palms, at Frederica, at Ocean Forest, at Sea Island, now that it’s open again.

The game is a $20 Nassau, plus this, plus that. A no-bogey round gets you a Benjamin from those with cards less clean than yours. Dinner is takeout from Halyards, Porch and of course Bubba’s. Bubba Garcia’s Mexican Cantina, if you must.

The next day, whatever day that might be, it starts all over again, bright and early, right around 10.

Michael Bamberger welcomes your comments at Michael_Bamberger@golf.com.

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The post Here’s how to stay at Sea Island Resort (and play the Tour courses) for less than $1,000 appeared first on Golf.

The post Here’s how to stay at Sea Island Resort (and play the Tour courses) for less than $1,000 appeared first on Golf.

If you’ve never visited Sea Island, it’s high time you discovered why more than a dozen Tour pros make the fabulous enclave on the southeastern coast of Georgia their year-round home.

Beautiful scenery, a multitude of family-friendly activities and world-class golf await, including the Seaside and Plantation courses, which annually host the PGA Tour’s RSM Classic, which is happening this week.

Here’s how you can stay at one of the gorgeous Sea Island Resort hotels (a recent honoree on GOLF’s Top 100 Resorts list) and play two days of golf (including both courses) for less than $1,000.

AIRFARE: $220

Unless you have access to private aviation, Jacksonville airport (JAX), located approximately 70 miles from Sea Island, will likely be your best bet.

The good news: Direct flights are plentiful, especially from the Northeast. The bad news? You’ll have a bit of a drive waiting for you when you land — a double bummer if you have to also suffer a connection.

Prices for a mid-December long-weekend itinerary ranged from $177-$222 from airports like BOS, JFK and ORD, while a one-stop jaunt from LAX will set you back a little over $300 (prices via Expedia).

TOTAL AIRFARE: ~$220

News

Here’s how you can stay at Streamsong (and play all three courses!) for under $1,700

GROUND TRANSPORTATION: $51

For longer drives, I generally think it’s more comfortable to have your own vehicle, and this trip is no exception. Plus, Ace Rent-a-Car offers a midsize for only $102 (price via Expedia) — tough to beat that! That’s only $51 per person.

TOTAL SPEND: $220 + $51 = $271

LODGING AND GREEN FEES: $532.90

With the Sea Island Classic Golf package, you can combine luxurious accommodations with two days of great golf. In addition to your green fees, you’ll also get access to a cart and forecaddie for your rounds, unlimited use of the practice facilities, and daily club storage, cleaning, locker and shoe service.

There are three potential places you can stay with the package: the Cloister, the Lodge or the Inn. The Inn offered the best price for the dates I checked: $965.80 for two people in a room with two beds, plus a $100 surcharge to play the Seaside Course. That comes out to $532.90 per person!

TOTAL SPEND: $271 + $532.90 = $803.90

A stunning aerial view of Sea Island Resort.

Courtesy

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DINING: $195

With all the savings you accrued with the golf package, you have plenty of wiggle room with your dining budget to stay under $1,000. Try this plan:

Arrival dinner: $40

Day 1 golf course lunch: $25

Day 1 dinner: $40

Day 2 golf course lunch: $25

Day 2 dinner: $40

Miscellaneous breakfasts and snacks: $25

Total dining spend: $195

TOTAL SPEND: $803.90 + $195 = $998.90

And there you have it! A fun-filled weekend at a Top 100 Resort in Sea Island, including two rounds of golf on PGA Tour venues, for under $1,000! Ready to book? Happy travels!

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The post Charles Howell III leads, and other things you missed from Round 1 of the RSM Classic appeared first on Golf.

The post Charles Howell III leads, and other things you missed from Round 1 of the RSM Classic appeared first on Golf.

The PGA Tour is in Sea Island, Ga. this week — a favorite event for many Tour players for good reason, as nearly two dozen of them call Sea Island home.
Though Charles Howell III lives in Orlando, he has a secondary residence on St. Simon’s Island, so he is technically one of those home field players — and he just happens to hold a two shot lead.
Here’s what else you missed from the RSM Classic, which is played on two tracks: Sea Island GC’s Seaside and Plantation courses.

Charles Howell III played a flawless round

Eight birdies and zero bogeys on the Plantation course led to a sparkling 64, two shots clear of Howell III’s nearest competitors, J.J. Spaun and defending champion Austin Cook.
 

8 birdies, no bogeys = first-round lead.

Charles Howell III is two clear of the field at @TheRSMClassic.#LiveUnderPar pic.twitter.com/ooIrgciSuc
— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 15, 2018

You may also like ‘I always expected to win’: Austin Cook opens up on rookie season on the PGA Tour

Webb Simpson put on a short game clinic

Simpson showed just how much grinding your way around the golf course can pay off. The reigning Players Champ was 5/5 in scrambling on Thursday, and his bogey-free performance — coupled with two birdies — kept him in the mix on the leaderboard at T30, six shots back on Howell III’s lead.

5/5 in scrambling.@webbsimpson1 is grinding on Thursday at @TheRSMClassic.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/672bXnPs9R

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 15, 2018

Cameron Champ is lurking

A bogey on the 9th and a double bogey on the 10th hole derailed what could have been a special round for Cameron Champ. The Tour rookie has already had an impressive debut, with a win and three other Top 28 finishes in four total events.
Despite the setback holes, Champ rallied with a four-hole stretch of birdie-birdie-birdie-eagle. Now that’s what we call a rebound!

????@Cameron__Champ battles back from a double-bogey on the opening hole.#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/LWHU6wmcvp

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) November 15, 2018

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The post Jason Dufner ‘swallows pride,’ adopts new arm-lock putting technique appeared first on Golf.

The post Jason Dufner ‘swallows pride,’ adopts new arm-lock putting technique appeared first on Golf.

Jason Dufner’s ball-striking statistics speak for themselves. In the seven years between 2011 and 2017, he ranked in the top 25 on tour in SG: Tee-to-Green and picked up a major victory along the way. When things go wrong for Dufner, it’s usually on the greens.

“Putting has never been the strongest part of my game,” Dufner said on Tuesday at the RSM Classic. “It’s something I’ve struggled with throughout my career.”

But now, Dufner may have found a unique solution to his problems.

Coming off a season where he ranked 123rd in SG: Putting, Dufner adopted an arm-lock putter at the Shriners Hospitals for Children Open in Las Vegas two weeks ago. It wasn’t something he planned, Dufner said. He just picked up a putter and liked the feel of it, so decided to put it in play.

“I have a lot of forward press and wrist hinge in my swing, which hurts my putting” Dufner says. “I had to swallow my pride a bit…but pre-setting the putter against my arm, feels more natural to me.”

Dufner said his first week trying it, in Las Vegas, was an adjustment period, but the method grew on him during a practice week leading into the RSM Classic. With arm locked against his left forearm, it removes his tendency to hinge his wrists and de-loft the putter face.

The putter itself is an original Futura head with eight degrees of loft and runs 43 inches, leaving the butt of the club sitting about three inches below his left elbow. The grip is the same Super Stroke grip that Bryson DeChambeau uses on his putter, rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise so the flat side of the grip braces his left forearm.

Here he is rolling a few putts with his new method at Sea Island:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqH_6QRls5A/

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7. Local boy makes good

Matt Kuchar won in Mexico with a local caddie, who had caddied in the event before. In other words, he knew when to rake the other guy’s bunker, among other Tour niceties. Kuchar committed to the event late, his regular caddie, the polymath John Wood (musician, reader, writer, baseball fan), had others things scheduled, and the human ATM known as Kooch won for the first time since 2014. His caddie-for-the-week was a man known as “El Tucan” and whose actual name is David Ortiz. (The colorful big-beaked bird on your box of Fruit Loops is known as “Toucan Sam.”) Week-in and week-out, Tour caddies keep their jobs because they provide the stability and reliability players want. That’s the biggest thing. Tour players detest surprises.

But the local caddie, the sharp one, can bring something beyond Wednesday afternoon’s wind direction, useful though that may be. Scott McCarron won the Senior Players last year at Caves Valley, near Baltimore, with a local caddie, Evan Vollerthum. They had no work history. Ben Curtis won in 2003, at the notorious RSG (Royal St. Georges) with a local man, Andy Sutton, on his bag. Sutton was a veteran European tour caddie, but in terms of accent and insight and everything else, he was a local. Prior to 1983, all the players in the Masters were required to use Augusta National caddies. The policy was changed because of player revolt. Now come Kooch and El Tucan. Mr. Ortiz will be forever an interesting footnote in Kuchar’s long working life. That week with Kuchar might be the highlight of El Tucan’s.

6. The Masters is coming! (Unfortunately, so are more course changes)

Speaking of Augusta National, it’s in its new wraparound season, too. (The club opens in October and closes in May.) Only 21 weeks until the Masters! Players who tour the course before that will be eager to check out the new back tee on No. 5, which lengthens the par 4 hole from 455 yards to 485. The iconic par-5 13th hole has not been lengthened (yet) but give it time. Cameron Champ will play it with a drawing 3-wood and a lazy wedge.

Making a course longer is the least imaginative way to make a course more demanding for tournament play. The fact is, the modern Tour player, with all his athleticism, in concert with modern equipment and modern agronomy, has killed the traditional concept of the par 5 and the long par 4. The idea of a world-class course demanding that an elite golfer play a variety of shots with all 14 clubs has been shattered, too. You can dream about the Masters handing out a tournament ball to the fellas that maxes out at 310 and would require no more course-length inflation, but it will never happen. When will the madness stop? Only when courses run out of land, water, grass seed and fertilizer, and players upon them run out of daylight. It takes a long time to play a 9,000-yard course.

5. What a mirror and cell phone can teach you about the swing

Go into a dark room with a full-length mirror carrying a glowing cellphone. Make some phantom swings with the business end of the phone facing the mirror. You’ll see something astonishing. The swing is round, it truly is, just as it is in the Ben Hogan and Percy Boomer books.

4. The Best-Ever Best Course List

The best list of delightful American and British courses you can imagine is simply the list of courses that have held the Walker Cup. The courses on the American side are very difficult to get on, but in the Kingdom that’s really not the case. Michael Wolf, who, among other things, is Tour pro Jim Herman’s agent, has been making checkmarks on a list of Walker Cup courses he started at age 15. Here’s a sample: The Old Course, Pine Valley, Turnberry, National Golf Links, Sunningdale, LACC. The reason the list is so outstanding is because the courses are chosen not to accommodate tents and crowds and buses, but a couple dozen talented golfers playing match play. There’s no purer list.

3. The new Jake Gyllenhaal flick (minus the golf parts)

The bride and I saw an art-house movie called “Wildlife” the other night. It was slow, as realistic and artistic depictions of real-life often are, and excellent. Jake Gyllenhaal plays a failed golf pro who, in desperation, becomes a firefighter. This is in 1960, in Montana. Gyllenhaal’s character, Jerry, cites Walter Hagen as an inspiration, but the movie, seeking realism at every turn, has two short golf scenes where almost everything, golf-wise, is wrong, except maybe the heavy leather Eisenhower-era shoes. Jerry, as the pro/greenkeeper, polishes the golfers’ shoes outside while they are sipping post-round refreshments and are still wearing their shoes. I don’t know what it is about golf, but it never looks right on the big screen, unless they’re going for satire. As in “Caddyshack,” or the golf scene in “Sideways.” That’s about it.

2. Shades of Tiger Woods in a … rock climber?

Christine and I saw another art-house movie recently, “Free Solo,” a documentary about the extreme rock climber Alex Honnold. It’s outstanding and I mention it here because Honnold, articulate and reflective, must share fundamental qualities with Tiger Woods. In times of intense fear, Honnold’s sense of himself and what he can do doesn’t contract, it expands. I believe that’s what happens for Woods, too. The climber has no interest in the pursuit of a “happy and cozy” life. That’s pure Woods. Honnold doesn’t actively seek to put his athletic needs ahead of his personal relationships. His body and mental chemistry leaves him no choice. It’s what he is built to do. You could see that DNA in Tiger, too, in his lengthy prime.

1. Project Next

I’m going to Sea Island this week. I’m excited. Harold Varner is in the field (one of my new guys). Lucas Glover is in the field (one of my old favorites). Cam Champ is in the field. Never seen him hit a ball before, not in person. Golf always has a next. Most don’t make it but some do.

Michael Bamberger may be reached at mbamberger0224@aol.com.

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The post How to Play Sea Island’s 14th Hole appeared first on Golf.

The post How to Play Sea Island’s 14th Hole appeared first on Golf.

One of the trickiest holes at Sea Island’s Seaside course offers plenty of trouble. If you avoid it, you find a very gettable hole.

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