The First Look: The RSM Classic

THE PLAYERS Championship winner Webb Simpson and fast-rising Cameron Champ headline the roster as Georgia’s Golden Isles once again serve as the backdrop to hand out one more trophy – and Sentry Tournament of Champions invitation – before the season enters its holiday break. Tournament host Davis Love III, elder statesman among pros who call St. Simon’s Island home, again leads a local lineup at least a dozen strong. Residents have yet to cheer a “true� home winner, though two of the Classic’s eight previous champions had significant ties to the island. FIELD NOTES: Patton Kizzire, the only St. Simon’s Island pro to reach the FedExCup finale at East Lake, and Zach Johnson also will fly the island’s banner along with former PGA TOUR winners Brian Harman, Harris English, Hudson Swafford and Jonathan Byrd. … Retief Goosen, set for entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame next year, makes his second start since receiving the news. That makes it a trio with Hall of Fame credentials, along with Love and Ernie Els. … U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk makes his third consecutive start since bringing his clubs out of hibernation. … Invitations were given to LSU freshman standout Garrett Barber, who won last February’s Jones Cup at Sea Island, along with Love’s son Dru. It’ll be Dru’s third chance to tee it up on home soil. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: The race remains on to become the first man to keep the RSM Classic trophy on the island. Though Chris Kirk lived there 6 ½ years, he relocated to Atlanta months before his 2013 victory. Two years later, Kisner won while in temporary housing as his South Carolina home underwent remodeling. The closest a fulltimer has come is a pair of fourths – Love in 2012 and Harman last year. … It’s the final chance for someone to punch his ticket to Kapalua in January, a timely perk for each of the Classic’s first eight winners. … Champ, winner of the Sanderson Farms Championship, makes his first visit to Sea Island as a PGA TOUR pro. The Texas A&M alum is plenty familiar with the place, though, with the SEC Championship making an annual stop. … Champ and Sam Ryder, with a pair of top-4 finishes in the new season, are among a handful with a chance to displace Xander Schauffele atop the FedExCup standings before the holiday break. Schauffele is taking the week off. … When Austin Cook won by four last year, it was just the second time in eight editions that the winner finished more than one shot clear. Kisner holds the record with a six-shot romp in 2015. COURSE: Sea Island GC (Seaside), 7,005 yards, par 70. Framed against tidal creeks, dunes and salt marshes, the layout at the southern tip of St. Simons Island got its start as a nine-hole track built in 1929 by English architects Harry Colt and Charles Alison. Bobby Jones once described Seaside as among the best nine holes he’d ever seen. Joe Lee created the “Marshside Nine� in 1973, and Tom Fazio was commissioned to bring the two together in 1999. Seaside places a premium on shot selection and sound course management. Entrants also play one of their first two rounds at the par-72 Plantation course, which joined the format three years ago after Rees Jones fused two other nine-hole layouts into an 18-hole test. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Kevin Kisner (2015). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Tommy Gainey (4th round, 2012). • LAST YEAR: Cook fired a second-day 62 and held off any late threats with three birdies in his last four holes, pulling away on a windy afternoon to a four-shot romp for his first PGA TOUR victory. The Arkansas pro took a three-shot lead into the final day, but saw it reduced to one over J.J. Spaun as winds made things increasingly difficult on the Seaside layout. A bogey by Spaun at No.16 allowed Cook to enjoy a little more cushion, and Cook drained a 4-foot birdie at No.15 to start his closing flourish. Cook, who finished with a 67, broke into the winner’s column in just his 14th TOUR start and fourth of his official rookie season, becoming the fifth player to win the Classic in his first pro visit to Sea Island. Brian Gay was another stroke back in third. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Sunday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). PGA TOUR LIVE: None. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon-4:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).  

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