It’s the PGA Tour’s Fall Classic.
Classic course. Classic weather. Classy host.
The RSM Classic will be played for the 15th time Nov 21-24 at the Sea Island Club on St. Simons Island, Ga., and the 10th time, it will be the final PGA Tour event of FedEx Cup Fall and the next time the PGA Tour resumes will be in Maui, Hawaii Jan. 2-5, 2025 for The Sentry.
After experimenting with dates in October (including the week before and the week after the Florida-Georgia football game) the RSM has settled in nicely as the anchor event of FedEx Cup Fall.
It gives players who need a boost in points a final chance to work their way up the ladder, give themselves a better opportunity to qualify for the lucrative “Signature Events” in 2025 and perhaps, if they win, a batch of perks that go beyond the $1,368,000 first-place check: a two-year PGA Tour exemption, spots in the 2025 Players Championship, The Sentry and PGA Championship and an invitation to that other South Georgia golf tournament — The Masters, at Augusta National.
But it also comes at one of the best times of the year on Georgia’s Golden Isles. The weather, except for an unseasonably chilly and windy day here and there, has been spectacular, with players and fans enjoying the scenic Seaside and Plantation Courses bathed in fall sunlight and bordered on one side by the St. Simons Sound.
Only one Monday finish has been required, and it wasn’t weather-related. The 2016 tournament ended in a five-way playoff and darkness suspended affairs. Mackenzie Hughes won the next day.
Davis Love III has been the tournament host
The tournament is hosted by World Golf Hall of Fame member Davis Love III, the two-time Players champion and 1997 PGA champion who has brought the PGA Tour and a worldwide Golf Channel TV audience (broadcast to 225 countries in 32 languages) to view world-class golf at one of the most famous resorts in America. Love grew up playing the game at Sea Island under the watchful eye of his father, revered teacher Davis Love Jr.
It has remained a family business. Love is the tournament host. His brother Mark is the executive director. Davis Love’s daughter Lexie Whatley is the tournament’s event and merchandise manager. His son, Dru, played in the tournament four times when he was trying to make it in professional golf and can be seen during tournament week helping the grounds crew or handling any other chore that pops up.
The family atmosphere permeates the tournament. Much like The Players Championship, the RSM Classic has become a must-do social event on the Golden Isles and is a rite of the season: the holidays are just around the corner.
RSM is the long-standing title sponsor
The tournament’s reach goes beyond golf, parties and barbecues. RSM, a global firm that serves middle-market businesses with tax and consulting services, has been a loyal partner for the tournament and has helped raise more than $46 million in charity in the first 14 years.
That money has gone to local charities such as the Boys and Girls of Southeast Georgia and Special Olympics. The tournament has also been a boon to the Golden Isles, with an estimated annual economic impact of between $10-$15 million.
The RSM Classic has the longest continuous relationship with the host committee, the course and title sponsor of any of the PGA Tour’s Fall events.
At 15, it’s still going. And here are 15 seasons the RSM has become a true classic:
1. Sea Island history lesson
The area now occupied by the resort was under the control of British Gen. James Oglethorpe and was called Fifth Creek Island. After the Revolutionary War, the area was divided into plantations and the ruins of homes and gravesites of slave families are still visible throughout the property.
Howard Coffin, who started Hudson Motors, purchased the land in 1926 and started the Sea Island Company, building the Cloister with his cousin, Alfred Jones managing it. When Coffin passed away in 1937, led left the property to Jones, which started more than 80 years under the control of the Jones family.
Financial setbacks and the recession of 2008 resulted in the property changing hands several times but the Lodge and Cloister are now owned by the Anschutz family of Denver, Colo., and the property is once again thriving – with the visibility that the RSM Classic has brought to the golf end of the resort.
2. Presidents, royalty have planted oaks
When Sea Island’s Cloister was built in 1928, President Calvin Coolidge was among the dignitaries who visited. To commemorate his visit, he planted an oak sapling, which has become a tradition at Sea Island.
Since then, Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Jimmy Carter, George Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have planted oaks, along with British Prime Ministers Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair and Netherlands Queen Juliana.
President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Blair planted their oaks during the G8 Summit in 2004.
And it was personal for President George Bush: he and his wife Barbara spent their honeymoon at Sea Island in 1945 to begin their 73-year marriage.
3. Sea Island golf course history
The first nine holes of the Seaside Golf Course were originally designed by Walter Travis, and then completed after his death by Harry S. Colt and Charles Alison. Touchups were made to the course by Robert Trent Jones in 1949.
In 1998, Rees Jones and Tom Fazio took Sea Island’s four nine-hole courses and re-designed them into the current Seaside and Plantation tracks. Love himself oversaw the renovation of the Plantation Course in 2015 which is used in the early rounds.
The Plantation Course is more tree-lined, with majestic pines and oaks. The Seaside Course has breathtaking views of the Sound, marshes and more centuries-old oaks.
4. A tradition of first-time winners
While it’s true that the biggest stars of the game don’t play at Sea Island (one might say it’s their loss), that has opened the door for the PGA Tour’s stars of tomorrow to stage their coming-out parties. Ludvig Aberg’s record victory last year came less than six months after he qualified through PGA Tour U when he finished his career at Texas Tech, and he has remained a global star.
Aberg was the ninth player to make the RSM Classic his first career victory. Other first-time winners who have gone on to win multiple Tour events are Kevin Kisner, Hughes and Robert Streb.
5. A tradition of tight finishes
Plan on staying or watching to the finish, because the RSM Classic has seen some high drama along the marshes. Aberg’s shot 61-61 on the weekend but he needed every birdie to hold off Hughes by two shots. There have been six playoffs in tournament history, including three in a row from 2018-2020, won by Charles Howell III, Tyler Duncan and Streb.
Streb, the only player to win the tournament twice, also won his first RSM title in a playoff in 2014.
The first five RSM Classics were decided in playoffs or by one shot, beginning when Heath Slocum beat Bill Haas by one in the inaugural tournament in 2010. Nine of the 14 tournaments have come down to the final hole, won either by one shot or in sudden death.
6. Players should plan on going deep
A combination of decent weather and the pristine nature of the golf course has yielded low scores almost every year. The highest winning score has been 14-under (twice) and since Kisner won in 2015 at 22-under, the winner has shot 19-under or lower eight of the last nine years.
Aberg set the tournament record last year at 29-under and tied the PGA Tour record for 72-hole score at 253.
7. When will the RSM Classic get a 59?
Four players have shot 60 at the RSM, Tommy Gainey (2012, fourth round), Tyler McCumber of Ponte Vedra Beach (2021, fourth round), Sebastian Munoz (2021, first round) and Hughes (2023, third round). Gainey is the only player to win the tournament.
Aberg is the only player to record two 61s in a row. There have been eight 61s, four of them last year with Aberg’s two, plus Eric Cole and Ben Griffin.
8. Zach Johnson, Chris Kirk are RSM’s marathon men
Two-time major champion Zach Johnson of St. Simons Island and Kirk, who became the first former University of Georgia player to win the RSM Classic in 2013, are the only two players to have competed n all 14 RSM Classics.
Kirk has posted two other top-10 finishes and made nine of 14 cuts. Johnson has three top-10s and has made 10 of 14 cuts.
9. Who’s Aces high at the RSM Classic?
Nico Echavarria, a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, recorded the ninth hole-in-one in tournament history last year at the Seaside’s sixth hole. It was the seventh ace at the Seaside Course and the fourth at No. 6. Other Seaside aces were Wyndham Clark (2022) and Taylor Moore (2021) at No. 17 and Mark Anderson (2014) at No. 3.
There have been two aces at the Plantation Course, by Webb Simpson in 2022 at No. 3 and Andrew Putnam in 2020 at No. 7.
10. Plantation joined the rotation in 2015
The tournament went to multiple courses and expanded the field to 156 players in 2015 when the Plantation Course was added to the mix. Each player competes on the Plantation and Seaside for one round on Thursday or Friday, and the tournament moves to the Seaside for the weekend rounds.
The pleasure of walking at the Plantation comes with the finish, near the back lawn of the Sea Island Hotel and clubhouse, with the best views of the St. Simons Sound and seating on Adirondack chairs. If the weather is chilly, a fire pit might be going.
11. Transportation on display
There will be occasions when eyes are drawn away from the golf to the air and sea.
The course’s proximity to the St. Simons Airport results in numerous sleek private planes flying in and out, many coming from or flying out over the ocean.
Boat traffic is also part of the RSM Classic ambiance, and it can range from a lone fisherman in a small boat throwing a line in the water astride one of the fairways, or the occasional tall ship or huge container vessel on the St. Simons Sound.
12. If you go hungry at RSM Classic, it’s your fault
If you’re a hotel guest at Sea Island, the formal dining is second to none. But there’s enough to eat or drink out on the golf course, starting with the Golden Isles Green, an outdoor food court between the old clubhouse and the 18th green. There, fans can sample local cuisine ranging from barbecue to seafood. There are also dining spots out on the golf course with stunning views of the holes.
There’s even a candy store near the 18th green.
13. Football is not forgotten
RSM Classic officials know that the tournament falls during the heart of college and NFL football season. Not to worry. Huge monitors at the outdoor food court will be carrying the games. Be forewarned: if the Georgia Bulldogs are playing on Saturday afternoon, they will get priority.
14. Wives and Whiffle Ball
One of the early-week events at the RSM Classic is the players competing against the wives in a Whiffle Ball game, at Mallory Park. This year’s game will be on Nov. 19 at 5 p.m. and includes members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeast Georgia, plus special guests: players from the Savannah Bananas baseball team.
15. Putt for charity
Another special event will be Nov. 20 at the Speedway Putting Course, beginning at 3:30 p.m. PGA Tour players, Boys and Girls Club members and Special Olympians will compete in a scramble format that can earn money for those charities.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: RSM Classic turns 15 years old as the PGA Tour’s Fall anchor stop
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