Cameron Champ, Davis Love III reflect golf’s past and future at The RSM Classic

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Even though The RSM Classic is just the eighth tournament of the season, it signifies the conclusion of a long year of PGA TOUR action. So, it’s no doubt welcoming that neither course at Sea Island Resort is a grind. The Seaside Course is a par 70 at just 7,005 yards. In its seventh edition as host, it averaged a tournament-low 68.889 a year ago. The Plantation Course measures 7,058 yards, yet it’s a stock par 72. Its scoring average of 69.763 was more than one stroke lower than its debut in 2015. The 36-hole cut fell at 5-under last year. More on both tracks, the format and expectations beneath the ranking. Four consecutive top 20s upon arrival and six in his last seven starts. Perfect in five trips to Sea Island with a playoff loss in 2011 and a T7 in 2013. Season debut. It’s been two years now since he captured his first PGA TOUR title here. After a mild regression, he’s now a threat every time he competes. Like clockwork. He’s opened the new season T19-T15-T4. Ranked T2 in GIR at Mayakoba. He’s also 7-for-7 with three top 10s and a T13 (2016) at Sea Island. It took an illness to sidetrack him in Mexico, but that’s better than a swing-related malady. Seeking to avenge last year’s fade (T45) at the RSM; sat fifth through 54 holes. Since last year’s MC, he’s risen 100 spots in the OWGR to 27th. The lefty already has a pair of top 10s on the board this season. Also placed T10 here in 2013. One of the horses for the courses with a 4-for-4 record that includes a T13 last year. Two top 20s in his last four starts, including a T17 at the Safeway Open. Took three weeks off since launching 2017-18 in T17-T23-T19. Placed T6 in his rookie debut at Sea Island last year. Led field in proximity and birdie-or-better percentage. Making noise a little more often than usual. Top 10s in two of last three starts and five top 25s in his last eight. Three top 20s in four starts at The RSM Classic. Two of his 11 career top 10s have occurred in his only visits to Sea Island, so he’s adapted admirably. Placed T5 at THE CJ CUP four weeks ago. The FedExCup points leader is fresh off his breakthrough win, so a letdown is expected. Or maybe not. He placed T10 and T4 in his previous two starts. Co-led Mayakoba at the midpoint and played in the final threesome in the finale but finished T14. He’s 2-for-2 at The RSM Classic with a T10 last year. A consistent performer both early in the season (4-for-4 with three top 20s) and over the past five-and-a-half months (12-for-13 with seven top 20s). Among the plethora of locals. Although he has five top 25s in six tries, only one was better than a T20. Since the Presidents Cup, he recorded a pair of T31 in Asia. Off to a nice start with a T25 at the Sanderson Farms and a T10 at the Shriners. Making his fifth start at the RSM where he finished a personal-best T27 last year. Showcased his mettle with a T14 in Mexico after fading to a T10 in Vegas. In his debut at Sea Island last year, he was positioned inside the top 20 after 36 holes. Rank player comment POWER RANKINGS: THE RSM CLASSIC Defending champion Mac Hughes, Brandt Snedeker, Zach Johnson and Bubba Watson will be among the notables in Tuesday’s Fantasy Insider. For everyone who has worked as a course maintenance staffer in the Southeast, the last couple of years have tested that passion. Last year, Tropical Storm Hermine and Hurricane Matthew blew through the Golden Isles in the months leading up to The RSM Classic. This year, it was Hurricane Irma. But once again, after five dozen trees were removed and recovery from the storm surge was complete, both Seaside and Plantation are ready. As it pertains to the competition, preparation to challenge the field of 156 demands consistency since every golfer gets one round on the Plantation Course before the cut falls. Half the field will open on the co-host, while the other half will take its turn in the second round. Only Seaside hosts the final two rounds. Bermudagrass greens will be receptive, so splitting fairways won’t be as much of a prerequisite as a coincidence on the shorter courses. As with any shootout, hitting greens in regulation and converting on those opportunities is key. Mac Hughes ranked T50 in GIR en route to victory last year, but he still averaged 13 per round. Of the five in the playoff from which he emerged, the Canadian authored the strongest short game. (Only Seaside is lasered for ShotLink purposes.) A primary motivation to introduce Plantation two years ago was so that all of the Web.com Tour graduates could plan on making the trip. That’s pivotal because the first reshuffle of 2017-18 will occur after the conclusion of the tournament. Once the calendar turns over in January, playing time for the guys near the bottom of the category will be reduced until fields expand to 156 in the second half of April. Mother Nature will walk off official competition in 2017 with primarily cloudless skies and a drop-off in the daytime high temperature. After peaking in the mid-70s on Saturday, it’ll be some 10 degrees cooler for the finale. Wind is almost always a variable along the coast, but it’s proven not to be as much of a challenge as other destinations. ROB BOLTON’S WRITING SCHEDULE PGATOUR.COM’s Fantasy Columnist Rob Bolton will be filing his usual staples leading up to this week’s event. Look for the following columns this week. MONDAY: Rookie Ranking, Qualifiers, Reshuffle, Medical Extensions, Power Rankings TUESDAY*: Sleepers, Fantasy Insider WEDNESDAY: One & Done * – Rob is a member of the panel for PGATOUR.COM’s Expert Picks for PGA TOUR Fantasy Golf presented by SERVPRO, which also publishes on Tuesdays.

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MEXICO CITY – Bubba Watson would seem to have the right sort of game for Club de Golf Chapultepec, but he’s never done particularly well at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship. His best, in three starts here, is a T9 in 2018. Truth be told, he played better when the tournament was at Doral, with four top-three finishes. After a winless 2019 in which he finished 81st in the FedExCup, Watson was off to a solid start in search of his 13th PGA TOUR victory after an opening-round 67, two off the early lead. “I’ve been hitting the ball great all year after training,â€� said Watson, who finished T6 at the Farmers Insurance Open and T3 at the Waste Management Phoenix Open. “I’ve been working on getting fitter, getting stronger so I can hold positions and hit the shots I want to hit.â€� RELATED: Leaderboard No one wanted to talk about what’s behind his mini-revival, though. Instead, it was Watson’s casual round with singer Justin Bieber after missing the cut at the Genesis Invitational in L.A. The two played at Lakeside Golf Club with Ted Scott, Watson’s caddie, and three others, and Watson joked that Bieber is now his mental coach. (Watson has no mental coach.) The other topic of conversation at Chapultepec has been Watson’s putting. He couldn’t buy one at The Genesis, but had 13 one-putts in the first round at Chapultepec, and on the often-tricky poa annua surfaces, no less. His 21 total putts in round one were a career low on TOUR. But while putting comes and goes, and celebrity is its own thing altogether, Watson’s revival this season owes just as much if not more to his tee-to-green game.   “I know my ball-striking is where I want it to be,â€� he said. “My mind is where I want it to be and everything. Coming here, I was just hoping I’d get the right bounces and the right breaks. I know I can play around here if I stay committed to all the shots.â€� Watson ranked No. 1 in Strokes Gained: Tee-to-Green in 2015, and fourth in that stat in ’16. Then things started to fall off: 74th in ’17, and 45th in ’18 even as he won three times and finished 10th in the FedExCup. He was 38th in SG: Tee-to-Green last season, which is far from terrible, but 167th in SG: Putting as he plummeted to 81st in the FedExCup. Self-coached and mercurial, Watson has never been a paint-by-number type of guy. His rises and falls can be hard to predict, or explain. This season, though, it’s pretty easy: Watson’s stats are up in both putting (51st, despite an off-week at the Genesis) and ball-striking (13th). That’s a useful combination, one that has seen him regularly work his way back into contention again after two decidedly lackluster years (2017 and ’19) in the last three seasons.  “You know, it’s — life sometimes throws you curve balls,â€� he said. Perhaps, though, not so much in the thin air at Chapultepec, where the ball doesn’t curve as much. The ball-striking is there. The putting may be catching up. Bubba Golf is on the rise again.

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