Davis Thompson makes consecutive eagles to lead The American Express

Opportunity knocks for short game wizards and first-time winners this week as the TOUR wraps up the 2022-2023 portion of the schedule on St. Simons Island, Georgia, at Sea Island Golf Club for The RSM Classic. After a week of navigating the difficult Memorial Park municipal course in Houston the TOUR will exhale to end the 2022 grind on the resort courses of Sea Island. Birdies better be on shopping list before the holidays as scoring returns to the forefront again this week. Barely stretching over 7,000 yards each, both Seaside (host) and Plantation will provide excellent scoring chances. As is usually the case with shorter courses, everyone is in with a shout when distance off the tee doesn’t factor. Of the last seven winners, only Kevin Kisner has started inside a 40 to 1 chance pre-tournament. Seaside’s par-70 was run over last year with the course record 60 posted twice. The tournament scoring record (22-under) was also equaled. Plantation provides two extra par-5s on its par-72 layout. Each course will be used once before Seaside hosts the weekend. The average winning score since the amalgamation is almost 20-under so rounds in the 60s will be the focus this week. Large TifEagle Bermuda greens provide excellent targets for wedged approach shots. Once on the surface the pure and true greens rolling upwards of 13 feet have no problem accepting well-struck putts. Sand and water frame the two courses and will cause a spot of bother if found. The good news is scoring opportunities abound so get up and down and move on. Key Statistics Only players listed are competing this week; click stat headline for additional players; Stats from 2021-22 completed season. Greens in Regulation Less yardage on the scorecard means more loft on approach! Tons of fairways get hit here (and so do GIR) because less than driver can feature from the tee box. The last five winners and six from seven have all ranked in the top 10 for GIR. Even if the fairway is missed two inches of Bermuda shouldn’t bother these guys. Big targets need to be hit to amass scoring chances! Rounds in the 60s Low scoring is paramount as the average winning score approaches 20-under. Going low can open the floodgates or increase the pressure. I’m looking for guys who embrace festivals of birdies. Scrambling Keeping bogeys off the card this week will take the pressure off of making birdie somewhere else. Of the last seven winners, six have ranked in the TOP FIVE in this category. Don’t compound the error of missing big greens in regulation! Birdie or Better Conversion Percentage Big greens should equal GIR, right? Now, who’s going to take advantage of those opportunities? Seaside is stingier on the greens than it appears, ranking in the top 15 annually in most difficult, but the winner will crack the code. Only one of the last seven winners has fallen outside of the top 17 and five were inside the top 10. Cash those chances! The Bottom Line It’s easy to see why longshots have prevailed here. The door is open for all shapes and sizes this week. Keith Mitchell (Win: +2800; Top 10: +260; Top 20: +120) pops after a top 10 last week in Houston so he’s on my radar as is Tom Hoge (Win: +2200; Top 10: +225; Top 20: +100) and Denny McCarthy (Win: +3300; Top 10: +260; Top 20: +130). I could even stretch for Davis Riley (Win: +4000; Top 10: +333; Top 20: +160). Good luck! Responsible sports betting starts with a game plan. Set a budget. Keep it social. Play with friends. Learn the game and know the odds. Play with trusted, licensed operators. CLICK HERE to learn more at HaveAGamePlan.org

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AKRON, Ohio – Phyllis Thomas wore a black visor, a black-and-white checked top, and pushed a walker around Firestone South. Her husband, Paul, was decked out in khaki trousers, a lavender golf shirt and white Titleist cap, and got around the course with a cane. They were hard to miss behind the 18th green at Firestone South—especially for their grandson, Justin, who hadn’t yet officially won the World Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational. “When I had my putt, I kind of marked it and I turned around and I just happened to see my parents, saw my grandma and grandpa,� Thomas said. “I just got a huge knot in my throat and I just had to put my head down. I’ve never gotten like that on the golf course before.� It was the only time Thomas lost his composure. After starting the day with a three-shot lead over Rory McIlroy and Ian Poulter, Thomas remained calm while his nearest pursuers crumbled. He shot a final-round 69 while his seven closest chasers went a combined 17 over par. Kyle Stanley (68, second, four back) was the only one among them who broke par. Thorborn Olesen and Dustin Johnson shot 64 to tie for third, five behind. Thomas, who won for the third time this season, remains No. 2 in the FedExCup but is just 147 points behind No. 1 Johnson (64, T3). No one has gone back-to-back since the 2007 inception of the FedExCup. “I’m just in a great place mentally right now,� said Thomas, who now heads to St. Louis for the PGA Championship, where he’ll be defending champion. “I just was so patient and calm all week.� All week, grandma Phyllis and grandpa Paul Thomas loomed large. Justin was aware of where they were at all times, and laughed with reporters about grandpa Paul appearing on the driving range as if he’d grown out of the ground. “I have no idea how he got out there,� Thomas said. Then there were the children of Thomas’ fellow players, who looked on with envy as grandpa Paul at ice cream and Dr. Pepper for breakfast. Why, they wondered aloud to their parents, couldn’t they eat ice cream and Dr. Pepper for breakfast? Then there was the text message. As Justin decamped for the French Open in late June, he got a text from grandma Phyllis. “She said, ‘Dad told me you were on your way to France and that you had been sick all week,’� Thomas said to a roomful of reporters, reading from his phone. “‘Hope you have some good, s___-kicking antibiotics. Hit them good across the pond and be well.’� Everyone broke up laughing. “That’s grandma right there,� Thomas said. But if the presence of his grandparents provided love and the occasional funny yarn, it also upped the ante. Thomas, who won for the ninth time, had never won a PGA TOUR event with them in attendance. If he didn’t get it done this week, then when would he? “It was a lot—I hate to say pressure, but it was,� he said. “I wanted to win with them here so bad.� Mike Thomas, Justin’s father/coach, smiled at the embrace between his parents and his son. “My dad is 86, I believe, and my mom is right behind him,� Mike said. “She was born on February 29, Leap Year, so she claims she’s like 17. “That was the coolest thing,� he added. “I mean, my parents are old, and they’re not going to be here a lot longer, and for them to get to see that—we had two sheriffs and police driving them around out there today. I don’t know how they got hooked up with those two guys.� If Phyllis and Paul were instrumental in the celebration, it was Thomas’ smaller golf-related family, made up of himself, Mike and his caddie, Jimmy Johnson, who had to make sure they got there. And with the way the summer had been going, that was no foregone conclusion. Thomas’ post-FedExCup-winning season had gotten off to a promising start. He’d won THE CJ CUP @ NINE BRIDGES in his second start last October, and The Honda Classic in February. Close calls at the WGC-Mexico Championship (playoff loss to Phil Mickelson) and WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play (4th) signaled he would soon return to the winner’s circle. What happened, though, was more like a slow fade. Thomas’ wins became top-fives, then top-twenties. Then came his T25 at the U.S. Open, T56 at the Travelers Championship, and, caught in the worst of it at windy, rainy Carnoustie, his missed cut at The Open Championship (69-77). It was time for a team meeting. “It was just a let’s-get-back-on-track meeting,� Johnson said. “Nothing serious. Pay attention to what we’re doing, everybody get back on the same page. It was like the summer blues. “It was very honest,� he added. “We threw it all out there.� The problem came back to expectations, frustration, and poor decision-making. The most egregious example: Thomas had double-bogeyed the sixth hole at The Open Championsip at Carnoustie last month when he decided to hit driver at the seventh, an impetuous decision that led to a second straight double-bogey. He doubled the eighth hole, too, and shot a second-round 77. The team meeting was a way to hit the reset button. When Thomas had a poor warm-up session before Friday’s second round, he didn’t panic but gathered himself to shoot 64. He got so hot on the greens his Strokes Gained: Putting (4.857) not only led the field that day, it was the best putting performance of his career. “His growth has been in patience,� Mike Thomas said. Fans were filing out the gates after the last WGC-Bridgestone at Firestone; the tournament will move to TPC Southwind next year. Phyllis and Paul had begun the drive back to Columbus, with Phyllis, Justin predicted of his grandmother, fast asleep in the passenger seat. Mike Thomas smiled at this as he sat back in a chair, watching and listening while Justin finished up with the media. “She’s a beauty,� Justin said of his grandmother. Back when Justin was 7 or 8, he and his dad used to play gin rummy, and inevitably, the son, furious, would wind up throwing the cards at the father. Mike laughed as he told the story, because he was that kid, too. So was his dad, Paul. Blood is blood, and they all had to learn to chill. The WGC-Bridgestone showed they all have. Justin Thomas, son, grandson, champion, is not that kid, anymore.

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Webb Simpson shot a 9-under 61 for a one-stroke lead over Whee Kim after the first round of A Military Tribute at The Greenbrier on Thursday. Simpson posted his career-best score after shaking off a two-hour weather delay with six holes left in his round. Kim had back-to-back bogeys on the front nine on the Old White TPC, and then ran off five birdies over a seven-hole stretch. The South Korean had a career-high 10 birdies overall. Teenager Joaquin Niemann of Chile was another stroke back at 7-under 63 and Kelly Kraft was at 64. Phil Mickelson shot 66 in his first tournament since the U.S. Open, when he intentionally violated golf rules by hitting a moving ball on the 13th green in the third round. He later apologized.

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