It's time to prepare for the final standard PGA Tour stroke play event of the calendar year with this week's RSM Classic!

By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

Tournament & Field 🏆

The PGA Tour approaches the end of the “swing season” as golfers prepare to tee it up for The RSM Classic hosted by Sea Island Resort on Saint Simons Island, Georgia. With the Hero World Challenge (small 20-player field) and QBE Shootout (team event) left as the only other 2022 events, this tournament will be the final standard stroke play event remaining until we flip the calendar over to 2023. Get your PGA DFS fix in while ya can!

Due to daylight being more scarce around this time of year, The RSM Classic is a tournament that is set up to be played on two separate courses – the Par 70 Seaside Course and the Par 72 Plantation Course. Each golfer will play one round on each course over the first two days. Assuming a golfer makes the cut, their remaining two rounds will be played only on the Seaside Course over the weekend. This is a full-field event with 156 golfers competing and the traditional cut line rule will remain in play, so the top 65 golfers (including ties) after 36 holes will move on to play the weekend. The strength of this field is not incredibly strong but there are some noteworthy names out there to choose from with 25 of the world’s top 100 ranked golfers in attendance.

The Course Preview ⛳

The Seaside Course

Three rounds are set to be played on The Seaside Course (Par 70, 7,005 yards) so this is the track that should draw most of our attention. It’s also the only one of the two courses that will have ShotLink data and much of the television coverage tends to be focused here. Since the Seaside Course is a traditional Par 70 setup, it will feature twelve Par 4s, four Par 3s, and only two Par 5s – Par 4 scoring will be crucial, as is always the case on standard Par 70 layouts.

The fairways here are average in width and not very forgiving as they become more and more narrow the closer golfers get to the hole. As a result, many golfers will opt to club down off the tee, especially if the wind speeds pick up. This will also put a premium on golfers who can place their shots onto the smaller landing zones and set themselves up for better positioning for their approach shots. The Bermuda grass green complexes are on the smaller side, so I’ll be looking to find golfers who can get creative around the greens since the “greens in regulation” percentage may not end up being particularly high, on average. Since this is an open links style course that sits along the coast, winds can absolutely come into play as a primary defense. It looks like golfers will see at least a couple of rounds with some significant winds this week. More on the weather below, but be sure you’re checking the most up-to-date forecasts and stack that up against tee times/course designations in case of a potential course/wave advantage!

The Plantation Course (Thursday/Friday Only)

Once again, The Plantation Course (Par 72, 7,060 yards) will only be played for one round by each golfer on either Thursday or Friday so I won’t spend too much time going over this one. Since there are four Par 5s as well as tree-lined fairways which provide more protection from the coastal winds, we can usually expect this course to play up to a couple of strokes easier than The Seaside Course. The PGA Tour did have this course redesigned a few years back which increased its difficulty, but it should still be the easier of the two setups, as it has been in four of the last five years. The greens here are also Bermuda grass and are around 1,000 square feet smaller, on average, than the green complexes on The Seaside Course. More bunkers, as well as water hazards, will come into play on The Plantation Course as well. The additional bunkers scattered around the green complexes are another reason why we should be paying attention to around the green statistics this week.

In general, neither course is overly challenging (pending weather), and winning scores for this tournament have landed between 19-under and 21-under par in each of the last five years. A cut line around three-under-par can be expected as well.

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

Weather Verdict: With the added hitch in this week’s multi-course format, the weather could become a noticeable factor. The windiest day looks to arrive on Thursday’s opening round, particularly in the early morning, when wind speeds will be near 15 mph sustained with 20+ mph gusts. For that reason, I believe it makes sense to downgrade golfers who draw early Thursday morning tee times on the more wind-sensitive Seaside Course. Will it be impossible for early Thursday golfers to shoot a low round on the Seaside Course? Nope. But it is quite possible, almost likely, that we’ll see lower overall scores on The Seaside Course come on Friday. Meanwhile, as mentioned in the course breakdown, the more heavily tree-lined Plantation Course offers more protection from the coastal winds. The latest tee time this week is at 11 am local time, so based on the current forecast, the golfers who draw the later Thursday tee times on the Plantation Course appear to have the best overall weather draw.

Note: Take this info for what it’s worth! I wouldn’t 100% rule out a golfer from DFS consideration solely based on a bad weather draw.

RSM Classic Tee Times (& Round 1 and 2 Course Designations)

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Ball Striking (SG: App + SG: OTT) | 30%

2. Par 4 Average | 20%

3. Birdie or Better Percentage | 20%

4. Strokes Gained: Around the Greens | 15%

5. Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermuda) | 10%

6. Par 5 Average | 5%

PGA Tour Stats Page

🆕 RSM Classic PGA Cheat Sheet 🆕

DFS Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal model, which weighs all the key stats listed above as well as things like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (in relation to the field) in my :key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed above with specified weights allocated towards each metric.

That will do it for our PGA preview! Once again, hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries for any questions.

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Good luck this week! The PGA newsletters will return in January!