2022 RSM Classic: Top 10 Power Rankings at Sea Island
The final full field PGA Tour event of 2022 is here.
The 12th edition of the RSM Classic will be held Nov. 17-20 at Sea Island Resort in St. Simons Island, Georgia.
The Plantation and Seaside courses will be in play for the 156-player field. Players will split their first two rounds at Plantation and Seaside and play the weekend on Seaside.
Seaside is a 7,005-yard par-72 designed by Harry S. Colt in the late 1920s and redesigned in the 2000s by Tom Fazio.
The fairways and greens are larger than average and bunkering is light throughout the course. Winning scores tend to land in the teens to low 20s under par. The main defense is wind and rough that is thick in spots.
Green speeds tend to be slightly above average. Overseeded Bermuda, common on Southeastern U.S. courses, is prevalent throughout.
The Plantation course measures 7,058 yards for a par 72. Davis Love III and his design team redesigned it before the 2019 RSM Classic. Bunkers were moved to better challenge the pros and green complexes were altered to more classic styles.
Fairways and tees at Plantation switched from Bermudagrass to platinum paspalum. Greens are still Bermuda.
Scores tend to be pretty low at the RSM Classic.
Winners finished at 14-under or better every year and 19-under or better each of the last five editions.
Weather for the week forecasts looks cool and breezy with chances for rain on the weekend and temperatures struggling to get into the 60s. Not a bad week to roll with the grinders.
Let’s get into this week’s top 10:
Andrew Putnam is still seeking his first PGA Tour win since the 2018 Barracuda Championship. He just had one of his best chances this fall and has played steadily good golf throughout the second half of 2022.
The 33-year-old bounced up and down between the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour in the early 2010s but has been a mainstay in recent years.
Putnam made it to the second round of the FedEx Cup Playoffs and finished a respectable 46th in the final standings. A T-5th at the first playoff event, the FedEx St. Jude Championship, helped the cause.
Beginning with the 3M Open (T-11th) last July, Putnam is on a streak of eight-straight made cuts.
The Pepperdine alum also took T-2nd this season at the ZOZO Championship, a no-cut event. He was in the final group in Japan where he came up a shot behind Keegan Bradley. Putnam posted 68-62-68-68.
He’s kept busy with seven events under his belt this season. The latest was T-35th last week at the Cadence Bank Houston Open.
Putnam arrives at the RSM Classic for the fifth time. He finished T-12th (68-67-66-69) in his 2014 debut and T-37th (71-68-66-66) in 2020.
His ball striking won’t blow you away most weeks, but at least his lack of distance isn’t as magnified at Sea Island as much as most PGA Tour stops.
Having a good short game and hot putter can be the right recipe if it’s cool and windy as forecasted this week.
Putnam was 20th last season in strokes gained per round around the green (.333) and 38th in SG putting (.31). He was also 21st in sand save percentage (57.94%).