RSM CLASSIC: The PGA Tour’s Fall Series wraps up this week on the Golden Isles of southeast Georgia coast, a criminally underrated golfing destination in which several world-class layouts are packed into about 30 square miles of coastal wetlands. Possibly the best of them all is the Sea Island Resort’s Seaside Course, a Tom Fazio gem that has been the primary host course for this event since its inception 16 years ago and will again see all the action on Saturday and Sunday this week, with the other course on property, the Plantation Course, being rotated in over the first two rounds.
The laid back family atmosphere of the Sea Island area and the resort itself seems to strike a perfect tone this time of year, which is probably a big reason why this event has steadily risen in popularity among the players, though it’s still one that the biggest names usually skip. The most important thing going on this week involves the players sitting at around spot 100 on the Fall Points List, because only those inside that number upon completion of play this week will have full exempt status for the 2026 season. Notable names fighting for ’26 status these next four days include Thorbjorn Oleson (96), Matt Wallace (102), Beau Hossler (103), and Matt Kuchar (113). Hopefully the television coverage does that race justice and we get to see some drama.
Both of the courses this week are on the shorter side, the Seaside being a par-70 that tips out at just over 7,000 yards while the Plantation is a few yards longer but plays to a par-72. While neither course is particularly strenuous, the Plantation, which sits a bit inland, has more trees and is therefore less wind-exposed, is considerably easier, as the Seaside can bare its teeth when the wind starts to blow and things firm up a bit. Maverick McNealy’s 16-under 266 last year was the highest winning score this tournament had seen since 2014, when it was known as the McGladrey Classic.
Second-year pro Michael Thorbjornsen (26.0) heads BETDAQ’s Win Market, which doesn’t make much sense to me considering he’s never won before and Sea Island doesn’t seem like the best fit for his brutish (and I mean that in a good way) game. He’s a good young player, though, and a refreshing face in a sea of familiar old vets like Brian Harman (29.0), Harris English (30.0), and So Woo Kim (30.0).
Here’s what we’ve got for the final full-field event of 2025:
WIN MARKET
Recommendations to BACK (odds in parenthesis)
Rico Hoey (38.0)- The 30-year old Hoey has caught fire in recent weeks and is playing the best golf of his PGA Tour career, racking up five top-25s and three top-10s in his past six starts, highlighted by a runner-up finish at the Bank of Utah Championship three weeks ago. He’s second on Tour in strokes gained tee to green and 3rd in strokes gained off the tee, so he’s a ball-striking machine right now, and his putting stats have improved over the past two months, which is why we see this string of good results. This will be his first look at Sea Island, which may be why his price is a bit longer than expected considering his recent form and the quality of this field, but we’ve seen debutantes win here before, and I’m happy to take a chance on a guy who is 39-under across his last three starts while many in the field have been taking weeks off and winding things down.
Mackenzie Hughes (75.0)- Hughes is a streaky player who will often miss cuts and then turn around and contend the following week, with his stretch this past spring a prime example: a T3 at the RBC Heritage, a Signature Event with a stacked field, followed by a MC at the CJ Cup, which was then followed by a playoff loss and runner-up finish in Myrtle Beach the very next week, before two consecutive missed cuts in his next two starts, the PGA Championship and Charles Schwab Challenge. This pattern has more or less repeated itself for the majority of Hughes’s career, and he does have two career victories, one coming at this very tournament in 2016, so he’s proven that he can get the job done when he’s rolling. He comes into this week three starts removed from a T7 at the Procore Championship and sporting a history of success at Sea Island that includes a 5th-place showing last year and runner-up finishes in ’23 and ’21, in addition to the aforementioned victory in ’16. That makes him worth a bet in my book, especially at such an inflated price.
Chandler Phillips (100.0)- A 28-year-old Texan with 59 career PGA Tour starts under his belt, Phillips is coming off the best performance of his career, a runner-up finish in last week’s Butterfield Bermuda Championship in which he shot to the top of the leaderboard after opening with rounds of 68-64 and hung tough all weekend, only to fall one shot short of Adam Schenk’s winning score of 12-under 272. Well, he’s back on the horse this week and he should have plenty of confidence after finishing 11th at this tournament on debut last year, when he closed with an ultra-clutch Sunday 64 to finish 97th in the Fall Series rankings and lock up playing status for this season. Phillips is a live one this week, don’t let the price fool you… he’s capable of winning this thing.
