RSM Classic Tournament Recap | Winners, Highlights, & More

The boys are back to recap the RSM Classic at Sea Island Golf Club in Saint Simons Island, Georgia.

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The Second Cut gets you everything you need in the world of golf on the PGA Tour and more! Tournament previews, storylines for each week, and in-depth players reviews. Hosted by Rick Gehman (@RickRunGood). Joined by Greg DuCharme (@therealGFD), Mark Immelman (mark_immelman), and Patrick McDonald (@pmcdonaldCBS).

Welcome in. It’s the Second Cut podcast. I’m Rick Gaming and this is your recap episode for this week’s RSM Classic, the final event of the FedEx Fall. Greg Ducharm is here to help me break it all down. Gregor, hi buddy boy. Rick, good evening. Uh, another season in the books. I cannot believe it. Um, where does it go? It’s uh we we’ve um we’ve covered every event this season on the PGA Tour and all of a sudden it’s over. It kind of makes me sad. Oh, I’m sorry, Greg. Well, give it give it five weeks or so and then we’ll be kicking again and we’ll be able to do a little fun stuff along the way. But let’s chat about this Sunday happening in Sea Island and scoring. Uh despite a little bit of wind late, despite a little bit of change in direction, these guys went out and and got after it on Sunday, including some guys who gave the top the leaderboard a bit of a run. Let’s start with Ricky Castillo. Greg, this was an 8 under 62. It was one of the best rounds of the day. He ends up falling just a bit short, but we have seen him play well at times this year and he’s going to end his season on a high note. Yes, looks like he’s going to end up 102nd on the FedEx Cup standings. Um, even after this solo third, which is just so hard to imagine how it falls that way. And you know, you don’t know where the other guys that you’re trying to catch are are going to end up finishing. But when you put yourself that far out heading into the last event, you’re liable for heartbreak. And and I would say that it’s good news that there’s heartbreak because he easily could have missed the cut and gone home, you know, get ready for a Q school or cornfairy tour or something like that. But he comes out in in this round with um shooting seven under on the front nine, right? I mean, he shoots 28 going out and all of a sudden things get interesting. What this is the this is the golfer in all of us. Okay, you look at this, you go shoot 62 in the final round, you finish solo third and all you can think about is the two and a half footer you miss on number 12. The one that got away. The one that got away. Uh, now that’s a that’s a costly three putt. It’s a very costly three putt. Now, if he I don’t know exactly the points breakdown, but I know that he was in a tie for second before Max McGrevy made birdie at 18. So, and and he was inside the number. So my guess is if he two putts on uh you know if he makes a two and a half footer on 12 two putts instead of three putts there he shoots 61 and he’s inside the top 100. These are these are the margins you play for on the PGA Tour. Example infinity that every shot matters. We see it every single time we get to one of these uh crucial points in the season. You you mentioned heartbreak. Let’s let’s just do it. Patrick Rogers is going to continue his winless PGA Tour career. He had a really good opportunity. He was uh very close to the top of the league going into the final round, but a a real struggle for him. He he turned in 35, which is even par. He hit a ball of the water on on number 15, the par five, and ended up making a bogey there. He’s going to drop outside the top five. Uh it appears unless he can make birdie on on his last hole, but either way it’s not going to be a trophy for Patrick Rogers. Empty trophy case. Empty trophy case. And it is um it’s disappointing. You know, the one on 15. I can kind of understand that. That was right when the wind switched. So all of a sudden, you know, you go from dome like conditions all week to all of a sudden you’re uh going for a par five and two and you got the wind right in your now all of a sudden you got to play a shot for the very first time, you know, a a different shot than stock per se. You got to flight it down and try and turn it over and he overd does it and hits it in the water. Um but I I don’t believe that’s what it all comes down to here, Rick. Um Patrick Rogers has talked about this before. He hits a lot of greens in regulation, but he’s a little conservative on his approach shots. And it’s a shame because he’s such a good driver of the ball. Gives himself a lot of wedges and there he just needs to take on a little more risk, get the ball a little closer to the hole. And I I think you’d see that putter really come to life if he were able to do that. And there are times down the stretch where you got to risk losing in order to win. And I I just see a lot of conservative play out of Patrick Rogers, which look, it keeps you on the PGA Tour. Uh you you keep your job, you keep earning money, but it makes it really difficult to, you know, they don’t give you trophies out here. They don’t give it to you. So the smart golf is great, but but I’d love to see that sense of, hey, time to step on the gas now and I got to get a little more aggressive. Yeah, you’re right. keeps a keeps the job. He’s going to finish 62nd in the FedEx fall. He’s going to move up one spot. Michael Thorbjornson is another guy who had a disappointing Sunday. In fact, he and Rogers were nearly in lock step this week. They were 17 under par through the first three rounds. And it was Thor Bjornson who was really unable to to really muster anything. Two birdies on the front nine. In fact, he didn’t he didn’t make anything but those two birdies uh in until the 14th hole. It was just a bunch of pars otherwise. He gave one back there on 14. Uh I I think when Thor Bjornson looks back at the fall and the last three or four months, he’s going to be thrilled with his 2025, but when he looks back a couple hours of his 2025, he might not be so happy. I I think that’s a very fair way to say it, Rick. And um I I think there’s still a lot of potential. This is a different scenario than Patrick Rogers. I know they both went to Stanford. um both had wonderful careers at Stanford. Uh but the PGA Tour career is in a much different spot for Thor Bjornson than it is for Rogers. So this not winning is not a thing right now the way it is for Patrick Rodgers. Um but it it is a similar situation in that he’s just not hitting the ball close enough to the hole. You look at this weekend after, you know, really stellar performance over the first two days. And on Saturday, he makes uh birdie on the two par fives and he gets up and down from 40 yards on 16 to make birdie there. That was it. Just those three birdies. And now in round four, you have just the just the two and one of them comes on a par five. So, I I think that’s kind of emblematic of the area that needs to improve, which is that iron play, that approach play. Um, he was constantly leaving himself with longer putts than he should with with the wedges. Um, just, you know, some of the other players are able to stick it in there and give themselves a lot of easy birdies on the par4s. And for Thor Bjönson where he drives it from, it looks like that should be the case. And it’s just not right now. But it’s a very common thing with young players on the PGA Tour. Hopefully, we can get a little development of that wedge game, which is the area I would be looking for if I were Thor Bjornson. Enhance that wedge play a little bit and, you know, this could this could turn into a Dustin Johnson type scenario. That’s what he did to really flip the switch in his career. You’re absolutely right. Immense immense talent there. Just has to get those yardages dialed in. When we looked at the first page of the leaderboard, there were a lot of guys without a victory. Uh, one of the exceptions was Nico Echaria, who is twice a winner on the PGA Tour. He was no worse than 67 in any round this week. And he started to put a little bit of fear in the top of this leaderboard when he made his third consecutive birdie on the 14th hole. 12, 13, and 14. And then he stalled out, Greg. a par on the par 515 a bogey on 16. He’s going to fall short of another victory. But I I think you and I are very much in line with our excitement and how bullish we are on Nico Edge of Aaria moving forward. Yeah, his career has totally changed now. Um this this went from someone a couple years ago who kind of had to win to keep his card. felt like um and he and he would do that periodically or or you know a couple of really good finishes and pop off a couple of times, but it was it was strange. You know, he was a very inconsistent player and just popped off for a couple good weeks periodically throughout the season. Now we’re starting to see much more consistency. The frequency of those uh popper events, if you will, is going up. And I attribute all of that to the change he made with his putter grip about a year ago. It was at the Zozo Championship about a year. It was last fall. He switched to the claw. He ended up winning twice and now here he is in the, you know, in a good position heading into 2026 season. U you know, another another good week for him and he’s going to be playing in the first two signature events next season. Uh I I give so much of that credit to the to the claw grip uh and and the success that he’s had with it. He was second this week in strokes gained putting and that that seems to be a theme for Nicovaria right now in his career. Yeah. Six and a half actually. A little more uh strokes gained putting for in three rounds. Yeah, that’s right. In three measured rounds. The only three on the C-side course. Um low 20s is what you needed to get in under par to get towards the top of this board. Max McGrevy posted the best number uh 22 under thanks to a 7under 63 and a beautiful putt to roll in a birdie on number 18 to post that number. There was still Sammy Valamaki out on the golf course now having to look up at that. But McGrevy was one of the golfers that uh you identified before the week started as as potentially in a great spot to have uh another good week and he and he did just that. Greg. Yeah. T3 in Bermuda last week and he just he looked really confident. Um he he was to your point in our um in our fantasy breakdown on Tuesday and he he moved up to 89th last week in the FedEx Cup fall. um moved up to 89th with that T3. And this is like, you know, it’s a tough call. Is is he going to relax now or is he still chasing the win? It felt to me like he was chasing the win. And boy, that’s what we saw today. He goes out and shoots 63. I know Castillo shot 62 today, but you know, the low in round three was 64. So, this was um nearly the round of the weekend out of Max McGrevy. I I’m so impressed with his confidence. I think it’s a wonderful golf swing and a really solid game all around. Uh now he moves all the way up right now projected in 60th in the FedEx Cup fall which is into the signature events. So you know you go from chasing your card to um getting into the signature events. And I’ll tell you what if if I’m Max McGrevy I’m upset this season is over. I’m going to try to go find some professional golf events to play in somewhere else because boy is he u on fire right now. Yeah, here’s the last five after not doing much this year. Uh T33 in Japan, T11 in Southern Utah, 56th in Cabo, then that third place finish at the B at the Bermuda Championship that Greg referenced, and the solo second getting all those points here at uh the RSM Classic to snatch up that 60th spot in the FedEx fall. But if you’re watching on YouTube, you see the reveal because Sammy Valamaki has gotten over the finish line. He just put the finishing touches on a 4 under 66, including a par on the last hole. But Greg, that is probably not the hole we need to have a discussion about right now. I think that goes back to 16 where it felt like the uh momentum solidified in favor of Sammy Valamaki today. Yeah, on 16 he missed the green short right. Uh he had 151 yards in and again that wind had shifted directions. It was a much bigger factor at this point in the round. Many of the players we’ve talked about already never faced this wind. Uh Sammy Valamaki did. So he misses the green short and right on 16. Uh pitches it some 20 feet past the hole. Yeah, he pulled there. What? I mean, that that was like I’m nervous. Yes. I I I Yes. I I’m playing defense. I’m nervous. Don’t make a double here is what that felt like. And he does everything he can to make bogey. Yeah. Cuz you roll it 20 20 feet past and then makes a double breaker coming back right in the middle. You see the nice fist pump from him. He was um he he it was very clear he knew where he stood 100% during this round. And it’s easy sometimes to to watch a tournament like this and maybe you’re not familiar with all the players up there and it’s like, oh well yeah, Valamaki’s got a two-shot lead. He’s he’s going to he’s going to win here. Um but that’s not what they’re feeling on the grounds. Not at all. Because it can turn so quickly. It happens so often, not just on the PGA Tour, but all over professional golf. And um he’s able to roll that one in and then finish the job. I I I thought quite frankly, Rick, which was really interesting to me, on 15, right when the wind picked up, he hit a mini driver off the deck and knocked it on the green to hole high from 240 yards out. That felt like the shot of the tournament. And then what happened on 16 got a little close to kind of giving that away. So, uh, yeah, you look at the scoreboard, 16, 17, 18, he closes with three straight pars, but it was a lot more dramatic than that. Yeah, we talk about this all the time, these guys that are a batch of them. Might be 50 or 60 guys that are playing basically at all of the fall events. And Valabachi again gets hot at the right time. This goes back a little bit farther. This goes back to mid August. So, he finished eighth at the Danish Golf Championship, which is a DP World Tour event. He finished runner up at the Omega European Masters, and then his last four starts of the fall were like, I’ll I’ll circle his last three here. The runner-up finish in Cabo, the 18th last week, and now the win. So, some of these guys who playing out of necessity, get hot, catch fire for a couple of weeks, and now Sammy Balamaki’s 2026 is going to look a lot different. you know, a lot of last week’s an exception and I thought what he did in Bermuda last week was really impressive, but a lot of these events in the fall turn into birdie fests and we’ve had a lot of really good weather and a lot of um you know, a lot of scoring opportunities on resort style golf courses. And whenever we look at events like that, Rick, approach play and putting are critical elements to making a lot of birdies. So there’s been a lot of golf courses for Sammy Valamaki that suit his game perfectly. You know, coming into this week, he’s 18th on tour in strokes game approach and 11th in strokes game putting. He has a very clear asset, a very clear strong suit, and it it bodess very well in events like this. You know, I I don’t know if there’s a statistic out there about how often somebody hits it inside of five feet, but Sammy Valamaki stuffs it in there constantly. I I counted at least seven approach shots he hit this week that were inside of 10 feet um in three rounds because we don’t have proximities for the one where he played at the plantation course. So, in those three rounds, he’s hitting at least two shots around inside of 10 ft. Many of those were inside of five feet. He did it again today at number 10. I thought that was a a huge approach shot where this is the big difference between Rogers and Thor Bjornson. They’re they’re not able to hit it as close to the hole as Sammy Valamaki is. And while he hits some less than shots at at points, you know, like he did drive it in the water at number five and was able to play it. um he he hits enough really good shots to perform like this. Uh I could pull that for you. It will I’ll have to email to you. It’ll take me it’ll take me a day. But uh what you just pointed out is really interesting about proximity and about the strokes gain stuff, right? When you know, if you’ve got a guy who’s hitting it to 20 feet on every single hole, great proximity, he’s going to pick up a lot of strokes to the field. He’s going to two putt that the vast majority of the time. But if you have a guy who’s hitting it to 35 feet, which he’s also two putting the vast majority of the time, but then he’s hitting it to five feet and he’s making that every single time. Um it it it it’s not always going to show up, right? Like you’re talking about those great shots, you’re talking about those like 95th percentile shots, those ones that almost always convert to a birdie or better. There there is something in that that some guys can do more frequently than others. I don’t know where Sammy ranks on the list. I’ll pull it, but it is a really interesting conversation to have. Yeah, I’d be very curious about it. Um, and I’d love to see the list. Where does Sheffler rank on that list or Rory or, you know, how does that correlate to the best players in the game? Um because what what I see especially when I look at a round heading into Sunday, you know, I I’m looking at what is the leader going to shoot and what does that mean for everybody else? What does everybody else how many guys are actually in the mix? And the easiest way if you just take the leader score and how many par fives are there? So here this week there’s two. So Sammy Valamaki comes in at 19 under. There’s two par fives. He’s gonna get to 21 under. Um that that’s like a a baseline and then based on conditions you can adjust. I I thought it was going to take 22 under today because it was going to be it was expected to be a little bit easier. It ends up taking 23 under. Um, but those the reason I do that is there there are easy birdies out there that they should make and then you know you make a 20-footer, you make a bogey somewhere, it eventually it kind of balances out and it it usually ends up somewhere around there. But when you hit two to three approach shots around that are inside of five feet, it’s like a free hole. All of a sudden, you’ve taken that number of par fives and you’ve doubled it in two swings and now you got four easy birdies on the course. And if the conditions aren’t that hard, you might not make a bogey. Um, so, uh, it really changes things dramatically in in a round of golf. And, uh, it allows you to to reach scores like 2,300 par and in only four rounds. It’s incredible scoring, but we see it all the time. But this is you either got to have a really hot putter or or you got to hit a couple in there real close to get it done. And Valamaki kind of did both this week. 23 under par. He is your winner of the RSM Classic. Here are the golfers in this field that got into that top 60 uh of the FedEx fall standings. So, uh, obviously Valamaki moves up from, uh, 74th to 51st, but the win obviously goes a long way with the status. Rico Hoey, who had a phenomenal fall, goes from 57th to 54th. Uh, Nicovaria talked about him and his T4, moves him from 62nd to 55th. Chris Kirk drops three spots from 54th to 57th, but he is still firmly inside the top 60. And then we mentioned Max McGrevy going from 89 to 60th on the number. Greg, we’ve seen this before. Um, and I’ll circle, let’s just use Rico Hoey as probably the guy. Um, I remember a fall where Taylor Montgomery looked like he was going to be a top 10 player in the world. We We see this. We see guys get hot six, seven, eight events and expectations become a little bit different or you know three months off, couple months off takes a toll on these guys. Probably not even three months. H like let’s use Rico Hoey as the guy this fall. Phenomenal fall. What are your expectations for him in 2026? Well, I I think they’re a little higher than say a Taylor Montgomery and they’re honestly a perfect case study here because they’re like polar opposites. Yes. Um Rico Hoey is an elite ball striker. There was only one player on tour this year who was better than him in strokes guaranteed a green. Scotty Shuffler. Scotty Shuffler. Uh, so it was an easy one. You know, it’s almost one you don’t even have to answer because everybody knows trailed only Scotty Sheffller. Strokes gain off the tea. He’s third. This is entering the week, so forgive me for that, but um he’s he’s third in strokes gain off the tea behind Pearson Cudy who only played like 17 events and Scotty Sheffller eighth in strokes gain approach the green. You know, Scotty Shuffler’s in that top eight. Yeah, somewhere in there, but 179th in strokes getting pudding. So, the big question is, did what we see from Rico Hoey this fall, was that is that going to turn into what we saw from Nicovaria last year where it’s a real significant week overweek change? Um, and and is that going to get better? Look, I I know even Rico Hoe’s putting this fall was not sensational. It was just better than last on the PGA Tour, right? And and I I do think there’s a really good chance, Rick, I mean, if if Rico Hoey finishes a hundredth next year in strokes game putting. I mean, he could be a he could be a top 25 player easily. Uh, so I I think there’s a really high I have a really high expectation for Rico Hoey because there’s such a clear path to better for him and and I I think what he’s done to Green is very stable and very consistent and doesn’t seem to deviate a whole lot. Taylor Montgomery was the exact opposite. You know, this was one where, okay, I have no clue what’s going to happen on the next hold, let alone the next week. or I’m I’m Rico Hoey firmly in that camp of guys that I I cannot wait to see what they do in 2026. Obviously, outside of the the bigname players, but these guys that that could conceivably take that next step moving forward. Um, get you a couple big names here. You know, Rico Hoey was one of the favorites entering the week. Just kind of put a bow on some of these other names. You know, Brian Harmon, uh, failed to make the cut. Sahit Thala failed to make the cut. The cut line was seven under par, Greg. So, you did really have to take it fairly deep to to to make it to the weekend. But, um, some of the bigger names did not uh did not finish their their season on a on a strong note. No. And that’s the challenge of these kind of events. Um, Thala and Harmon were both at six under. They So, they missed by a single shot. Um, if you give them two more rounds, could they go shoot get to 16 under, uh, shoot 10 under on the weekend? Easily. That that’s, you know, tie for 21st. Um, and maybe they get hot one round and get up into into the top 10. Th those are the kind of margins that you’re dealing with out on the PGA Tour. Uh, and I I think in the case of Brian Harmon, that was kind of predictable scoring, 6769. He probably got frustrated on a couple shots. The Gala shot 70 in the opening round. That’s the killer right there. You go shoot 70 when the scoring average was as low as it was on both courses and you you kind of get that feeling that you’re toast. You got to do what Michael Brennan did, which was go shoot eight under in your second round. um just to make the cut, not let alone get in the mix. So, look, mis cuts are a challenge. By the way, on that note, Rick, of miss cuts, um Ricky Castillo, who finished 102nd in the FedEx Cup fall, missed 12 cuts this year on tour. Eight of them were by one. Wow. Um that’s that you see like in football like uh your record in one score games or whatever. It’s just brutal because if he makes it to the weekend maybe half of those he like you know goes on a run. Maybe not even two of them he goes on a run and finishes inside the top 10. That happens all the time. All the time. Hey um earlier this year uh Joe Highmith made the cut on the number at the Cognizant Classic and won. I would like to see the uh average missed cut margin. That’s a good statistic. Like are you missing by 10 shots or you missing by one shot or are you missing the cut on the number? Like and in a in a strange way those missing on the number that prepares you for a week like this because you’re playing under the gun on Friday, right? What What difference does it make? You’re you’re playing under the gun. You’re playing under the gun. you’re feeling some serious heat. Um, so yeah, I I feel for Ricky Castillo. I feel for guys that miss the cut by a single shot, but at the end of the day, that’s what makes this tour and and golf so compelling is that those first two rounds really matter. And and the difference between missing the cut and winning is probably unrecognizable if you were walking around without a scoreboard. It’s probably true. That’s probably true. That’s pretty sick. Okay. I uh I like that. That’s That’s some food food for thought. Let me get you a quick update here. So, uh a couple of things. We have a trivia show coming next week. That is uh obviously Thanksgiving week. We want everybody to have safe travels and, you know, be merry and be safe and all that fun stuff. And uh also listen to the trivia show. And then we we have not talked about this yet, which I think is interesting because Joseph Joseph Boza puts it in the chat as well. There are these rumors uh floating Harris English kind of leaked a few himself that the PGA Tour in 2027 might be going towards a kind of that smaller almost like signature only events which could would have a ton of ramifications. So we we need to we need to get a chat about that in Greg. So, I’ve got to pick your minds uh quite a bit over the course of the next couple weeks. Yeah, there uh the game of golf has constant news, constant notes. Um so, we’ll have to get together after the trivia show and um and hammer out some thoughtprovoking ideas for the future of the PGA Tour. Oh, it’s what we do best. Just wildly speculate and say how things uh should be done. Solve all of golf’s problems. Yeah. All right, Gregors. Happy Thanksgiving, bud. Um, actually, well, we will do I guess I’ll also be wishing you a happy Thanksgiving on the trivia show as well because that’ll that’ll be in the can, but I’ll be disappointed if you don’t. All right, brother. Greg Ducharmm is available with the real GFD producer Mina on the ones and twos. I’m Rick Gaming. This has been the second cut. We’ll catch you next time.