The PGA Tour Fall Series continues when the third of the four-tournament series, the McGladrey Classic, celebrates its third edition starting this Thursday from the Sea Island Seaside Golf Club located on St Simons Island, Gerogia.
The 148-player field takes the course for the $720,000 winners purse out of the $4 million prize fund.
Ryder Cup captain, Davis Love III is a resident at Sea Island and will serve as the host pro this week. His foundation, Davis Love Foundation has partnered with the PGA TOUR to become the Host Organization of the tournament since its inception in 2010.
Hopefully questions towards him will turn to be more about the great job his foundation does contributing to the well-being and progress of society by supporting both national and community-based programs that focus on children and their families.
That was not the case on Wednesday's news conference, where he was drilled about the epic collapse of the US team at the Ryder Cup which led to long, drawn-out responses.
The Course
The Seaside Course is a par-70, 7005-yards long course that is regularly ranked among Georgia's top courses. The course record is 62 held by Charles Howell III (2010-Fourth Round) and Trevor Immelman (2011-Third Round).
Seaside is advertised as an ocean-side links course, and certain sections do have a wild, windswept feel to them as the course climbs over grassy dunes. It is a course that prides on making the players pay a premium for their shot selection, keeping them always at bay with their recovery shots.
The front nine is just a warm-up for the back nine. The greens on the back remind players of Pinehurst, as they slope off on all sides.
But, they feature some very tricky reads as well. A rule of thumb is, if you think it will break, it will - and more. That's offset somewhat by the deceptively wide landing areas, many of which look scary-small from the tee.
There is a number of memorable holes like the par-four, 415-yards second, where a marsh carry off the tee with a sloping fairway, and the par-four, 409-yards fifth which plays as a great risk/reward hole.
The longest hole on the course is the par-five 582-yards seventh hole, which is preceded by the shortest hole, the par-three 179-yards sixth.
The toughest hole on the course is played early, the par-four 409-yards fourth, while the easiest hole is played much later on the par-five, 569-yards 15th hole.
The Field
There is a slew of respectable players this weekend highlighted by Zach Johnson, Jim Furyk and the rookie Jonas Blixt.
Johnson, the 2007 Masters Champ, is a two-time winner this year and the highest world ranked player on the field ranked 16th. We last saw him playing the Ryder Cup and he has the home field advantage on the course.
Furyk is the story of the tournament as he is looking to finish the year on a high note after a roller coaster year. He started the year on the world rankings at No. 50 and has gone up to No. 23. But his year will be mostly remembered by what could have bee.
He relinquished late leads at the Transitions, US Open and WGC-Bridgestone. Not to mention being one of three Americans who were all square going to the 18th hole at the Ryder Cup and ended up losing, which enabled Europe to stage a stunning comeback.
Furyk could definitely use a solid performance this weekend and win to at least make up for some of the frustrations suffered.
Blixt has been the hottest player the past two weeks. After his near miss at the Shriners two weeks ago, he bounced back to win the Frys.com for his first PGA TOUR win in just his 19th career start.
The rookie certainly can play and could become the first player since David Duval to make it back-to-back on his first two Tour wins.
Another rookie to watch is Scotsman Russell Knox. He has been playing extremely well on the first two weeks of the Fall Series improving his best career finishes each week—T13 and T9. If he keeps improving he could be challenging for the win on Sunday.
Three-time major winner Vijay Singh is another player to watch for even at the ripe age of 49. The Big Fijian carries a lot of momentum after finishing T4 last week at the Frys.com, making it his second Top-10 finish on his last three tournaments.
Charles Howell III is another player who had a great showing at the Frys.com and being the co-holder of the course record makes him a definite contender this weekend.
Jason Day showed signs of being back to his top form two weeks ago with a fourth place finish in Las Vegas, his best finish of the season and just his fourth top 10 of the year, his first since early July. He is a player whose skills fit this course.
Both past champions Ben Crane (2011) and Heath Slocum (2010) return to play this year.
Crane’s had an up and down year. After he won last year, he registered three Top-10 finishes capped by his second-place finish at the Waste Management Open in February. But since then he’s been on a free fall with six missed-cuts and only one Top-10 finish.
Slocum has not registered a Top-10 finish since he won here; his best finish is a T11 at the 2011 US Open. At least he seems to play well here; he finished T15 last year as the defending champ.
Tee Times and Featured Threesomes
The tournament will start at 7:35 am ET on both Thursday and Friday from tees No. 1 and 10, with the final tee time both days will be at 1:45 pm ET. Here are the featured threesomes for the first two rounds:
- Zach Johnson, Ben Crane, Davis Love III
- Jonas Blixt, David Toms, Jim Furyk
- Vijay Singh, Charles Howell III, Gary Woodland
- Jason Day, Stewart Cink, Bud Cauley
For a complete listing of the tee times for the first two rounds, click here.
The Coverage
Golf Channel will have the TV coverage and Sirius XM the satellite radio coverage from Thursday through Sunday from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm ET every day.