The RSM Classic, formerly know as the McGladrey Classic, has had more than just a name change. It will now be contested on two golf courses, allowing the field to be expanded from 132 to 156, which is good news for those guys near the bottom of the Web.com's top-50 list.
I'm going tell you about my favorite hole on the Sea Island Seaside Course and a pivotal one for the tournament -- No. 15. It's also the first par-5 in our notebook series.
There are two reasons I love this hole. First, if the player wants a legitimate chance at eagle, he has to hit two different shots: a draw off the tee and then a fade into the green. Second, it's the easiest hole on the course, but it follows the hardest hole. That means if your player is coming off a bogey, a bad tee shot can send him into a club-throwing tirade. A caddie earns his money on a hole like this coming off a bogey.
From the tee, the hole makes almost a 90-degree left turn. What the yardage book doesn't show are the trees left off the tee. I don't know one pro who can't go over them. The danger is if the player "bails" out right off the tee and ends up in the right rough, he's forced to lay up much farther back than he'd like. Why? I think Bermuda grass rough causes more fliers than any other strain, so if a player wanted to get aggressive with the layup, he'd bring the water left into play, and the caddie can't let that happen.
I last caddied for a guy who hit a cut but could fly his driver 280 yards in the air. When we played the hole, he would hit it over the middle of the tree (it's about 75 yards to the left off the tee box) with a little cut. Twice it cut, twice it didn't. It was in the fairway all four days.
One day when it didn't cut, we were about 2 yards in front of the 198 sprinkler head! The hole location was in the front-right portion of the green, nine paces more than the right bunker carry. We had 196 yards to the front edge, 205 to carry the bunker and 214 to the hole. I remember it was playing just a little downwind and we were in between a 6-iron and 7-iron. It was early in the day, and I didn't think the wind was strong enough for the 7-iron. When you look at the arrows on the green you can see everything slopes toward the front from 28 paces on.
I told my guy, "smooth 6-iron is the play here. Heavy air and we got a backstop." He agreed.
By the time the ball came to rest, we were 18 feet behind the hole for eagle. He made the putt. The guy who was playing in our group missed the fairway off the tee right but tried to hit a miracle hybrid from the Bermuda that never cut. He was "lucky" to catch the left greenside bunker, but his lie was horrible. It took him two shots to get out of the bunker and left the 15th with bogey.
This is a hole on which it can pay to be greedy -- when you hit the fairway. Miss the fairway and your best bet is to try and make birdie the old-fashioned way. Any player leaving this hole with a bogey probably won't be speaking to his caddie 'til they get to No. 17.
Yardage books provided by Mark Long -- TourSherpa@gmail.com. Copyright 2015 Tour Sherpa, Inc. All rights reserved.