One tournament stands between PGA Tour players and the offseason as the 2024 RSM Classic represents the final event of the FedEx Cup Fall. Serving as the FedEx Cup Fall finale for the second straight season, the RSM Classic will be the site at which competitors jockey for playing privileges, job security and crucial Official World Golf Rankings points ahead of a major year-end deadline.
An eclectic field will descend upon Sea Island Golf Club with defending champion Ludvig Åberg leading the charge. Setting the tournament scoring record last season en route to his first PGA Tour victory, the young Swede blitzed the field and put the finishing touches on a memorable year. This time around, Åberg arrives off a successful knee surgery as he tees it up for the first time since the Tour Championship.
He is joined in the field by a number of his counterparts who are safe from the scare of needing to play well this week in order to maintain job security. Georgia boys Brian Harman, Chris Kirk, Davis Thompson and a slew of other Sea Island natives will tee it up in their backyard alongside the likes of Denny McCarthy and recent winner Austin Eckroat.
Former tournament champion and two-time runner up Mackenzie Hughes returns to Sea Island as the leader in the Aon Next 10 -- Nos. 51-60 in the FedEx Cup standings which qualifies for the first two signature events of the 2025 season. While the Canadian will be in the fields at Pebble Beach and Riviera, he has work to do if he is to find a tee time at Augusta National come April.
With the year-end deadline in which the top 50 players in the OWGR receive invitations into the first major championship of the season, Hughes finds himself at No. 63 and in need of a strong performance. Lucas Glover currently checks in on the bubble at No. 50 with players like Si Woo Kim, Eric Cole and Matt Wallace on the outside looking in.
While Glover may be considered a bubble boy by some, Wesley Bryan will receive the bulk of the attention. Slotted at No. 125 in the FedEx Cup standings, the one-time PGA Tour winner holds the final full-time PGA Tour card in his hands. He will need to put together another strong showing if he is to keep it as players like Joel Dahmen, Daniel Berger and Sam Ryder all vie for full-time playing privileges come 2025.
2024 RSM Classic schedule
Dates: Nov. 21-24
Location: Sea Island Golf Club -- St. Simons Island, Georgia
Par: 70 | Yardage: 7,005
Purse: $7,600,000
2024 RSM Classic field, odds
Golf betting odds below provided via DraftKings Sportsbook. Check out the latest DraftKings promo to get in the game.
- Ludvig Åberg (9-1): Back-to-back rounds of 61 over the weekend saw Åberg blow past the field and into the winner's circle in 2023. Setting tournament scoring records and PGA Tour scoring records along the way, the Swede returns as a much more experienced player albeit still with only that one PGA Tour win to his name. While he is the clear class of this field, Åberg may display a little rust in his first start since knee surgery.
- Davis Thompson (22-1)
- Brian Harman (22-1)
- Denny McCarthy (25-1): Two months away from competitive golf should be enough for McCarthy to have returned to 100% following a hip injury that surfaced in the first postseason event. Having not played since the BMW Championship, the 31-year-old returns at a comfortable site as he still searches for his long-awaited first PGA Tour title. He has notched three top-10 finishes in his last five tournament appearances, including a T5 last year.
- Si Woo Kim (28-1): Kim has played about once a month over the last three months and has plenty of success to show for it. Rattling off three straight top 20s including a T6 in his last start at the Zozo Championship, the four-time PGA Tour winner is in need of another quality outing if he wants to secure an early Masters invitation. Standing at No. 55 in the OWGR, Kim comes to Sea Island where he has struggled throughout his career, boasting one top 20 in five appearances.
- J.T. Poston (30-1): Poston's play in his home of Sea Island is a head scratcher given how well he fits the golf courses from a statistical sense. Collecting one top-20 finish and five missed cuts in eight tournament starts, the recent Shriners Children's Open champion looks to put an end to the woes in his backyard. His playing privileges and major championship starts are locked up for 2025, but he'd love nothing more than to win another one.
- Harris English (30-1)
- Seamus Power (30-1)
- Ben Griffin (30-1)
- Matt Wallace (30-1): He is outside the top 125 at No. 133 in the FedEx Cup standings, but Wallace is locked up through next season thanks to his victory in Corales a year ago. Instead of playing on the PGA Tour this fall, the Englishman spent time in Europe where he notched a win at the European Masters and a pair of strong results at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship and DP World Tour Championship. It's early, but he currently ranks fourth in the European Ryder Cup standings.
2024 RSM Classic expert picks
| Winner (22-1): Another Sea Island native with little success in this tournament, Thompson will try to buck the trend this week. The son of the tournament director, the John Deere Classic winner arrives with just one fall start under his belt which resulted in a top-five finish at the Shriners Children's Open. During his sophomore season, Thompson has transformed into one of the most well-rounded players on the entire PGA Tour. The wins are going to start coming in bunches for this young man. | |
| Contender (60-1): A strong fall has seen Sigg do enough damage to secure his full-time playing privileges before the season finale. With that weight off his shoulders, the right hander may creep into contention amid a run of four top-25 finishes in his last five starts. Typically unreliable with the putter, the 29-year-old has found his groove on the greens and should continue a nice run at the RSM Classic that has produced finishes of T15 and T8 in his last two showings. | |
| Sleeper (110-1): Dubbed "the bubble boy" for this week, Bryan has gone from well outside the top 125 to directly onto the number with four rounds to play in the PGA Tour season. He has rattled off five straight made cuts with four of those finishes doubling as top-25 efforts. His game is in a good enough spot where he is capable of playing himself into the weekend mix. It's just a matter of whether his nerves are, too. | |
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