Will someone from Sea Island Mafia break 'St. Simons Curse' on PGA Tour?

• No St. Simons Island has ever won the RSM Classic, a phenomenon one player called the "St. Simons Curse."
• Andrew Novak holds a one-shot lead at 16-under-par after two rounds of play at the Sea Island Resort.
• Ideal weather conditions have led to record-low scoring, with the 7-under cut being the lowest on the PGA Tour this season.

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. — Is it time for one of the members of Team Sea Island to win a home game, better known as the RSM Classic? 

It hasn't happened yet.

Brian Harman came the closest with a tie for second in 2022, two shots behind winner Adam Svensson. The 15-year drought is even more baffling considering the 12 PGA Tour winners who are currently Golden Isles residents, including major champions Davis Love III (the tournament host), Zach Johnson, Andrew Novak, Harris English, Steven Fisk and Harman. 

There’s even a name for it. 

“The St. Simons Curse,” said Sigg, one of the many former Georgia Bulldogs who has settled in the area. 

Novak and Sigg are in the best position to break through this weekend from the last two groups at the Sea Island Resort Seaside Course after another day of splendid weather and low scoring on Georgia’s Golden Isles on Friday. 

Novak followed a 61 in the first round at the Seaside Course with a 65 at the Plantation Course (with bogeys two of his last three holes) and at 16-unde 126 has a one-shot lead over Patrick Rodgers, who birdied his last three holes for a 62 at the Plantation, and former Stanford All-American Michael Thorbjornsen (63, Seaside), who drained a 26-foot putt at his last hole, Seaside's ninth, to crack the final threesome. 

Sigg (62, Plantation), who eagled the 18^th hole and played his last seven at 8 under, is 14 under and in a tie with Sami Valimaki of Finland (62, Seaside). 

Korn Ferry Tour Player of the Year Johnny Keefer (64, Plantation) is alone at 13 under and six players are 12 under, including another St. Simons Island resident, J.T. Poston (65, Plantation), veterans Eric Cole (62, Seaside) and Andrew Putnam (69, Plantation) and four-time Florida Gators All-SEC player Ricky Castillo (65, Seaside). 

Course records tied, low cut of the season at RSM 

It was another day for the field to attack the golf course and take advantage of the sunny, nearly windless conditions:

• Rodgers and Sigg matched the Plantation scoring record set the day before by Davis Thompson and Rico Hoey. 
• The 7-under cut is the lowest on the PGA Tour this season (6 under at Rocket Classic) and the lowest since the 2024 ISCO Championship (8 under). 
• For the second day in a row, the field broke the Plantation scoring record. After a 68.484 in the first round topped the first round in 2022 (68.701), the players who moved over from the Seaside Course to take on the Plantation in the second round topped it with a 67.936. 
• The Seaside second-round scoring average of 67.625 was the fifth lowest in tournament history and the lowest for the second round. 

Novak said it may take a lot more. “There's a lot more birdies to be had this weekend and I'm going to have to go out and get 'em to win because 16 under is not going to win come Sunday,” he said. “Definitely still going to be in attack mode.” 

Andrew Novak surged ahead with six birdies in a row at RSM 

Novak certainly attacked during a stretch of six birdies in a row, from Nos. 15 to 2. His longest putt during that streak was a 25-footer for birdie at No. 16 and he missed only one green. 

“My strength is my short game and I might have chipped three times this week,” he said. 

Novak is also freewheeling because he’s in a good frame of mind. He’s got two years of exempt status thanks to his victory in the Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Ben Griffin, and he and his wife Maddie just celebrated the birth of their first child two weeks ago, a daughter. 

Last year, he came to Sea Island fighting for his job. He needed to make the cut to ensure a finish inside the top 125 on the FedEx Cup points list and shot 75 in the second round after his tee shot at the final hole (Seaside’s ninth) got stuck in a tree and he had to go back to the tee and hit his third shot. 

Novak crafted an all-world bogey to make the cut on the number. 

“It was awful,” he said. “That was about as stressed as I've been on a golf course, maybe ever. My whole year was riding on that hole. So I'm very familiar with the amount of pressure that some of the guys are playing with this week and I'm very blessed to not have that pressure right now while I'm playing.” 

Andrew Novak also can't explain the Curse 

“It’s kind of a running thing,” he said of the St. Simons Curse. “Typically, we've just gotten unlucky with the weather here and with that bad weather, the courses play so different than what we're used to. And I think right now it's playing a little bit more like how I would see it when I'm home most of the year.” 

Sigg pointed out that the courses are different when in the hands of PGA Tour rules officials, who get the greens faster, tuck the pins and try to make them as long as possible. 

“The pins are definitely in some harder places out there, greens are a little faster than what we normally see,” he said. “But I think we've got some guys up there going into the weekend so hopefully we can get it done this week. I don't really know what it is. I don't think any of us can answer that. I think we all know this golf course very well, but think it's just golf, man. It's a weird sport.” 

Patrick Rodgers is in the hunt again 

If the St. Simons Curse rears again, there would be few stories worth rooting for more than Patrick Rodgers. 

Rodgers has earned $18.2 million without a PGA Tour victory in 11 years as a professional, more than any non-winner except Denny McCarthy (who’s tied for 46^th entering the weekend) and Byeong Hun An (tied for 59^th). 

Rodgers has 14 career top-five finishes and four seconds, including a playoff loss to Charles Howell III in the 2018 RSM Classic. Rodgers has three top-10s at Sea Island, the most recent a tie for 10^th in 2023.

He’s 63^rd on the FedEx Cup Fall points list, so he’s secure for next season. 

“I have a lot of great memories here ... this is a special event,” he said. “I've had a lot of good chances over the weekends here at Sea Island and just a spectacular place, a great way to cap off the year. Everyone's got stuff to play for. I'm not fighting for my job, so hopefully I can use that to my advantage. But more than that, it's just trying to put one good shot one after another and see what they add up to at the end.” 

Five past RSM champions miss cut 

The cut claimed four past RSM Classic champions, Adam Svensson (2022), Tyler Duncan (2019), Tommy Gainey (2012), Austin Cook (2017) and Robert Streb (2014, 2020). 

Also missing the weekend will be St. Simons Island’s three major champions in residence, Love, Harman and Johnson, last week’s winner in Bermuda, Adam Schenk, and Luke Clanton, who tied for second at the 2024 RSM Classic as an amateur.