Weekly Recap: Streb Refuses to Ebb

Just about everyone who plays any kind of fantasy golf knows who Robert Streb is. But you'd be forgiven if you had forgotten about him. Like a lot of golfers on the PGA Tour, Streb is almost always in the background, and often only on Thursday and Friday. A couple times a year he pokes his head out, most likely in the fall or in a lesser event.

One of those is The RSM Classic, which he won in 2015. And now that he has won it again, defeating Kevin Kisner in a playoff on Sunday, he is the first two-time winner of the annual Tour stop on St. Simons Island, Ga.

Streb had nine top-10s in his breakthrough 2014-15 season. He has had nine since then. The past three years, he missed way more cuts than he made, never finishing in the top 125 and falling to nearly 400th in the world rankings. So, his $6,300 price on DraftKings and 300-1 odds on golfodds.com were warranted. But there's clearly something about the RSM Classic that agrees with him. Asked on Golf Channel what that something was, Streb said, "I don't have an answer for you."

Alrighty then.

In truth, Streb didn't do anything exceptionally well during the week. He was decent all around, with his best strokes-gained category being putting, in which he ranked ninth. He was only 36th in SG: Approach. But he delivered when he needed it most.

On the first playoff hole, Kisner had the advantage. Streb calmly sank a nine-foot par putt to extend the match. On the next hole, he nearly jarred his pitching wedge before tapping in for a walk-off birdie.

So, we'll be seeing a lot more of the 33-year-old Streb in the foreseeable future. But with only two other top-10s the past two years, both at the alternate-field Barracuda Championship, we really can't look at this win as some sort of elixir for his career, at least from our perspective.

Don't feel too bad for Streb, though.

In one fell swoop, he not only passed $10 million in career earnings, but $11 million, too. About 20 percent of that, across Streb's nine seasons and 214 events on Tour, is thanks to two stellar weeks at The RSM Classic..

MONDAY BACKSPIN

Kevin Kisner
Kisner has a reputation as being a fierce, tough competitor. It comes from his scowl, plus winning and finishing second in the WGC-Match Play. But the feeling here is that Kisner has left a lot on the table in his career – either that or he's not quite as good as his reputation. He's 36 years old and won three times. He has nine runners-up, more than half of them coming in playoffs. Which means he's 0-5 in playoffs. He's been ranked as high as 14th but spent very little total time in the top-25. So much of what Kisner has accomplished has come at the RSM. He has a win there and five top-10s through the years. He's had only a collective 13 top-10s on Tour the past three seasons. And now he's lost to Robert Streb. This is not to say that his prices/odds have been inflated; DraftKings and others price him accordingly. He was only $8,600 on the DK board. So don't get caught up in the narrative. Kisner is a good golfer who's had some great moments in his career. Nothing more.

Zach Johnson
Playing in the final group with Streb, Johnson did not have the Sunday he wanted. He ended up tied for sixth. What that high finish did to, however, was move Johnson back inside the top-100 OWGR (from 120th to 98th) for the first time in about 17 months. It's quite a recovery for the 44-year-old, who had fallen outside the top-250 earlier this year. Through the years, Johnson has always made a lot of cuts. Of late, he's been doing a lot more than just reaching the weekend.

Bernd Wiesberger
The veteran Austrian has not played a ton on the PGA Tour – 56 total tournaments dating back to 2012 before the RSM. And that includes majors and WGCs. He had had very little success in "regular" Tour events before his tie for fourth on Sunday. In fact, it's only his second top-10 – and the first came in a WGC in 2018 (T9, China). Of all the top Euro players, Wiesberger has had perhaps the most trouble acclimating to U.S. courses. This wasn't a complete cupcake field, either. Far from it. Maybe this is the start of getting the hang of things here.

Davis Thompson
The No. 1-ranked amateur in the world from the University of Georgia played in the RSM last year and finished in the top-25, so he got a lot of attention this time around. But with the field being significantly stronger, Thompson missed the cut by a wide margin. He also missed the cut at the U.S. Open over the summer, although he was among the early leaders on Thursday. With his pedigree and being a senior at Georgia, we should be hearing lots more from Thompson in the near future.

The Top-50 Crew

More on other players trying to stay in or get in the top-50: Matt Wallace has had a difficult season. He tied for 37th at the RSM. Nothing great, but it did nudge him from 53rd to 50th in the OWGR. He'll have to do more to stay there by year's end, but at least he's there now. Corey Conners moved up to 54th with his impressive tie for 10th; it behooves him to play Mayakoba in two weeks. Ditto Russell Henley, who tied for 30th and stands 55th OWGR.

Ian Poulter
Poulter did not have a good week (T50) when he needed one. But, he did inch up from 47th to 46th in the world rankings, as he looks to stay in the top-50 at year's end to lock up a Masters berth. It's not known whether Poulter will be at Mayakoba in two weeks, but the guess is that he'll be in Dubai in three weeks for the European Tour's season-ending DP World Tour Championship. Meanwhile, Poulter's English countryman Lee Westwood missed the cut and fell from 46th to 47th; he also needs to stay in the top-50 to lock up a Masters berth.

Joaquin Niemann
Niemann was not only was returning from a positive COVID test that cost him the Masters, his thoughts were with his 1-month-old cousin who was born with a rare genetic disease. He pledged his entire check and more for the baby's treatment. The tie for 44th wasn't what he wanted, but it must've been very hard to play this week. At least he didn't hurt his world ranking; he stayed at 43rd, which should ensure he remains in the top-50 by year's end, thereby getting him into the Masters field (again) next April.

Sungjae Im
Missing the cut just days after being in contention at a major for the first time is completely understandable, if not expected. Sebastian Munoz wasn't contending at the masters like Im was, but likewise probably could've taken the week off just to decompress after such an intense week. They both could be good options if they are in the field in two weeks at Mayakoba. Munoz stands 56th OWGR and would be trying to get into the top-50 in the final PGA Tour event of the year.

Andy Sullivan
Sullivan was not in the Masters like so many other internationals who flooded the RSM field. At first it was curious as to why he had flown across the Atlantic for a second-tier tournament. But he's an RSM guy, so that explained things. He missed the cut.
 
Takumi Kanaya
The former world No. 1 amateur won his first tournament as a pro, the Dunlop Phoenix on the Japan Tour. It was not a good field by any metric -- Shugo Imahira, Ryo Ishikawa and American Chan Kim were the other headliners. But Kanaya, 22, also recently tied for 41st at the ZOZO Championship. He has now moved to 126th in the world. It's not inconceivable he could crack the top 50 in the world rankings within the next few months, perhaps even securing a berth in the Masters next April.

Medical Extensions

Camilo Villegas
Villegas is still grieving the loss of his 22-month-old daughter earlier this year while trying to resurrect his career. Now 38, the Colombian was playing under a major medical extension and turned in his first top-10 in four seasons with his tie for sixth. That was good for 89 FedEx points, a good chunk of what he will need to keep his card. He has seven starts left to accumulate about 157 points. Very doable but far from a done deal. Villegas was only $6,000 on DraftKings – that's the lowest there was – and was ranked in the 800s. He's now in the 400s after his best finish on Tour since his runner-up at the 2016 RSM.

There were a lot of players in the field on MMEs. Villegas fared the best, but some others did well, too. John Huh tied for 12th, Chris Kirk tied for 18th, Sean O'Hair tied for 59th and Kevin Chappell was 65th, while James Hahn, Jamie Lovemark, D.A. Points and Kevin Stadler missed the cut. Kirk is in the most critical position, with only two events left to meet the conditions of his extension. You can read the specifics of all of them on PGATour.com.
 
Kevin Stadler
We wanted to talk more about Stadler because he is a fascinating story. He hasn't made a cut on the PGA Tour since 2014, the year he won his lone event. He's played only 28 worldwide tournaments since 2015, as his career became derailed by injury. He last made a cut anywhere in 2018, once in Europe and twice on the Korn Ferry Tour. But that MME continues to get him in tournaments. He entered the RSM having gone zero for nine in cuts in 2020. Technically, he didn't miss the cut at the RSM. That's only because he was disqualified on Friday after shooting an 83 and signing an incorrect scorecard. Stadler actually still has 17 tournaments left to earn about $717,000 or 450-plus FedEx points to keep his card. He won't get there, but with so many tournaments left to try, he should be around for a while.