A period of the season generally focused on those aiming to earn PGA Tour playing privileges, FedEx Cup Fall has turned into something different for those who can afford it. Without the pressure of having to perform for the sake of one's job security, players like Scottie Scheffler at the Procore Championship, Xander Schauffele at the Baycurrent Classic and Ben Griffin at the World Wide Technology Championship have taken advantage.
And now, through 36 holes of the season-ending RSM Classic, that equivalent player looks to be Andrew Novak, who followed an opening 61 on the Seaside Course with a stellar 65 on the Plantation Course to sit at 16 under entering Moving Day.
"That's such an advantage this week," Novak said. "I had a baby two weeks ago. I'm just here getting out of the house and happy to be here, and other guys are fighting for their job[s]. That is a huge advantage for me this week. I've got a little bit less riding on it. I definitely want to win. It's a local tournament, so there is extra motivation for me to play well here for that. But some guys have their entire years riding on this week."
Novak is no stranger to these parts -- both Sea Island, where he resides with his wife and newborn, and FedEx Cup Fall, where he has been under the microscope before. In 2023, Novak nearly missed the cut in his home event but was able to salvage a bogey on his 36th hole to sneak into the weekend and retain his full-time status.
"It was awful. I think they made a video of it or something," Novak said. "All I had to do was make the cut to keep my card, and I was looking safe, hit a ball in a tree, and it got stuck in a tree on the last hole, and I had to come back. I birdied my second ball, basically to make the cut on the number. 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."
Novak parlayed that into the best season of his career in 2024, and he once again upped the stakes in 2025 where he went from a middling PGA Tour player to as high as the world No. 30. Novak qualified for the Tour Championship for the first time in his career as well, which means a debut appearance is in store next April at the Masters.
Close calls were abundant -- namely at the Farmers Insurance Open, Texas Open and RBC Heritage -- during his ascent, and to his credit, Novak kept his nose to the grindstone despite the shortcomings. He was finally able to break through for his first PGA Tour win alongside Griffin at the Zurich Classic.
Now, he's eyeing another trophy to bring home with an opportunity to enter the winner's circle for the first time in an individual effort, even if ideal scoring conditions on Sea Island are not what Novak would prefer.
"I would say historically I've been much better on tougher golf courses," Novak said. "I think probably my strength is my short game and I might have chipped three times all week. Not even probably. Really haven't had to chip much. I don't know, I think some of the advantages is just my home course, I know how these courses play, I know where I want to be on holes and I'm taking advantage of it and making a lot of putts."
Novak holds discernible edges over his peers inside the top 10 of this leaderboard. The tangible can be quantified with strokes-gained data and statistics, but the intangible is what really matters at this point of the season.
Everyone else on the first page of the leaderboard sits on a bubble of sort -- the Aon Next 10 who qualify for the first two signature events of 2026, the top 100 who retain full-time PGA Tour cards and even the various cut-off points for conditional status. They're all looking over their shoulders to make sure they do just enough to eclipse these marks. Meanwhile without the added pressure of what could go wrong, Novak is doing everything right and has set his sights in a different direction, forward.