Now Scheffler, once again a 4-1 pre-tournament favorite and the clear-cut No. 1 player in the world, leads the field for this week’s signature event at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina. Keep in mind, though, that he and wife Meredith are due to welcome their first child perhaps as early as this week, so he could be a risk to withdraw from the tournament. Scheffler’s best friend on the PGA Tour, Sam Burns (45-1) is in the same situation.

Xander Schauffele (11-1), fourth at last year’s RBC Heritage, rose to No. 3 in the OWGR with an eighth-place finish at Augusta National. He got onto the first page of the leaderboard eventually but never completely recovered from starting 2 over after four holes on Thursday.

Rory McIlroy (12-1), paired with Scheffler and Schauffele for the first two rounds last week, never got anything going and his major championship drought continues as does his quest to complete the career Grand Slam, which will have to wait for yet another year.

Åberg (14-1) showed that he is going to be a fixture on leaderboards at major championships for years to come with a runner-up in his first career major having led the field for Strokes Gained: Putting and finishing second for Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.

Patrick Cantlay (16-1) shot a 76 on Sunday to fall out of the top 20 last week but has always been a horse for this course at Harbour Town Golf Links with four top-3 finishes in his last six appearances, including a runner-up two years ago behind Jordan Spieth (28-1), who missed the cut at Augusta and continues to battle left wrist issues.

Spieth lost in a playoff here last year to Matt Fitzpatrick (22-1), who fell outside of the top 20 late in his Sunday round at the Masters but returns to Hilton Head as the defending champion.

Morikawa (20-1) and Tommy Fleetwood (20-1) finished T-3 last weekend along with Homa (22-1).

Will Zalatoris (28-1) and Cameron Young (33-1) both finished inside the top 10 last weekend with a T-9.

Every eligible player inside the OWGR Top 30 except for Hideki Matsuyama and Viktor Hovland will be in attendance this week in Hilton Head.

The RBC Heritage was established in 1969 as the Heritage Classic and the inaugural event was won by “The King” himself Arnold Palmer at just 1 under par (283), which is still the highest score to win this event. Harbour Town Golf Links at Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C., has been the event’s host since its inception. RBC, the Royal Bank of Canada, has been the event’s title sponsor since 2012. Except for 2020 (due to COVID-19), the RBC Heritage has been played the week following the Masters since 1983.

Ten men have won this tournament more than once through 2021.

5 wins

Davis Love III: 1987, 1991, 1992, 1998, 2003

3 wins

Hale Irwin: 1971, 1973, 1994

Stewart Cink: 2000, 2004, 2021

2 wins

Johnny Miller: 1972, 1974

Hubert Green: 1976, 1978

Tom Watson: 1979, 1982

Fuzzy Zoeller: 1983, 1986

Payne Stewart: 1989, 1990

Boo Weekley: 2007, 2008

Jim Furyk: 2010, 2015

Other notable winners here include Jack Nicklaus (1975), Nick Faldo (1984), Bernhard Langer (1985), Greg Norman (1988), Nick Price (1997) and Jordan Spieth (2022).

The RBC Heritage is another limited-field, no-cut event, smaller than even the Masters with only 69 players scheduled to compete. Most elite players rarely play the week after a major. However, this is a Signature Event with a $20 million purse, including a $3.6 million share to the winner, along with PIP (Player Impact Program) requirements, The last three winners of this event, Fitzpatrick, Spieth and Stewart Cink participated in the Masters the week before.

Field Notes

The Aon Next 10 in this week’s field are: Ludvig Åberg, Matthieu Pavon, Will Zalatoris, Stephan Jaeger, Akshay Bhatia, Jake Knapp, Christiaan Bezuidenhout, Peter Malnati, Austin Eckroat and Erik van Rooyen.

The Aon Swing 5 in this week’s field are: Brice Garnett, Erik Barnes, Thomas Detry, Chandler Phillips and Alejandro Tosti.

Kevin Kisner, Shane Lowry, Webb Simpson and Gary Woodland are in the field on Sponsor Exemptions.

​Harbour Town Golf Links was designed in 1967 by Pete Dye and assisted by Jack Nicklaus, which was the first foray into course design for the “Golden Bear.” Harbour Town plays as a par-71 of 7,213 yards. It is a Coastal links that is tree-lined with doglegs and narrow sight lines off the tee as you will find with most courses in the Carolinas. The trees can also disguise the wind. Some of these doglegs force you to lay up off the tee with less than driver.

The fairways and rough are overseeded Ryegrass and the greens are overseeded Poa Trivialis. The rough was shortened from last year and will be around 1.3 inches this year. The average fairway width is around 33.5 yards, which is less than tour average, so ball striking has an even greater importance. The tiny, dome-shaped greens (a Dye trademark) average around 3,700 square feet and are the second smallest on the PGA Tour and will roll at an average speed (11.5) on the stimpmeter.

Water comes into play on nine holes with six of those affecting approach shots.

Harbour Town is a par-71 course with three par-5s and 11 par-4s. Two of the three par-5s are easily reachable in two shots and offer an excellent chance at birdie or eagle. Overall, the par-4s measure very short compared with the average. Seven of them play under 450 yards with none longer than 475. While eight have historically played over par, that number has gotten closer to even over the last few tournaments. While the par-4s and par-5s are average in difficulty, the four par-3s rank as the ninth toughest on tour, each playing over 190 yards.

Most of the first 16 holes at Harbour Town play inland as the course weaves through natural woodlands that are surrounded by a residential housing development.

The 17th and 18th holes are the highlights at Harbour Town. The 17th hole is a par-3 with a beautiful background of the Calibogue Sound. It plays 185 yards over water to a green fronted by a large bunker that runs the entire length to the left side with bunkers on the right.

The 18th is one of the most famous holes on the PGA Tour. It is a tough par-4 that features the recognizable 90-foot Harbour Town Lighthouse. Though it has a massive 75-yard fairway, it plays as one of the most difficult holes on the course due to the water that lines the left side of the hole along with the wind gusts that blow off the Calibogue Sound right into the player’s face.

Pete Dye is the designer, and there are several Dye courses every year on the PGA Tour schedule if you are looking for a course correlation. They include:

Austin Country Club — WGC Dell Match Play since 2016

Crooked Stick — 2012 and 2016 BMW Championship.

Ocean Course, Kiawah Island — 2012 and 2021 PGA Championship

TPC River Highlands — The Travelers

TPC Louisiana — Zurich Classic of New Orleans

TPC Sawgrass — The Players Championship

TPC Stadium, PGA West — The American Express since 2016

Whistling Straits — 2010 and 2015 PGA Championship

Aside from the Dye designs (especially TPC River Highlands and TPC Sawgrass), other courses with strong correlations include Waialae CC, Sedgefield CC and Sea Island Resort.

Masters Hangover

From 2010-2023, only four players finished top 5 at the Masters and the following week at the RBC Heritage (2011: Luke Donald, T-4 Masters, T-2 RBC Heritage; 2014: Matt Kuchar, T-5 Masters, 1st RBC Heritage, 2022: Shane Lowry, T-3 Masters; T-3 RBC Heritage; 2023: Jordan Spieth, T-4 Masters, 2nd RBC Heritage).

This angle may not be as effective as in past years, though, with the RBC Heritage now being a signature event and such an elite field now taking part.

In eight of the last 11 years, the eventual winner has been two or more strokes off the lead after 54 holes (in-play wagering).

’22: Spieth 3 back, ’21: Cink 5 ahead, ’20: Simpson tied for lead, ’19: Pan 2 back, ’18: Kodaira 6 back, ’17: Bryan 4 back, ’16: Grace 3 back, ’15: Furyk 4 back, ’14: Kuchar 4 back, ’13: McDowell 4 back.

Only three 54-hole leaders over the last 11 years have gone on to win here: Carl Pettersson, 2012; Stewart Cink, 2021; Matt Fitzpatrick, 2023.

Patrick Cantlay (18-1, Circa Sports)

Cantlay has not exactly gotten off to a flying start in 2024 and finished last week’s Masters with a disappointing Sunday round of 76.

Nonetheless, he is a horse for this course at Harbour Town with four top-3 finishes in his last six appearances.

Tommy Fleetwood (21-1, Circa Sports)

Fleetwood has found form of late finishing 10th at the Genesis, seventh in Texas before his third-place finish at Augusta.

He has finished 15th and 10th here the last two years and his game fits this course very well, so this could be the venue where he finally earns his long-awaited first PGA Tour victory.

Cameron Young (28-1, BetMGM)

Speaking of first PGA Tour victories, Young is still looking for his maiden.

Young finished ninth at the Masters, gaining 4.8 strokes off the tee, 2.3 strokes on approach and three strokes putting and finished third here two years ago.

Tom Kim (50-1, Circa Sports)

Tom Kim finished a nondescript 30th at the Masters last week but shot the low round of the day on Sunday by two strokes with a 6-under 66 and can carry some positive momentum into this week.

In addition to having posted a runner-up finish at the British Open plus two top-10s in the Scottish Open over the last two seasons, we know he is comfortable in the wind.

RBC Heritage betting at BetMGM

Favorites
▪️ Scottie Scheffler +400
▪️ Xander Schauffele +1200
▪️ Ludvig Aberg +1400

Highest Ticket%
▪️ Scheffler 18.3%
▪️ Aberg 8.8%
▪️ Schauffele 8.5%

Highest Handle%
▪️ Scheffler 21.2%
▪️ Aberg 9.4%
▪️ Schauffele 8.2%