The week after The Masters is always an interesting spot on the schedule as typically many of the big names choose to take it off to recharge before the meat of the season. This year, though, there is a much stronger field with just short of 40 of the players who teed it up in Augusta traveling East to Hilton Head for the RBC Heritage.
It’s hard to pinpoint exact reasons behind this sudden change, but following the COVID break last year, this event was one of the first tournaments back and it attracted a lot more players than usual. Those players may have found this course to be a fit to their game, or they simply want to get another traditional tournament in with the partner tournament ahead next week at the Zurich Classic.
Dustin Johnson headlines the field as the World No. 1 looks to bounce back after a missed cut in his title defense at The Masters. Collin Morikawa, Tyrrell Hatton, Webb Simpson and Patrick Cantlay are the other players from the current top 10 in the Official World Golf Rankings who have made their way to Hilton Head for this tournament. Webb comes in as the defending champion from last June and off a tie for 12th in Augusta. Some other notables set to compete are Daniel Berger, Paul Casey and Masters runner-up Will Zalatoris.
Top to bottom, this is a really strong field — not just for the week after a major. It will be fun to see these top level golfers look to attack this Pete Dye track, which requires precision in placement off the tee and elite iron play. This is a less than driver course, putting the premium on accuracy rather than distance. Let’s get into that course breakdown to lay out the key holes and statistics that will be a factor this week.
Course Preview
Harbour Town Golf Links
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina: 7,121-yard Par 71
- Bermudagrass Greens, overseeded with Poa
- Stimpmeter – 11.5
- Rough .75″ bermudagrass, overseeded with rye (essentially no rough)
- Water in play on all 18 holes
- Added teeing grounds to the 17th following the 2020 RBC Heritage
Harbour Town Golf Links is a Pete Dye design on the coast of South Carolina. It is a short course protected mostly by wind, but it also has some of the smallest greens on TOUR averaging more than 3,700 square feet. The finishing holes of 17 and 18 all run along the sound, and are heavily exposed to any winds that may be prevalent during the day.
In 2020, the wind was down and the course played considerably easier than it has in its traditional spot on the calendar in April.
Last year Webb Simpson was able to outlast Abraham Ancer by one shot at 22-under as Simpson shot a final round 64 en route to victory. His 262 total was the lowest in history and 10 shots better than each of the two prior winners of the event in 2018 and 2019. Going back even further, 2016 saw single digits under par, which tells us that the June version of this tournament was likely an outlier to typical results.
As we look down the key holes of the course, the first thing that stands out is the Par 3 14th, which often plays as the most difficult of the bunch. It’s played nearly a quarter stroke over par on average, and yields less than a 10% birdie rate while piling up bogeys or worse over 25% of the time. It’s only a 192-yard hole on the scorecard this year, but with water running down the right side of the entire hole, they only place to miss is left. That miss also creates a difficult up and down going back towards the water. The field will be ecstatic to walk away with four pars across the event on this hole this week.
The next three most difficult holes are similar in length and all Par 4s — the eighth, 18th and third are all from 469-473 yards in length and rank, in order, as the next three toughest on the track.
The key to the eighth hole is a well placed drive as there are well placed trees around this dogleg hole and any blocked out tee shot leaves a difficult approach to a hole with water all down the left side of the green. It is listed as the toughest hole on the scorecard for good reason, and has yielded the least amount of birdies to the field at just over 9%. Once again, par will be a great score for players on this tough test.
The Par 4 finishing hole at 18 is full of drama. It typically requires less than driver off the tee to carry some marsh into a huge fairway that runs out into more marsh unless players choose to test the more expansive right side. This hole is fully exposed to winds, making the first two shots a bit dicey, but certainly so on the approach. There are more birdies available at the last with a dialed in iron, but a missed green is a bogey waiting to happen, which will make for interesting dynamics as the players close out their week on Sunday afternoon.
Now that we’ve gotten the tough holes out of the way, let’s take a look at the scoring opportunities.
It comes as no surprise that three of the four easiest holes are the three Par 5s at Harbour Town. The 15th is the toughest of that bunch, yielding next to no eagles and “only” a 25% birdie rate. It’s the only Par 5 on the back 9, highlighting the tougher of the two sides. The fifth and second rank as the two easiest holes on the course. They give up birdies 43% and 50% of the time, respectively, along with a better than 2% eagle rate. If your players aren’t scoring on these two holes, they are in trouble, because these are two of the few holes that can be attacked during the week at RBC Heritage.
Andy Lyons/Getty Images. Pictured: Webb Simpson
Course Horses
Webb Simpson (1-T16-T5-T11-T66)
It’s no surprise that the defending champion with the lowest four-round score on record at Harbour Town is one of the course horses this week. Webb has finished in the top 20 at this event in each of his last four appearances, including a top-five finish in 2018 and last year’s victory.
Matt Kuchar (T41-2-T23-T11-T9)
It is no secret how much Kuchar loves a good Pete Dye track, and Kuchar has made plenty of money at RBC Heritage in the week following The Masters. He certainly isn’t the player he once was, but showed better form in the weeks leading up to his missed cut at Augusta. He hasn’t missed the cut in any of the last five years at this event, and three of those resulted in top 11 or better finishes.
Ian Poulter (T14-T10-T7-T11-T54)
Similar to Kuchar, Ian Poulter has made a good run of results following The Masters. He comes in off a tie for 26th last week, and should be a name to watch for a top-15 type of result, as he has done in each of his last four trips to Harbour Town.
Patrick Cantlay (DNP-T3-T7-T3-DNP)
It was a bit curious for Cantlay to skip this event last year after the results he had shown, but there were certainly still a lot of unknowns around COVID protocols for these events at that time. He returns this year after burning me and many others in a dreadful appearance at The Masters. He will look to quickly shake that off as a place he has finished no worse than seventh in his last three trips, including a couple of third-place results.
