The RBC Heritage has an unenviable spot on the PGA Tour calendar.
Scheduled the week after the Masters, you’d think the tournament would struggle to attract star power and fan interest.
But this year’s RBC Heritage has been designated as an “elevated event,” which means there’s a $20 million prize pool and incentives for the top players in the world to make the two-hour trip from Augusta to Harbour Town.
Scottie Scheffler and Jon Rahm, fresh off his Masters victory, are the co-favorites this week at +850, but they’ve got plenty of company at the top of the board.
Patrick Cantlay (+1100), Collin Morikawa (+1800), and defending champion Jordan Spieth (+1800) round out the top-five in the betting market, but other star players like Cam Young (+2000), Viktor Hovland (+2500), Xander Schauffele (+2600), Justin Thomas (+2600) and Sungjae Im (+2700) are pretty easy to make a case for this week, too.
Harbour Town is a Pete Dye-designed golf course that relies on tree-lined fairways, small greens, and water to ensure that you can’t just overpower the track with distance off the tee.
A reliable short game really matters here, and the fact that shorter hitters can succeed has made it a happy hunting ground for long shots in years past – though that may be a bit tougher considering the field strength this time around.
Regardless, let’s look at some big prices on a few golfers that have a chance to make some noise this week, beginning Thursday.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Tommy Fleetwood still hasn’t won a PGA Tour event. The Merseyside, England native was — once again — a pretty trendy pick at the Masters, but he never threatened to contend and wound up T33 at 3-over par. Still, it’s hard to look away from Fleetwood at a bigger number than he was last week at another course that should play into his strengths.
Fleetwood boasts a strong short game and finished T3 at the Valspar one week before Augusta, so it’s not like he’s out of form.
Known for his prowess on Pete Dye courses, Si Woo Kim lost in a playoff to Satoshi Kodaira at this event back in 2018.
Suffice to say, Kim is a much stronger golfer now than he was five years ago.
Back then, Kim was known as a player who could get white hot on a moment’s notice but had a very low floor because of inconsistent play and his propensity to meltdown.
But Kim seems to have shaken that reputation this year.
The South Korean has missed one cut in 2023 and he’s already lifted one trophy to go along with four top-25 finishes and six top-30 results in nine starts.
Kim has enough win equity at this event to justify a play at this number.
Mackenzie Hughes’ name will always get thrown around as a long shot at courses like Harbour Town.
A short hitter who relies on a nifty short game, Hughes’ skillset should be a match for this course.
Whether or not the rest of his game is strong enough for him to contend is a legitimate question, but he’s a long shot to have circled as a potential outright play, a top-20 bet or as a cheap DFS option.