RBC Heritage Power Rankings

The dust may never settle from the 2025 US Masters, but the show must go on, and the PGA Tour heads to Harbour Town for the RBC Heritage.

Many of the world’s best will head to South Carolina for the fifth Signature Event of the season, with Hideki Matsuyama, Rory McIlroy, Ludvig Aberg and Russell Henley winning the previous four.

While at Augusta National players are encouraged to hit the ball as far as they can off the tee, the approach at Harbour Town will be different. Drivers will largely be left in the bag as players are forced to think their way around the short, tree-lined course.

It’s a venue with small greens that will be missed, making approach play and scrambling hugely important.

Last year’s champion Scottie Scheffler features highly in our RBC Heritage Power Rankings, but who completes the top five? Find out below.

5 - Justin Thomas

Despite his length, Justin Thomas actually fares surprisingly well on short courses thanks to his elite iron play and short game.

Thomas has a solid record at Harbour Town, finishing fifth last year. On other short courses, Thomas has won at the former Honda Classic (now the Cognizant Classic); he’s won the Players at TPC Sawgrass and was sixth at the Pebble Beach Pro-Am last year, and has T9 and T5 finishes at the Travelers Championship since its switch to a Signature Event two years ago.

While his long game was uncharacteristically poor at the Masters, his short game was still strong, and it’s that facet that could see him contend at the RBC Heritage again.

Not having the mental slog that comes with being in contention at Augusta is unlikely to hurt Thomas’s chances, and he can return to form this week.

4 - Shane Lowry

A seaside course that demands accuracy and an excellent short game? Look no further than Shane Lowry.

Lowry played superbly at Augusta over the first three rounds but completely unravelled on Sunday, finishing +9 for the day and it may be that being in those final groups over the weekend has taken a bit too much out of the Irishman, but he’s in a similar position to a few players in the field this week.

Harbour Town won’t reward any bombers; it will reward players who can plot their way around and Lowry is more than capable.

Surprisingly, his last two finishes at Harbour Town are T64-T67, but prior to that, his form figures read T3-MC-T9-T3, so he certainly knows how to get around.

Looking at the list of winners, it’s been a lot of shorter hitters, golfing artists and players who can grind out a round. Jim Furyk, Webb Simpson, Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Graeme McDowell, Justin Leonard, Stewart Cink, Payne Stewart and Greg Norman are all players who won either a US Open or Open Championship, and Lowry could well add his name to that list this week.

3 - Patrick Cantlay

While Augusta National has never quite seemed to fit Patrick Cantlay’s eye, Harbour Town most certainly has.

Cantlay’s form at Hilton Head reads T3-T7-T3-MC-2-3-T3, and it’s perhaps Cantlay’s most successful venue that he’s yet to win at. Cantlay is also comfortable on other short courses, and has seven straight top-15s at TPC River Highlands and has been in the top 15 in four of his last five outings at Pebble Beach.

Regarding his form this year, Cantlay has been a little more patchy, with top-fives at the American American Express and the Genesis Invitational in his more familiar west coast surroundings, but has been outside the top 30 in three of his last four starts.

Despite not appearing on many leaderboards of late, Cantlay’s iron play has been excellent and he can put it to full use this week.

2 - Collin Morikawa

Collin Morikawa was three shots ahead of Scottie Scheffler going into the weekend at the RBC Heritage last year and only two shots back going into the final round, but a disappointing 72 saw him finish ninth after finding water twice on the Sunday.

At a short course that rewards accuracy over distance, Morikawa can build on his two top-10 finishes from the last four years.

His Masters performance was a little underwhelming in the end having got to -3 on the Thursday before closing with three bogeys in four holes and he never really got back into contention.

Nevertheless, his iron play was excellent, and he won’t be penalised for his short driving at Harbour Town.

And to give an idea of how well Morikawa is playing, he’s just finished T14 at the Masters in his worst performance of the season.

1 - Scottie Scheffler

Finishing 11th on debut and winning the year after, Scheffler is aided by the absence of Rory McIlroy from this year’s tournament.

Harbour Town is not a course that rewards long driving – you need to plot your way around. It’s much more akin to a TPC Sawgrass than an Augusta National, and owing to the small greens, you’ll need a top notch short game to get around.

It’s hard to know exactly what happened to Scottie Scheffler in the middle two rounds of the US Masters, when he carded five bogeys on Friday and just two birdies on Saturday. It was an uncharacteristically poor ball striking display that was enough to keep him out of contention, and yet he still finished fourth with his C-game.

And that’s what makes Scheffler so dangerous week after week; his C-game is better than most people’s B-game, and his B-game is better than everyone else’s A-game.

Scheffler seems to relish short courses – winning at TPC Sawgrass, Harbour Town and TPC River Highlands last season, and he’ll expect to go close once again this week.