The PGA Tour returns with a Signature Event in the shape of the RBC Heritage from Harbour Town.
Once simply the event after the Masters, its elevation to Signature Event status keeps most of the PGA Tour's best back together for one more week.
While Augusta National allows players to largely hit the ball as far and wide as they want, the short Harbour Town demands more precision off the tee, navigating trees and dog-legs. Indeed, driver is taken out of players’ hands on many holes on what is more of a second-shot golf course, and the average SG: OTT rank of the last 10 winners is just 28th as per Golf Betting System.
Played on the South Carolina coast, the RBC Heritage can be and often is wind-affected, so players who can control their ball in the breeze are at an advantage.
Strong drivers see their biggest asset negated somewhat at Harbour Town, one of several similarities the course shares with Pebble Beach on the other side of the country.
While fairways are much narrower than at Pebble Beach, driving distance remains largely irrelevant. Players are aiming for small greens that are inevitably missed, so savvy chippers should relish the test. The Pebble Beach comparisons don’t stop there, either, with Jordan Spieth, Brandt Snedeker and Graeme McDowell previous RBC Heritage winners to have also triumphed at Pebble.
After the lightning-fast bentgrass greens of Augusta, players face slower Poa trivialis surfaces this week.
Rory McIlroy takes the week off after his Masters win leaving Scottie Scheffler as the big favourite.
Scheffler tops our Power Rankings for the RBC Heritage, but who rounds out the top five? Find out below.
5 - Tommy Fleetwood
Despite the eagles and general good scoring early on, Tommy Fleetwood never quite looked fully comfortable at Augusta last week.
Fleetwood was T4 going into the weekend at Augusta but a Saturday 73 meant he couldn’t capitalise on McIlroy’s stumble and a Sunday 76 capped off a rather disappointing week for the Englishman.
Fleetwood returns to a venue that should be more to his liking. Harbour Town won’t penalise his lack of distance and requires excellent iron play, especially with wedges and there aren’t many better in the game with scoring clubs than Fleetwood.
Although situated by the coast and sharing characteristics with Pebble Beach, Harbour Town is tree-lined and winds its way inland, so it’s not like quite the tests seen on the British links, but the ability to navigate the wind is often important, something Fleetwood does as well as anyone else.
The 35-year-old was T10 and T15 in 2022 and 2023, and was three back of the lead going into Sunday last year before an underwhelming 70 meant he had to settle for a solo-seventh finish.
It was an impressive result nonetheless, and Fleetwood should relish being back by the coast.
4 - Russell Henley
In theory, Harbour Town should be an ideal venue for Russell Henley. His lack of distance is negated, while his excellent iron play and short game can separate him from the field.
And after four missed cuts in his first seven appearances, Henley seems to have got to grips with Harbour Town, posting recent form figures of T9-MC-T19-T12-T8.
The 37-year-old celebrated his birthday on Masters Sunday, where he briefly found himself within one of the lead and actually had a putt to move into a share of it.
It was an impressive way to bounce back after a missed cut at the Valero Texas Open – just the second time in his previous 15 events dating back to last June in which the Georgian finished outside the top 20.
Playing well at a venue that certainly suits him, Henley will feel confident about his chances this week.
3 - Xander Schauffele
His T9 at the Masters represented a fourth straight top-10 finish at Augusta for Xander Schauffele, and even more impressively, a 15th top-20 finish in his last 16 majors.
Schauffele absolutely relishes the test of putting himself up against the best players in the world and he gets the opportunity to do so again this week at an event where he’s finished 4-T18-T18 in his last three appearances.
Schauffele ranked first in the field for SG: Ball-striking at Augusta and was let down by an uncharacteristically poor showing on and around the greens.
Harbour Town doesn’t pose the same short game test that Augusta does, and if the two-time major champion can tidy that part of his game up, he shouldn’t be far out of contention come Sunday.
2 - Patrick Cantlay
There are some courses Patrick Cantlay just loves: Muirfield Village, Pebble Beach, Riviera, TPC River Highlands to name but a few. Harbour Town is very much another.
In eight appearances, he has a ridiculous five top-three finishes, and last year’s T13 was seen as a real disappointment.
Cantlay lost in a play-off to Jordan Spieth in 2022 and was in the final group on Sunday the following year, missing out on another play-off by a shot.
Last week, Cantlay finished T12 at Augusta, a course he’s never had a lot of success at, making it his second best effort in the Masters.
In good form and returning to one of his favourite venues, it would be a surprise not to see Cantlay prominent on the leaderboard this week.
1 - Scottie Scheffler
Reports of Scottie Scheffler’s demise may have been greatly exaggerated. Incredibly, you had to go all the way back to August 2022 to find the last time Scheffler finished outside of the top 10 in three consecutive events, so question marks about his game were fair, but starting his Masters campaign -3 through three holes reminded everyone how quickly he can turn it on.
The surprise is that he played his next 33 holes three-over-par. Rallying on Saturday with a 65, Scheffler continued creeping up the leaderboard on Sunday and was briefly tied with McIlroy on -9.
Ultimately, too much damage was done in the first two rounds, and Scheffler finished one back of McIlroy.
But Scheffler’s approach play started to look like its old level in what was a warning shot to the rest of the PGA Tour.
His A-game might not quite be there, but his B-game is enough to contend for majors and he’s returning to one of countless venues where he’s won before.
In three appearances at Harbour Town, Scheffler has form figures of T11-1-T8, and in the absence of McIlroy, is a very worthy favourite this week.
