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The year's first major championship is officially in the books. It's no surprise that World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is leaving Augusta wearing a green jacket, as the big Texan won his second Masters title last week in a rather dominant fashion. It was his third win in his last four starts and I'm honestly running out of superlatives to describe what Scottie is doing at the moment.
While there's some natural letdown after the Masters, I'm a big fan of this week's event, the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.
Horse For The Course is an article that highlights players in this week's field with elite course history and is part of our free PGA DFS content here at RotoBaller. For my favorite DFS plays of the week check out my Core Four article here at RotoBaller every Wednesday. It's part of our amazing PGA Premium package that includes an all-new PGA Research Station, Lineup Builder & Optimizer, and some of the best articles in the PGA DFS industry! You can sign up now using Promo Code: NICE for an extra discount at checkout!
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2024 RBC Heritage
The annual spot on the schedule the week following the Masters could be a huge detriment for many events, but the RBC Heritage has not only survived but thrived, as the traditional follow-up to the year's first major championship. The Heritage has a bit of a home-field advantage, as its scenic locale of Hilton Head Island provides a tremendous environment for the pros - and their families - to decompress following the stresses of Augusta National. It also doesn't hurt that everyone in this week's field will receive a guaranteed payday courtesy of the PGA Tour's Signature Event designation.
There's a lot to love about Hilton Head, but this Harbour Town layout happens to be one of the most unique golf courses on the PGA Tour schedule. In a rare change from most Tour stops, distance and power off the tee give players basically no advantage on this Pete Dye design that's withstood the test of time. We're going "old school" this week...accuracy off the tee, precise iron play, and a great short game will all be required at Harbour Town. I love it when a golf course has some character!
While the RBC Heritage has traditionally attracted a rock-solid field, for the second consecutive year it has been deemed a Signature Event, which means we have an elite crop of golfers teeing it up at Harbour Town again this season, who will look to unseat defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick. This will be a limited field with no 36-hole cut, a wrinkle that should certainly be top of mind when constructing DFS lineups this week.
You can also find out who the smart money is on by checking out Spencer Aguiar's PGA DFS: Vegas Report every week. And be sure to read all of our other top-notch weekly PGA DFS articles to help you win big! This week's Horse For The Course contains excerpts from my Masters Bible, which contains outlooks for every player in this year's field. You can find it free by clicking here.
The Course: Harbour Town Golf Links
Par 71 - 7,121 Yards, Greens: Bermuda, Designed By: Pete Dye
This Pete Dye beauty is one of the shortest layouts these pros will face all year. Its lack of length is a refreshing change of pace from the stretched-to-the-max layouts that we routinely see on the PGA Tour schedule. While it may lack length, Harbour Town is by no means a pushover. Very tight, tree-lined fairways often take drivers out of the players' hands, forcing them to play strategically off the tee.
In true Dye fashion, this is a second-shot golf course and players will be aiming for minuscule greens that routinely grade out as some of the toughest to hit on the PGA Tour schedule. These factors make me give almost no weight to the bombers this week and I'll instead be focusing on players that are precise off the tee and accurate on approach.
Other than Pebble Beach, this course has the smallest greens on the PGA Tour schedule, so while it's an area that often goes overlooked in our PGA DFS corner of the world, I'll also be giving weight to around the green ability this week. Harbour Town is slightly similar to Augusta National in that we often see the same players perform well here every year, while first-timers can struggle, so I'm giving an even bigger bump than normal to players with strong course history.
Recent RBC Heritage Winners
- 2023: Matt Fitzpatrick (-17)
- 2022: Jordan Spieth (-13)
- 2021: Stewart Cink (-19)
- 2020: Webb Simpson (-22)
- 2019: CT Pan (-12)
The Horse
Patrick Cantlay
Besides his slow play, Cantlay's calling card has long been his consistency. The Californian has logged 33 top-10 finishes on the PGA Tour since the 2020-21 season, which trails only Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Xander Schauffele, and Rory McIlroy. However, Cantlay hasn't yet been as bankable in 2024, recording just a single top-10 (Genesis) across his eight starts this year while largely struggling with his irons.
He teed it up for the first time in nearly a month last week at the Masters and there were certainly some positives to take away from his T22 result at Augusta, as his ball-striking output was statistically the best it had been since that aforementioned top-10 effort at Riviera. There's good reason to believe the UCLA alum can carry that momentum to Harbour Town this week. Cantlay has been a stud in previous trips to Hilton Head, coming oh-so-close to wins and recording four top-three finishes in his six career RBC Heritage starts.
The Ponies
Tommy Fleetwood
I've long maintained that Fleetwood's first victory on U.S. soil would come at Harbour Town and I refuse to back down. This could be the week for Tommy Lad, who comes in off a never-in-contention T3 in the Masters in what was an encouraging - and relatively stress-free - performance.
His success at Augusta comes on the heels of a T7 two weeks ago at Valero, an event in which he gained an eye-opening 10.6 strokes T2G thanks to elite work with the irons. After what's been an otherwise ho-hum start to 2024, the Englishman's game appears to be humming just as he heads to a tight Harbour Town layout that's well-suited to his strengths. Fleetwood has produced three top-25 results in four career RBC Heritage attempts. Let's get that breakthrough win this week!
Matt Fitzpatrick
The defending Heritage champion's love for Harbour Town is well documented. Fitzpatrick and his family used to vacation on Hilton Head Island, which appears to have bolstered his affinity for the area. It also doesn't hurt that this classic Dye layout is the ideal track for the 2022 U.S. Open champion.
Fitzy is yet another player in what seems to be a trendline for this week's article: traditionally consistent, wobbly start to the year, showing some recent form, and possessing great course history. Something appears to have clicked for the Englishman recently (perhaps the discovery of a long-forgotten practice weight in his driver?), as a top-five at THE PLAYERS gave way to a T10 at Valero and a solid T22 last week in the Masters. His recent spike in form should help bolster his confidence for a defense of the RBC Heritage title this week.
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J.T. Poston
There are more consistent Harbour Town performers than J.T. Poston - who has missed the cut in two of his last three Heritage starts. However, The Postman has also delivered high-quality performances in Hilton Head, scoring dazzling finishes of T3, T6, & T8 in this event since 2018. While a perfect track record would be nice, I'm willing to risk the volatility - especially in this week's no-cut format - in exchange for the sort of upside that can help us win a GPP.
After closing out 2023 in strong fashion, Poston came charging out of the gates in 2024 by logging a pair of top-five finishes in Hawaii and three top-20s during the West Coast Swing, including a T10 at Riviera. Unfortunately, the Carolina native hit some hard times in Florida with a T45 at TPC Sawgrass standing as his best finish in three Sunshine State outings. However, a T30 outing last week in the Masters is encouraging and Poston has now gained strokes on Approach in his last two starts.
Cameron Davis
After battling some illness issues in early 2023, it looked as though Cameron Davis was primed for a big 2024 after logging top-12 finishes in six of his final seven starts last year. It hasn't happened yet, as the Aussie has been up and down over the first three-plus months of the season with a T18 at Bay Hill standing as his best performance of the season prior to last week's Masters.
Perhaps a T12 at Augusta last week is the spark that kickstarts Davis for the rest of the year? The irons were firing last week (+1.16 TSG Approach) and his Heritage track record is sneaky, sneaky great. After logging a T25 in his Heritage debut in 2021, Davis has gone on to post finishes of T3-T7 in two subsequent trips to Hilton Head. His strokes gained vs. expectation at Harbour Town is over two shots (+2.20) better than his baseline, which stands as the best mark in this week's Heritage field.
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