RADIO
Hello PGA DFS family and welcome back to Horse For The Course! Most of you are coming here either in victory lap mode or with a serious Masters hangover. Scottie Scheffler - a player featured in this article last week - put forth a truly dominant performance at Augusta National to win the first major championship of his promising career.
While Sunday might have been a little short on drama when it came to the winner, there was plenty of movement on the leaderboard, reminding us that it ain't over 'till it's over in PGA DFS. We regroup and refocus this week with one of my favorite events on the schedule, 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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2022 RBC Heritage Overview
While there's naturally a bit of letdown after a huge event such as the Masters, the RBC Heritage has proven to be a nice, soft landing spot over the years. Its post-Masters spot on the schedule could easily be a big detriment, but the Heritage has done a terrific job of drawing top-tier talent, likely thanks to its chill Hilton Head Island locale that offers the pros a chance to enjoy something of a breather with family after the stresses of last week.
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. 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.
As I mentioned, the caliber of this Heritage field is truly remarkable when considering that it's the week after the year's first major. As of this writing, there are five of the world's top-10 golfers scheduled to tee it up at Harbour Town, with Collin Morikawa, JT, DJ, Patrick Cantlay, and Cameron Smith leading the way. The defending RBC Heritage champion, Stewart Cink, speaks volumes about what works in this event and we'll have a chance to dive into those characteristics in this week's article!
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!
The Course: Harbour Town Golf Links
Par 71 - 7,121 Yards, Greens: Bermuda (Poa overseed), 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 taking aim at miniscule 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, 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.
Check out RotoBaller's PGA Premium Course Breakdown by Josh Bennett for an in-depth breakdown of this week's golf course!
Recent RBC Heritage Winners
- 2021: Stewart Cink (-19)
- 2020: Webb Simpson (-22)
- 2019: CT Pan (-12)
- 2018: Satoshi Kodaira (-12)
- 2017: Wesley Bryan (-13)
Event Notes
- Stewart Cink's win last year marked the third RBC Heritage title of his career.
- Ten players have won this tournament more than once. Davis Love III leads the way with five Heritage victories.
- The winning Heritage score has been 20-under or better just twice in the tournament's history.
- These are among the smallest greens on the PGA Tour schedule, with just Pebble Beach's being smaller on average.
The Horse
Matt Fitzpatrick
- Event Scoring Average: 69.54
- Notable Course History: T4 (2021), T14 ('20), T39 ('19), T14 ('18)
- DraftKings Price: $9.5k FanDuel Price:
Even though he came through with a rock-solid T14 in the Masters, it felt as though Matt Fitzpatrick's upside was capped a bit last week on a lengthy Augusta National layout. The light-hitter will have no such upside restrictions this week on Harbour Town's 7,100 yards.
The Englishman has made no secret about his affection for this Pete Dye design and has repeatedly referred to it as his favorite course on the PGA Tour schedule. His results reflect that it's a great fit and a T4 in last year's Heritage was his best-ever finish in Hilton Head and marked his third top-15 result in the event since 2018.
The course is, obviously, a very nice fit for him, but we also have the added bonus of catching Fitzy in perhaps the finest form of his career. I mentioned last week's T14, and it was just the latest in a very strong stretch of results for the Englishman in 2022. Prior to the Masters, he'd failed to score a top-10 result in just one of his five starts in the U.S. this year (a bad-luck weather draw at the Players being the lone exception). We know that Fitzpatrick's strengths lie not in one specific area, but in his ability to do everything at a high level. That's reflected in his ranking of fourth in this week's field in SG: Total over the last 24 rounds.
The Ponies
Collin Morikawa
- Event Scoring Average: 68.88
- Notable Course History: T7 ('21), T64 ('20)
- DraftKings Price: $10.2k FanDuel Price:
I'm willing to toss out Collin Morikawa's T64 course debut at Harbour Town, as there were a couple of weird extenuating circumstances there...it was just the second event back off the extensive COVID layoff and Morikawa came in on the heels of a tough playoff loss at Colonial the previous week. Last year's T7 is much more indicative of how well this layout fits Morikawa's game, though the final result doesn't really do justice to how well he truly played that week, as he ranked second in both SG: T2G & Approach only to be undone by an unruly putter in the final round (he lost 2.5 strokes putting for the week). After a couple of sluggish starts, Morikawa comes into this year's Heritage with some positive momentum on the heels of his best career Masters finish that included a Sunday round of 67. This Dye layout is tailor-made for his sharp iron play and our only real concern is his tough-to-trust putting.
Patrick Cantlay
- Event Scoring Average: 68.86
- Notable Course History: MC ('21), T3 ('19), T7 ('18), T3 ('17)
- DraftKings Price: $10k FanDuel Price:
Another major comes and goes without Patrick Cantlay being a factor. Despite Cantlay's barely-there T39 last week in the Masters, I look for him to make his presence known this week in Hilton Head. The Californian has thrived in previous trips to Harbour Town, including a stretch of T3-T7-T3 finishes between 2017 and 2019. After a nuclear close to 2021, Cantlay picked up right where he left off to start this calendar year, posting top-five results in three of his first four 2022 starts. However, the wheels have wobbled a bit lately with last week's forgettable performance being his most recent underwhelming outing. Due to that rather quiet form, we might catch the crowd sleeping on him a bit this week and this course that fits his all-around abilities so well profiles as a nice rebound spot.
Webb Simpson
- Event Scoring Average: 69.59
- Notable Course History: T9 ('21), Win ('20), T16 ('19), T5 ('18)
- DraftKings Price: $8,8k FanDuel Price:
You can't really have a course history discussion this week without including Webb Simpson. The North Carolina resident has shown up huge in this South Carolina event throughout his career, posting a win in the 2020 edition with a pair of additional top-fives and 11 made cuts over 12 career RBC Heritage starts. Many observers were aware that Simpson didn't appear fully healthy last year and a bulging disc in his neck proved to be the culprit. After surgery and rehab earlier this year, the veteran returned to action with a missed cut at The Players. However, a pair of 67s in the Valspar and a feisty effort last week at Augusta National indicate that he's on the road to recovery. This week could prove to be Simpson's best start in months due to his familiarity and comfort with this manageable Harbour Town layout.
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Kevin Kisner
- Event Scoring Average: 70.23
- Notable Course History: MC ('21), MC ('20), T41 ('19), T7 ('18), T11 ('17), 2nd ('15)
- DraftKings Price: $8.1k FanDuel Price:
It's honestly pretty rare for a golfer to make this article if he's coming off a couple of years of missed cuts in the event, but Kevin Kisner feels like he's worth the exception this week. Despite his recent shortcomings at Harbour Town, his Heritage track record is backloaded with strong results and he comes into this year's edition with his game firing on all cylinders. The Kiz has been lit as of late with last month's impressive T4 at The Players (TPC Sawgrass designed by Pete Dye) promptly topped by a run to the finals of the Dell Match Play (Austin Country Club designed by Pete Dye) a couple of weeks late. I'm willing to take the South Carolina native's performance in last week's Masters with a grain of salt, as Kiz himself has been open about his prospects on the behemoth Augusta National layout. However, this 7,100-yard layout is the type of track that short-hitters such as himself circle on the calendar, and I look for him to continue his strong run of recent form on Pete Dye designs.
Matt Kuchar
- Event Scoring Average: 69.83
- Notable Course History: T18 ('21), T2 ('19), T9 ('16), T5 ('15), Win ('14)
- DraftKings Price: $7.8k FanDuel Price:
It was really weird watching the Masters last week with no sign of Matt Kuchar, as it was the first time since 2009 that the Georgia Tech alum didn't qualify for the event. It wasn't for a lack of trying though, as the veteran made a noteworthy last-ditch effort to sneak into the Masters with a runner-up finish at the Valero Texas Open. It was Kuchar's best finish in over two years and came on the heels of a solid T16 performance at the Valspar. It leads us to believe that his game is finally trending in the right direction after a prolonged slump. He brings that positive momentum to an event in which he's been dominant throughout his career. Over 18 career RBC Heritage starts, Kuch has a win and five top-10 finishes. He's made the cut at Harbour Town a hard-to-fathom 17 years in a row! While this isn't quite the same Kuchar we've known for so many years, he still feels like a dangerous mid-priced option on this slate and possesses a short game that ranks him first in this field in SG: Around The Green over the last 24 rounds.
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