RBC Heritage First Click: Course history, Signature Event studs and more

Patrick Cantlay - The Canadian Press

Published Apr 16, 2024 at 11:59 AM ET

The PGA Tour heads to Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina this week for the 2024 edition of the RBC Heritage.

This year, The event is once again part of the Signature Event series on the PGA Tour. A limited field will compete this week for a purse of $20 million, with the winner receiving $3.6 million.

We’re halfway through the second year of this new elevated/Signature Event era for the PGA Tour, so we have a decent sample of which players rise to the occasion with some extra money up for grabs.

We’ve also been coming to Harbour Town since 1969, so there is plenty of course history to lean on.

Join me as I highlight some notable stats and trends to help make your picks for this week’s RBC Heritage.

HARBOUR TOWN COURSE HISTORY

Patrick Cantlay loves Harbour Town Golf Links.

The American has played in this event five times and has four top-10 finishes. In 22 rounds in the event, Cantlay averages 2.33 strokes gained per round, the best number in this field by a wide margin.

Here is a list of the 10 players who have gained the most strokes in this event during their careers (minimum 12 rounds).

GOLFER	Rounds	OTT	APP	BS	ARG	PUTT	SG	T2G	TOT
Patrick Cantlay	22	0.71	0.87	1.58	0.23	0.52	0.75	1.81	2.33
Cameron Davis	12	0.81	0.16	0.96	0.62	0.46	1.08	1.58	2.05
JT Poston	16	0.71	-0.59	0.12	0.68	0.88	1.56	0.81	1.69
Tommy Fleetwood	14	0.36	0.27	0.62	0.27	0.7	0.97	0.89	1.59
Jordan Spieth	28	0.22	0.6	0.82	0.37	0.3	0.67	1.18	1.49
Emiliano Grillo	20	0.31	1.07	1.39	0.18	-0.22	-0.04	1.57	1.34
Matt Fitzpatrick	30	0.45	0.22	0.68	0.14	0.52	0.65	0.81	1.33
Christiaan Bezuidenhout	12	-0.03	0.25	0.22	-0.11	1.18	1.08	0.11	1.29
Webb Simpson	52	0.28	0.58	0.86	0.27	0.11	0.38	1.13	1.24
Sam Burns	14	0.31	-0.01	0.30	0.29	0.6	0.89	0.59	1.19

(OTT: Off-The-Tee / APP: Approach / BS: Ball-Striking (OTT +APP) / ARG: Around-The-Green / PUTT: Putting / SG: Short-Game / T2G: Tee-To-Green / TOT: Total)

Only two names appear on this list who weren’t in the field last week competing for a green jacket. Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Webb Simpson.

Bezuidenhout enters this week having made seven of his past eight cuts and hasn’t finished outside of the top 25 in three straight. He has also made the cut in all three visits to this golf course.

Simpson, on the other hand, has just one top-30 finish in his last nine starts on the PGA Tour and missed the cut in this event for the first time since 2009 last year. The 2020 event winner has four top 10s at this course in 14 attempts.

Could their fresh legs and good course history be the difference in a big showing this weekend? I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

SIGNATURE EVENTS STUDS

As I pointed out earlier, this is year two of the signature/Elevated Event series on the PGA Tour.

Here is a list of the best players in those events in 2023.

GOLFER	RDs	OTT	APP	BS	ARG	PUTT	SG	T2G	TOT
Scottie Scheffler	40	0.91	1.32	2.24	0.41	-0.2	0.21	2.67	2.48
Denny McCarthy	30	-0.06	0.26	0.2	0.38	1.21	1.58	0.57	1.78
Xander Schauffele	42	0.29	0.84	1.13	0.09	0.59	0.68	1.19	1.78
Wyndham Clark	40	0.09	0.79	0.88	0.22	0.55	0.77	1.1	1.65
Patrick Cantlay	42	0.82	0.66	1.48	0.14	0.14	0.28	1.61	1.75
Max Homa	36	0.25	0.46	0.71	0.09	0.68	0.77	0.79	1.48
Rickie Fowler	40	0	0.73	0.73	0.27	0.44	0.72	1.00	1.45
Rory McIlroy	34	058	0.45	1.03	0.42	-0.08	0.34	1.45	1.37
Matt Fitzpatrick	40	0.34	0.07	0.41	0.31	0.57	0.89	0.75	1.32
Ludvig Aberg	8	0.51	-0.3	0.21	0.30	0.76	1.06	0.51	1.27
Sungjae Im	44	0.38	0.32	0.70	0.31	0.24	0.55	1.00	1.24
Justin Thomas	34	0.34	0.65	1.00	0.40	-0.16	0.24	1.39	1.23

And here is that same list for 2024 (Sentry, Pebble Beach, Genesis, API).

GOLFER	RDs	OTT	APP	BS	ARG	PUTT	SG	T2G	TOT
Will Zalatoris	8	0.75	1.09	1.84	0.06	0.44	0.50	1.90	2.35
Scottie Scheffler	15	0.70	0.88	1.58	0.79	-0.12	0.67	2.37	2.19
Wyndham Clark	13	0.76	0.21	0.97	0.05	0.65	0.70	1.02	1.41
Patrick Cantlay	15	031	0.02	0.33	-0.28	0.71	0.43	0.05	1.13
Tom Hoge	15	0.00	1.61	1.60	-0.33	-0.08	-0.41	1.28	1.07
Byeong Hun An	15	032	0.21	0.53	0.58	0.08	0.66	1.11	1.07
Jason Day	15	0.15	0.01	0.16	0.65	0.24	0.89	0.81	1.07
Sahith Theegala	15	0.28	-0.08	0.21	0.19	0.72	0.91	0.40	1.07
Xander Schauffele	15	0.60	0.27	0.87	0.36	-0.07	0.29	1.23	1.01
Eric Cole	15	-0.29	0.53	0.24	0.19	0.67	0.85	0.43	1.01

Only four names appear on both lists, and I don’t think anyone would be too surprised to see who the names are.

Scottie Scheffler has been the best golfer alive for over two years.

Wyndham Clark has taken the golf world by storm since early 2023.

Patrick Cantlay and Xander Schauffele have been two of the most consistently great golfers on the tour for a while.

One name I didn’t expect to see on the 2024 list was Eric Cole.

After winning Rookie of the Year in 2023 and missing just six cuts, Cole has already missed four cuts to start the year.

However, his best finish in an event this year was a tie for 10th at The Genesis Invitational , and two of his other four top 25s have come in Signature Events.

At +190 he has a very intriguing price to crack the top 20 this week.

BEST IN THE FIELD

If course history and recent form in signature events isn’t your cup of tea, allow me to present the ten best players in this field for 2024 according to the strokes gained data.

GOLFER	RDs	OTT	APP	BS	ARG	PUTT	SG	T2G	TOT
Scottie Scheffler	35	0.92	1.24	2.16	0.75	0.04	0.80	2.92	2.82
Xander Schauffele	35	0.64	0.67	1.31	0.55	0.28	0.83	1.86	1.97
Rory McIlroy	35	0.99	0.48	1.47	-0.02	0.19	0.16	1.44	1.61
Christiaan Bezuidenhout	47	-0.15	0.71	0.56	0.04	0.70	0.66	0.52	1.54
Ludvig Aberg	35	0.62	0.53	1.16	-0.1	0.36	0.26	1.06	1.44
Wyndham Clark	31	0.57	0.53	1.10	0.06	0.25	0.31	1.16	1.27
Matthieu Pavon	35	0.45	0.24	0.68	-0.06	0.77	0.71	0.63	1.18
Akshay Bhatia	39	0.66	0.72	1.39	-0.18	-0.04	-0.22	1.2	1.13
Cameron Young	33	0.29	0.08	0.37	0.41	0.12	0.53	0.78	1.11
Tommy Fleetwood	8	0.51	-0.3	0.21	0.30	0.76	1.06	0.51	1.27