This article is part of our FanDuel PGA DFS Picks series.
RBC Heritage
Course: Harbour Town Golf Links (7,121 yards, par 71)
Purse: $8,000,000
Winner: $1,440,000 and 500 FedExCup points
Tournament Preview
The RBC Heritage has embraced being the tournament directly following the Masters over the years, but that has sometimes led to fields that lack quite a few of the top ranked players in the world. That will not be the case this year, however, as five of the top-10 and 12 of the top-25 in the OWGR will be making the trip from Augusta to Hilton Head Island. It will be a much more relaxed atmosphere after a very stressful week at the first major of the year. The golf course is also much different as well with very narrow fairways, small greens, and on a very flat property.
Stewart Cink will be looking to defend his title after winning his third plaid jacket at Hilton Head in 2021 by four shots. He is joined in the field by a number of players that contended on Sunday at the Masters such as Cameron Smith, Shane Lowry, Collin Morikawa, Sungjae Im, Justin Thomas, Corey Conners, and South Carolina native Dustin Johnson. Some players that did not have the performance they were hoping for at Augusta will be hoping to bounce back this week such as Jordan Spieth, Patrick Cantlay, and Daniel Berger. The All-time record holder for wins at the RBC Heritage with five is Davis Love III and the former Ryder Cup captain will be teeing it up this week, as well as Luke Donald who has never won here but owns five runner-up finishes.
Webb Simpson set the all-time scoring record at Harbour Town back in 2020 at 22-under-par, but that tournament was delayed until late June due to COVID-19. Stewart Cink's 19-under total last season was the most by a winner here since 2009 when Brian Gay posted 20-under and won by 10 shots. The winds should be up in the first two rounds before dying down a bit on the weekends, but most notable is that we will see three completely different wind directions in the first three rounds. Temperatures will be in the mid-70's all week, but we may see a passing thunderstorm or two.
Recent Champions
2021 – Stewart Cink (-19)
2020 – Webb Simpson (-22)
2019 – C.T. Pan (-12)
2018 – Satoshi Kodaira (-12)
2017 – Wesley Bryan (-13)
2016 – Branden Grace (-9)
2015 – Jim Furyk (-18)
2014 – Matt Kuchar (-11)
2013 – Graeme McDowell (-9)
2012 – Carl Pettersson (-14)
Key Stats to Victory
- SG: Approach
- GIR Percentage
- Driving Accuracy
- Scrambling
Champion's Profile
There's three main things a player must do to achieve success at Harbour Town. Drive it straight, hit a lot of greens in regulation, and have good touch around the greens. This is a course where sometimes even if you are in the fairway, you may have to work it around some overhanging branches. It definitely rewards creative players. The greens here are much smaller and flatter than we saw at Augusta last week. That will lead to more chances to pick up strokes around the greens, but also mitigate some players who may struggle with the putter. The bermuda surfaces will run at about 12 on the Stimpmeter, which is fairly average for PGA Tour standards.
One aspect that is worth mentioning this week is fatigue, both mental and physical. More often than not, the players contending for the win at the RBC Heritage were not deep into contention on Sunday at the Masters the week prior. Most of the players that are battling it out at the RBC Heritage were either not really in contention or even didn't even play in the Masters. That's just because that pressure of a major can take so much out of you and it can be hard to get it back in full focus at a regular PGA Tour event. That should definitely be in the back of DFS players' minds.
FanDuel Value Picks
The Chalk
Patrick Cantlay ($11,500)
Cantlay was never really in the mix at Augusta and has played just three times since the West Coast swing, so he should be fresh mentally. Harbour Town is the perfect place for him to get right, as Cantlay owns a trio of top-7 finishes in four starts. The UCLA product has developed into one of the best scramblers on the PGA Tour and yet still ranks top-5 in birdie average.
Daniel Berger ($10,900)
Berger checks all the boxes for success at Harbour Town. He is an accurate driver of the ball, ranks high in SG: Approach, and has a world-class short game. Perhaps it's no wonder why he has posted a third and a T13 the last two years in this event. Berger has posted four top-20 finishes in seven starts since the calendar flipped to 2022.
Matt Fitzpatrick ($10,800)
Fitzpatrick absolutely loves Harbour Town. His skillset is perhaps best suited to success at this course than any other on the PGA Tour. The Englishman has posted top-15 finishes in three of the last four years here. Fitzpatrick is 13th in SG: Approach, 15th in SG: Around-the-Green, 20th in SG: Putting and third in scrambling. There is no better place for him to attempt to pick up that elusive first PGA Tour win.
Webb Simpson ($10,700)
While it hasn't been the season Simpson has wanted in terms of results, his RBC Heritage record and his fit for Harbour Town make me willing to throw all of that out. Simpson has made 11 straight cuts here and has notched eight top-16 finishes in that stretch, including a win in 2020. When Simpson is on, he is an extremely accurate driver, sharp with his irons, an elite scrambler and a very consistent putter.
Longer Shots with Value
Matt Kuchar ($9,600)
After some struggles over the last couple years, Kuchar seems to be turning it around with finishes of T16-T2 his last two starts. Kuchar loves Harbour Town with 17 straight made cuts, including a win and a total of 11 top-25 finishes in that stretch. The 43-year-old still has a crazy good short game, ranking third in SG: Around-the-Green, 12th in SG: Putting, first in scrambling and first in putts per hole this season.
Adam Hadwin ($9,500)
Hadwin is arguably playing the best golf of his career right now. He is coming off three straight top-10 finishes and will be motivated having had to watch the Masters from the couch. Hadwin ranks top-30 this season in a number of key stats for this course such as, driving accuracy, GIR percentage, SG: Approach, SG: Around-the-Green, proximity to the hole and scrambling.
Russell Knox ($9,000)
Knox has been a favorite of mine the last few months due to his elite iron play. He now ranks 15th in SG: Approach, 11th in proximity to the hole and first in GIR percentage. Knox has now made seven straight cuts and is heading to a course where he has four career top-20 finishes.
Lucas Glover ($8,600)
Glover is still playing some very solid golf this season at age 42. He is coming off two straight top-30 finishes and ranks top-15 on Tour in driving accuracy and GIR percentage. Glover is a South Carolina native that has seen this course as much as anyone in the field and finished top-35 here six of the last seven years.
Strategy Tips This Week
Based on a Standard $60K Salary Cap
There are a number of very good names in the field this week, but I question whether the likes of Cameron Smith, Justin Thomas, Shane Lowry, and Sungjae Im can contend a week removed from being there near the top of the leaderboard deep into the week at the Masters. It's just really hard to get that same focus the week after a major if you've been in contention. Because of all that, I think that should lead to DFS players looking at lineup builds that are more balanced. Fade some of those bigger names and look at those who have a great history are Harbour Town and fit the profile of an accurate ball striker with a solid short game.
