Austin Harmon 
The Range is a course breakdown for the upcoming PGA tournament with a DFS perspective. This week the tour heads to South Carolina as the players face off in the RBC Heritage.
The Basics
Course: Harbour Town Golf Links at the Sea Pines Resort
Par: 71
Length: 7,099 Yards
Fairways: Celebration Bermudagrass
Greens: TifEagle Bermudagrass (3,700 sq ft average)
Architect: Pete Dye (1969)
Past five winners: ’19 Pan (-12), ’18 Kodiara (-12), ’17 Bryan (-13), ’16 Grace (-9) and ’15 Furyk (-18)
For a hole by hole breakdown, visit the PGA Tour website here.
Course Breakdown
The RBC Heritage in many ways is like Colonial the week before. Many holes are narrow (though they have been made wider since 2019), tree lined that limits the big hitters. Greens are small, even smaller than those at the Charles Schwab Challenge last week on average. Low final scores are a bit of a scarcity as four of the last five winners were held to -15 or higher, with the lone exception of Furyk in 2015.
Usually the field isn’t this strong, especially coming off of The Masters the week prior. With the Covid break in the tour, the field at the RBC Heritage is the strongest it’s been in years, possibly ever. The top six golfers in the world (OWGR) and 15/20. This will not be a cake walk.
With the lower than tour average finish, looking at golfers who perform well in average to difficult scoring conditions is a great first step. The fairways will be a challenge to land the ball in-between the trees and if there is an errant drive (with the lack of fans) balls may become lost. If the golfers do land the ball in the fairway their approach game has to be on point. These greens are tiny with many of the them being protected by bunkers. Once the golfers have landed on the Bermudagrass greens, putting will be crucual.
Here is a look at the top 10 golfers over the last 12 rounds who have performed well (SG:TOT) with all three conditions being present.
Player Fit
For the RBC Heritage four of the five toughest holes fall in the range of 450 – 500 yards and all are par 4. On the other end, the two easiest holes are in between 500 – 550 and both are par 5. Being able to score when given the opportunity in these ranges will go a long way in ascending the leader board. This is a second shot course, a Pete Dye specialty. While the approach shot will vary from each golfer, on average, they range between 175 – 200 yards.
I know it sounds like common sense but both Birdie or Better and Bogey Avoidance are big pieces of the puzzle. For Draftkings, you have to be able to score points to win. While you want your golfers to finish as high as possible, making the most of the opportunity to score is so important. Last week Patrick Reed finished T7 but was the second highest scoring golfer for the week. Opportunity Gained is a Fantasy National stat and while it cannot be shared with non subscribers, rest assure it is incorporated to my model.
To make it simple, Ball Striking is always king (impart to it combining two main stats). Ball striking take into account both SG:OTT and SG: APP. Normally it would be an even split, but for Harbour Town I’m setting it to 60/40.
Missing the green isn’t a question of if, but when. Golfers need to be able to get up and down when off the green. SG:ARG is a great starting point. Players who do well with scrambling and GIR, will be another set of stats for this week.
Here are the top 10 golfers that perform well with all conditions met over the last 12 rounds.
Final Recap of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town GL
Wind seems to be manageable at the time of this writing but being closer to the water, you never know. There does seem to be some rain in the forecast though both for Thursday and Saturday. If it looks like there is a possible wave play I’ll add it to the discord come Wednesday night.
As we saw last week, some of the golfers simply looked rusty. While many of the same golfers are teeing it up this week as before, keep a look out for “newcomers”. While the fields have never been as strong, winners tend to come out of no where at Harbour Town GL. Despite the soft pricing, this might be the week to take some shots with the darts.
Course Setup
Average to Difficult Scoring
Hard to hit fairways / Second Shot Course
Bermudagrass Greens (Small in circumference)
Player Efficiencies
Par 4 Scoring: 450 – 500 Yards
Par 5 Scoring: 500 – 550 Yards
Proximity: 175 – 200 Yards
Birdie or Better
Bogey Avoidance
Opportunity Gained
DraftKings Scoring
Ball Striking
SG: Around the Green
Scrambling
GIR
Thanks for reading and I hope this article is a great starting place for your DFS research for the RBC Heritage at Harbourt Town GL. Look out for the Insight Sheet dropping Wednesday. It will include my personal player pool and reasoning why each golfer was chosen. Also Wednesday night you can find me in the Win Daily Discord helping members with their lineups and last-minute questions.
Stat Source: Fantasy National GC
