By: @Ryan_Humphries on Twitter & LineStar Chat

Tournament & Field 🏆

Jon Rahm is your 2023 Masters champion! Following the biggest week in the sport, the PGA Tour will travel over to Hilton Head, SC to tee it up for the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links. Since this tournament immediately follows Masters week, the field for the RBC Heritage has often been fairly mediocre in the past with just a few bigger names sprinkled in. However, this event has recently drawn in more and more elite names. This will be a strong field once again this go-‘round. In total, seven of the top 10 ranked golfers in the world will be on site along with 20 of the top 25 and 68 of the top 100. There are 143 golfers listed in the field this week and we’ll see the normal cut rule come back into play – the top 65 golfers (including ties) after 36 holes will move on to play the weekend. Harbour Town GL is a beautiful course that often provides plenty of entertainment and this edition should be no different!

The Course Preview ⛳

Harbour Town Golf Links

Par 71 | 7,034 Yards

Greens: Bermuda

Course Difficulty Rank Last 5 Years: 19th, 26th, 37th, 11th, 19th

Cut Line Last 5 Years: E, -2, -4, E, E

Harbour Town GL is a classic Pete Dye-designed Par 71 course that extends to just over 7,000 yards on the scorecard length. The fairways are narrow and tree-lined and the Bermuda greens are some of the smallest on the entire PGA Tour circuit. There are a total of 54 bunkers and 17 water hazards scattered throughout the course which golfers will need to navigate around. Most golfers will likely keep the big stick in the bag for the majority of holes because hitting these fairways is crucial. The average drive here tends to be only about 275 yards, which is well below the PGA Tour average. There is no doubt that bombers will have the opportunity to challenge with their driver on a few holes where they could carry over certain hazards, but for the most part, expect to see a less-than-driver approach taken off of the tee for all players on the majority of holes.

Pete Dye courses put a golfer’s mental fortitude and tee-to-green creativity to the test and they are intentionally designed to invoke challenging sight lines off of the tee. This forces golfers into finding the more optimal landing zones so they can better frame their approach shots when targeting these incredibly small greens. With the greens being so small, the greens hit in regulation percentage at Harbour Town GL is annually one of the lowest GIR percentages of any course on Tour (61.7% GIR% in 2022). So, while an emphasis on accurate iron play is necessary, a crafty short game will also be needed since, inevitably, every golfer will miss their target on some approaches. The most common approach distance at this course will come from the 175-200 yard range, which gives the golfers with more accurate long irons a nice advantage. Many of those lengthy irons will be needed on the four long Par 3s, all of which measure between 190 to 200 yards.

The difficulty in which this course plays is heavily influenced by the weather. Since Harbour Town GL is right by the ocean, the wind tends to play a major factor. In previous years, wind speeds have caused this course to rank as either a moderately easy course when played in light winds or as one of the more challenging courses when played in heavier winds. We’ll get into the forecast in more detail below but the early outlook shows one or two windy rounds this week! Best of luck!

Weather & Tee Times ⛅

(Click the image above to view the most up-to-date forecast)

Thursday AM: Sustained wind speeds around 10 mph with gusts upwards of 20 mph.

Thursday PM: Slightly stronger winds overall -- 12 mph sustained, 20-25 mph gusts.

Friday AM: Light winds, mostly under 10 mph. Chance of some brief periods of rain as well.

Friday PM: Fairly identical conditions as Friday morning.

Weekend: Little-to-no winds on Saturday. Sunday’s round may see some 15-20 mph gusts, mostly later in the day, with sustained winds only around 5-10 mph.

⚖️Weather Verdict: Thursday’s round may provide some challenging conditions at times but both the morning and afternoon waves would be pretty evenly affected. Given the current forecast, there does not appear to be any significant wave advantage to worry about.

RBC Heritage Tee Times

Key Stats to Consider 📊

1. Strokes Gained: Approach | 30%

2. Strokes Gained: Around the Green | 20%

3. Par 4 Scoring Average | 20%

4. Driving Accuracy | 10%

5. Proximity from 175-200 Yards | 10%

6. Bogey Avoidance | 5%

7. Strokes Gained: Putting (Bermuda) | 5%

PGA Tour Stats Page

RBC Heritage Model Standouts 🏅

Below are the top 20 ranked golfers in both my overall model and my key stats model. Below that are the top 20 leaders in average fantasy points over the last five and last ten starts. The players ranked on these lists do not necessarily mean they are the top golfers I’m targeting for this week's event, but many of these guys should no doubt be favorable DFS options.

Overall Model Rank: A golfer’s ranking (within the current field) in my personal DFS model, which weighs all of the key stats listed above in this newsletter, as well as things like course history, recent form, recent average fantasy scoring results, and odds to win.

Key Stat Rank: Provides a golfer’s overall rank (in relation to the field) in my "key stats only" model, which considers only the key stats listed above in this newsletter with the specified percentage weights allocated towards each statistic.

RBC Heritage DFS Cheat Sheet 📑

Click the Cheat Sheet above for the direct image link

Alternative Cheat Sheet Direct Image Link

Cheat Sheet QR Code:

That will do it for our PGA preview! Best of luck this week and, once again, feel free to hit me up in the LineStar chat or on Twitter @Ryan_Humphries with any questions.