2015 RBC Heritage

Well after a pretty disappointing Masters we shift our focus to South Carolina. Specifically, Hilton Head Island and the Harbour Town Golf Links.

Tournament: The RBC Heritage is a long standing event held every spring in Hilton Head, South Carolina. Most tournaments don’t stay at the same course as long as this one has so that makes this tournament a fan favorite and a nice respite after the first major of the year. Harbour Town Golf Links is a tree lined venue stretching to a mere 7,100+ yards and playing as a par 71. It would seem bombers of the golf ball would be able to take advantage here, but that is far from reality. This course rewards accuracy and shotmaking. Unlike wide fairways and huge greens that we saw at Augusta, the fairways at Harbour Town are tight and the greens are consistently ranked as some of the toughest to hit on TOUR. Players who can hit these small greens and get up and down when they do happen to miss them, will find their names near the top of the leaderboard when Sunday rolls around.

Field: Even though some may have a Masters hangover, there should be no reason for it. Masters winner Jordan Spieth is in the field. Along with defending champion Matt Kuchar, Luke Donald, Patrick Reed, and Zach Johnson.

What to Look For: When researching this tournament, it seemed like a lot of different players took home hardware here over the years. But when you dig deeper, you start to see what makes a winner here. Scrambling is the most important stat of the week in my opinion. We know players are going to miss greens. While scrambling numbers are hard to gauge tourney to tourney, Matt Kuchar missed 19 last year and won the tournament. He finished the week with only 6 holes where he carded worse than a par and I know for sure he 3-putted a hole on the back 9 on Sunday (because I backed him and almost had a heart attack). That means out of the 19 missed greens, he got up and down at least 14 times. That’s what it takes to win here. Some other nuggets I noticed were recent form is important. While you can win here off of a missed cut, only one player in the last 10 years has won here without a top 10 earlier in the season. Play on Bermuda grass is also critical. Players who are familiar with Bermuda have an advantage on these greens. So take a look at the recent Florida swing for how players fared.

Past Champions: .

2014 – Matt Kuchar (-11)
2013 – Graeme McDowell (-9)
2012 – Carl Petterson (-14)
2011 – Brandt Snedeker (-12)
2010 – Jim Furyk (-13)

Free Pick:

Patrick Reed to win: Consistently overvalued player here. Would you believe Reed has more PGA TOUR wins than Spieth? Well…he does. He has 4. And they’ve ALL come on Bermuda grass. And this year, Reed has been lights out on Bermuda. 2nd at the Valspar, 7th at the Honda, 1st at Kapalua, and even though he finished 23rd at Doral, he won that tournament last year. He doesn’t have a great record here which is a concern. But at over 20/1 odds, I think Reed provides value on any Bermuda grass course. 3rd in scrambling, 9th in par 4 scoring, and 23rd in Strokes Gained putting.Play on Bermuda grass is also critical. Players who are familiar with Bermuda have an advantage on these greens. So take a look at the recent Florida swing for how players fared.

2.25u Patrick Reed to win @ 25.5/1

*If your book doesn’t not offer e/w betting, place 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to win and 1 bet of the stated unit on the golfer to place top 5

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