Top PGA Pros Heading To Harbour Town

Preparing and Previewing the Strongest Field at Harbour Town in Hilton Head

The strongest field in the tournament’s 52 year history head to Harbour Town for the 2020 RBC Heritage June 18-21. The Top-5 players in the World Golf Rankings will tee it up at Pete Dye’s famed and popular course – Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas and Dustin Johnson.

You can read my initial tournament preview at TheLines, and I’ve included more below. Additional player information, insight, odds and posted match-ups will be added mid-week as released by the bookmakers.

The field will include many past winners and major champions, and these players ranked in the OWGR Top 25:

• Patrick Cantlay
• Tony Finau
• Xander Schauffele
• Justin Rose
• Louis Oosthuizen
• Tyrrell Hatton
• Hideki Matsuyama
• Sunjae Im
• Matthew Fitzpatrick
• RBC Ambassadors Matt Kuchar and Webb Simpson

Normally the tournament follows The Masters week, but this year’s disruption by the COVID-19 outbreak has adjusted the schedule.

COURSE AND TOURNAMENT INFO

• Course: Harbour Town Golf Links
• Location: Hilton Head Island, S.C.
• Par: 71 / Yardage 7,100
• Purse: $6.9 Million / Winner $1.24 M
• Fairways/Rough: Celebration Bermudagrass
• Greens: TifEagle Bermudagrass

Harbour Town underwent extensive renovations in 2015 with all new grasses on the tees, greens and rough along with a new irrigation system. The quaint track checks in at just 7,100 yards, and the course requires a tactical approach with precision ball striking and placement a prerequisite over power. In 2018, driving stats show the course averaged 278 yards, meaning it was the 2nd shortest of all the courses on tour.

Narrow, tree-lined fairways and tiny greens that average less than 4,400 square feet are Harbour Town’s greatest defense, along with wind.

With the course close to the Atlantic and in some places not blocked by trees, wind and weather are the reason the course can play tougher and be more difficult to score. That was the case in 2016, when scoring averaged 72.29 (eighth most difficult on Tour) and the highest scoring average since the course was renovated in 2015.

KEY STATS

This is traditionally one of the hardest Greens in Regulation (GIR) weeks of the PGA Tour season. Along with the importance of driving accuracy, there is also a premium on scrambling. Additional key golf stats for success at Harbour Town include:

• Strokes Gained: Approach
• Strokes Gained: Short Game
• Strokes Gained: Par 4’s (emphasis on shorter holes)
• Strokes Gained: Putting

TOURNAMENT ODDS

The Top-5 ranked players will all be between 10-1 and 20-1 to win the tournament at Harbour Town, yet none of them have ever won or even finished top-10 in their brief appearances. You can check all the odds at sites like FanDuel Sportsbook, and get additional statistical analysis of data, golf projections and information you can bet on at another site I contribute, numberFire.

Check back to Vegas Sports Zone for more articles and updates with tournament odds, props, match-ups and information you can bet on.

Update with my article at Forbes. Many bettors hoping a favorite breaks through with the strongest field at Harbour Town.