RBC Heritage: Top 10 power rankings at Harbour Town

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The PGA Tour’s improvised schedule has players shipping from Colonial to Harbour Town and the RBC Heritage, for the first time in history

Golf was back in a big way last week at Colonial Country Club. A jam-packed, star-laden leaderboard resulted in a win for Daniel Berger over Collin Morikawa in a playoff at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

One of about a dozen or so guys could have won entering the back nine Sunday.

We can only hope for that kind of drama again this week at the RBC Heritage. Most of the field that teed it up last week are here in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.

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The 154-player field (up from its normal 132) touts the world’s top seven players and 17 of the top 20. A record 114 players are PGA Tour winners.

Notable absences include Tiger Woods, Adam Scott and Tommy Fleetwood.

This is by far the best field in the event’s 51-year history. And no fans will be on site to see it. This is week two of five where fans are not allowed at PGA Tour events.

The RBC Heritage is an institution on Tour for its familiar spot the week after the Masters. That proximity on the schedule to a major, and in geography to Augusta, helps draw a few big names. International players extend their stay in the US at a course that often favors their styles better than the regular Tour setup.

Largely, though, most players want to decompress right after grinding at the Masters.

Playing well at Harbour Town Golf Links requires more strategy and brings short hitters more into the fold.

The field is faced with another short course like Colonial. Harbour Town is a 7,100-yard par-71 designed by Pete Dye in 1969. It’s known for its postage stamp shaped greens, blind shots and the iconic red and white lighthouse that makes the 18th hole one of the more picturesque in the world.

Harbour Town’s fairways are fairly generous, but plenty of treeline penalizes wayward drives. Playing to the right angles of the fairway are important, too, or else you could be facing some tree trouble.

The fairways and rough are Celebration Bermuda and greens are TifEagle Bermuda.

Some stat categories to watch include players who putt well on slow greens as well as on Bermuda, which is common in Florida and the southeast US.

Strokes gained off the tee isn’t the end all be all this week. Strokes gained approach and strokes gained around the greens are of more priority. A hot putting week is also usually on a winner’s resume.

The early weather forecast looks favorable. Temperatures will be in the 70s-80s Fahrenheit with little to no chance of rain and single-digit mile per hour winds.

I’m going to do my best to not let last week’s results cloud my judgement too much. It’s a small sample, and players with good course history at Harbour Town could bounce back from one poor performance. It was a very unique situation, after all.

The rust will begin to fall of for more players, and the ramp up to the PGA Championship in August will be thrilling to watch.

There are 20-plus players who have a legitimate case to be in this week’s top 10. Whittling it down requird some nitpicking, but I’m confident my hand on the crystal ball won’t let me down.

Here are my 10 best bets to don the plaid jacket Sunday night.

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