2021 RBC Heritage: Top 10 power rankings at Harbour Town

It’s time for the golf world to take a collective deep breath after the Masters.

The RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, South Carolina, has long been the tournament following the action at Augusta National. The family-friendly event generally attracts a solid field filled with players looking to perhaps continue good form or find it in a lower stakes arena.

What this week’s field of 136 players, as of Monday morning, will take on is a tight, narrow test of golf. Harbour Town is a Pete Dye design assisted by Jack Nicklaus. It opened in 1967 and has hosted this tournament yearly since 1969.

Harbour Town is one of the shorter courses on the PGA Tour schedule, measuring just 7,099 yards for a par of 71.

It’s known for its tight, tree-lined fairways. Palmettos, pines and oaks are ready to knock down wayward shots or make approaches even from the wrong side of the fairway more challenging.

Length off the tee is not a requisite to win here, nor is driver really an option off of many tees. It’s all about course management and playing the proper angles to approach Harbour Town’s small, postage stamp greens.

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

It’s been a fairly dry spring in the southeastern U.S. and no rain is in the weather forecast this week at Hilton Head. Don’t expect Augusta-like green speeds at Harbour Town, but there could be some fire in them. Wind doesn’t expect to be a big factor, which would really help bake out what are usually slower than average greens.

The field is highlighted by world No. 1 Dustin Johnson. He’s one of 28 top-50 players in the Official World Golf Rankings.

We’ve got less than two months until the next major comes in May with the PGA Championships. There are plenty of interesting tournaments to tide us over until then.

Let’s get down to the top 10 players who could don the tartan jacket at one of the PGA Tour’s more historic events.