Scheffler Waits Until Monday at RBC Heritage to Collect his 4th Victory in 2024

The fourth round of the RBC Heritage was halted due to darkness after a rain and lightning delay postponed the final round for two and a half hours. Nine players still have to finish.   

“I'll treat tomorrow like I'm playing 18 holes and do all my normal prep work and come out here ready to go for the restart,” Scheffler said after the second stoppage of play. He has three holes remaining.

While it’s nearly certain that Scheffler will be the winner of the RBC Heritage, he does have to finish four more holes and actually record the lowest score of the field. Through 15 holes, Scheffler is at 20-under par. But it’s golf and anything can happen.  

For instance, in round four, Wyndham Clark started his day birdie–eagle-birdie and proceeded to shoot a front nine 29. He is finished and currently tied for second place at 15-under par. He moved up 15 places with his final round and could have passed Scheffler had his back nine been as good as the front. However, he had a double bogey and two bogeys on the back, and only three birdies to counteract them.   

Scottie Scheffler anticipated that the conditions would be difficult Monday morning.

That is one reason he elected to finish the 15th hole before stopping. (After the horn to stop play is sounded, players have the option to continue on that hole, unless there is lightning and then a different horn sound is used.)

After hitting a ball in the water on the 15th, Scheffler continued that hole and eventually made par. It was a par 5 hole. He gave a pretty large fist pump when the putt dropped.

“I felt like the par was pretty important tonight, just being able to go to sleep and still keeping a clean card,” he said.  “I felt like I got a bad break there in the fairway. I haven't had to hit a shot like that in a long time, so I figured there must have been mud on the bottom of the ball. Just nice to keep the card clean.”  

Gary Young of the PGA Tour staff offered an explanation of why tee times were not moved to earlier in the day or why players didn’t go off two tees to get everything completed. Young said that the weather forecast from their meteorologist showed a different scenario.

"The timing of it yesterday afternoon when we were making the decision, we had a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. We did have a 70 to 80 percent chance of rain, but we were only looking at about four tenths of an inch that he was predicting, anywhere from four tenths to six tenths of an inch."

They expected the front and associated weather to move south of Hilton Head Island overnight Saturday, but it didn’t do that.  

“Unfortunately, when we arrived this morning, the front had stalled to our north, which kept us on the warmer side and allowed for the temperatures to warm up, and of course late in the day, we saw the thunderstorms develop,” Young added.

Four of the nine players who were on the course still have an outside chance to affect the outcome, and perhaps an outside chance to overtake Scheffler. They would have to create some exceptional play with hole outs, birdies, and eagles to do it, but it’s not impossible. Scheffler would also have to make some bogeys and doubles.

Sahith Theegala is through the 15th hole at 15-under par; Collin Morikawa, at 13-under through the 15th hole; Sepp Straka, at 13-under through the 14th hole, and Patrick Rodgers, at 14-under through the 16th hole, have outside chances to affect the outcome, depending on how Scheffler finishes.

Seamus Power at 11-under, Patrick Cantlay at 15-under, J.T. Poston at 15-under, and Ludvig Aberg at 14-under, have a portion of the 17th hole to play, and so, they are too far along to make up enough shots to overcome Scheffler’s lead. 

Play restarts at 8 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Monday. The conclusion will be aired on Golf Channel Monday morning.