Jordan Spieth delivers strong Masters finish. Next up: defending his RBC Heritage title

Turn right onto Washington Road, go to East Boundary and on to Georgia 28. Cross the river, take South Carolina 125 and set sail toward the south and east.

Following the GPS carries the elite of professional golfers from a pressure cooker to paradise.

The journey of about 150 miles requires less than three hours and leaves behind the major-championship stress created by the Masters in Augusta and leads to the more relaxed — but still demanding and highly competitive — atmosphere of the PGA Tour’s RBC Heritage, which begins this week on Hilton Head Island.

The cream of the PGA Tour, or at least those who made the Masters’ cut and did not take a quick trip home, will make that trek through rural South Carolina either Sunday evening or Monday with designs on earning shares of another $20 million purse.

The scenario is a dream come true for folks who cherish the Palmetto State’s annual stop on the PGA Tour. RBC Heritage tournament officials have long sought to attract all the top guns, and they will this year, thanks to the Heritage being a designated event for this season.

“We’ll show them all the great things they will find here,” tournament director Steve Wilmot promised.

He will not have any challenges convincing Jordan Spieth or Patrick Cantlay of the wonders of the South Carolina Lowcountry. They engaged a playoff for the 2022 Heritage title and Spieth emerged the winner of the garish plaid coat that goes to champion.

But this year will be different, at least in terms of preparation, for the defending champion.

“I don’t watch golf if I miss the cut in the Masters,” Spieth said Sunday — and that meant he spent Masters’ Sunday 2022 getting ready for the Heritage. “This time last year, I was playing golf in Hilton Head.”

This year, though, he will not lift a club again until Tuesday afternoon, and even that work will not be strenuous. He figures he did the heavy-lifting preparation these past few days in Augusta.

“Yeah, I love that golf course (Harbour Town Golf Links),” he said. “It probably couldn’t be any more different than this place, but I really enjoy playing it. You have to think your way through it. Hopefully, it’s drier.

“(But) I can’t wait to take a couple days off, though, and then maybe Tuesday late afternoon kind of get in a few rhythmic swings and kind of get into it. ... So I won’t be as prepared, but contending in a major is pretty good prep.”

Spieth’s wanting time off comes from his schedule. He has played eight tournaments in the past 10 weeks and that, he said, “is too much golf.”

No regrets, he said, “but I would attest some of my decision-making just to a level of focus that I wish I had a little bit more of. I came in (to the Masters) mentally fatigued.”

That led to “a little lack of patience with the course being softer, thinking that meant I could try to attack more pins. ... You have to let the course come to you out here. I do a better job here than anywhere else, and it left me this week.”

Considering his lofty finish, imagine had he been fully focused. As it was, he and Phil Mickelson engaged in an old-fashioned shootout Sunday worthy of the final paring in the year’s first major championship.

Mickelson posted a 7-under-par 65 and 280 for the tournament; Spieth shot 6-under 66 Sunday and 281 overall. But they began the final tour of Augusta National 10 shots off the lead.

“I’ve played with him three or four times on Sunday here, and I didn’t feel a whole lot different,” said Spieth, the 2015 Masters winner. “I thought once we started to get it going, it became an exciting group. It felt very much like eight, nine, 10 years ago.”

But Mickelson came to Augusta carrying the banner of LIV Golf, the upstart group challenging the establishment, the PGA Tour, and he received a mixed reception.

Both started the final round at 1-under and stood 3-under for the tournament after the eighth. Spieth birdied both nine and 10, then Mickelson countered with birdies at 12 and 13. Not to be outdone, Spieth birdied 14 to lead his playing partner by one at 7-under.

Both birdied both 15 and 17, then Mickelson birded the 18 and Spieth bogeyed. Mickelson played the back nine in 5-under 31; Spieth shot 6-under despite three bogeys.

“I had so much fun today,” said Mickelson, a three-time Masters champion. “I feel like I’ve been hitting these type of quality shots, but I have not been staying focused and in the present for the upcoming shot.

“I made a lot of mistakes, kind of like on Thursday (a 1-under 71) and that cost me a bunch of strokes.”

Spieth will join Masters champion Jon Rahm in leading the exodus from Augusta to Hilton Head, and the field will also include Scottie, one of the top guns on the PGA Tour. Rory McIlroy, who is No. 2 in the world, was scheduled to participate but withdrew from Heritage on Monday. But the field will not have LIV golfers, including Mickelson, Brooks Koepka, Patrick Reed and Cam Smith.

Considering the who’s who that will be there, it’s little wonder Heritage organizers are looking forward to the competition that begins Thursday and runs through Sunday. Wilmot and his crew plan to roll out the red carpet for the players and their families.

If the plan bears fruit, that ride through rural South Carolina from pressure to paradise could become an annual trek for every member of golf’s elite.

TV coverage

▪ The Golf Channel: Thursday-Friday, 3-6 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, 1-3 p.m.

▪ CBS Sports: Saturday-Sunday, 3-6 p.m.

Heritage field

146 players ... + denotes sponsor exemption ... # denotes section exemption

Bezuidenhout, Christiaan

Bhatia, Akshay +

Bradley, Keegan

Brehm, Ryan

Bryan, Wesley +

Buckley, Hayden

Burns, Sam

Cantlay, Patrick

Champ, Cameron

Cink, Stewart

Clark, Wyndham

Conners, Corey

Dahmen, Joel

Davis, Cam

Day, Jason

Detry, Thomas

Donald, Luke +

Dufner, Jason

Duncan, Tyler

Echavarria, Nico

Els, Ernie +

English, Harris

Finau, Tony

Fitzpatrick, Matt

Fleetwood, Tommy

Fowler, Rickie

Fox, Ryan

Frittelli, Dylan

Furyk, Jim +

Gay, Brian +

Ghim, Doug

Gibson, Tommy #

Glover, Lucas

Griffin, Ben

Griffin, Lanto

Grillo, Emiliano

Hadley, Chesson

Hadwin, Adam

Hahn, James

Hardy, Nick

Harman, Brian

Hatton, Tyrrell

Henley, Russell

Herbert, Lucas

Herman, Jim

Hickok, Kramer

Higgo, Garrick

Hodges, Lee

Hoge, Tom

Homa, Max

Horschel, Billy

Hossler, Beau

Hovland, Viktor

Hubbard, Mark

Hughes, Mackenzie

Im, Sungjae

Jaeger, Stephan

Johnson, Zach

Kim, Si Woo

Kim, Tom

Kirk, Chris

Kisner, Kevin

Kitayama, Kurt

Kizzire, Patton

Knox, Russell

Kodaira, Satoshi

Kraft, Kelly

Kuchar, Matt

Laird, Martin

Landry, Andrew

Lashley, Nate

Lee, K.H.

Lee, Min Woo

Lingmerth, David

Lipsky, David

List, Luke

Long, Adam

Love, Davis III

Lower, Justin

Lowry, Shane

Malnati, Peter

Martin, Ben +

McCarthy, Denny

McGreevy, Max

McIlroy, Rory

McNealy, Maverick

Merritt, Troy

Mitchell, Keith

Montgomery, Taylor

Moore, Ryan

Moore, Taylor

Morikawa, Collin

Mullinax, Trey

NeSmith, Matthew

Palmer, Ryan

Pan, C.T.

Pendrith, Taylor

Piercy, Scott

Poston, J.T.

Power, Seamus

Putnam, Andrew

Rahm, Jon

Rai, Aaron

Ramey, Chad

Reavie, Chez

Redman, Doc

Riley, Davis

Rodgers, Patrick

Rose, Justin

Ryder, Sam

Schauffele, Xander

Scheffler, Scottie

Schenk, Adam

Schwab, Matthias

Scott, Adam

Sigg, Greyson

Simpson, Webb

Smalley, Alex

Smotherman, Austin

Spaun, J.J.

Spieth, Jordan

Stallings, Scott

Stevens, Sam

Straka, Sepp

Streb, Robert

Streelman, Kevin

Suh, Justin +

Svensson, Adam

Tarren, Callum

Taylor, Ben

Taylor, Nick

Theegala, Sahith

Thomas, Justin

Thompson, Davis

Thompson, Michael

Todd, Brendon

Tway, Kevin

van Rooyen, Erik

Walker, Jimmy

Wallace, Matt

Werenski, Richy

Willett, Danny

Woodland, Gary

Wu, Brandon

Young, Cameron

Young, Carson +

Zalatoris, Will