RBC Heritage: Can Jon Rahm back up his Masters win with another victory, jacket at Harbour Town?
The Masters is now behind us, but the PGA Tour’s top players have moved east for the latest designated event of the season.
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of the RBC Heritage:
RBC Heritage tournament basics
RBC Heritage
April 13-16
Harbour Town Golf Links | Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Par 71 | 7,213 yards
Purse: $20 million/$3.6 million
FedExCup points for winner: 500
Betting favorites, via BetMGM: Scottie Scheffler (+750), Jon Rahm (+850)
Last time out: Jordan Spieth beats Patrick Cantlay in a playoff
Jordan Spieth picked up his 13th career Tour win last year at the RBC Heritage thanks to a playoff victory over Patrick Cantlay.
The win came amid a week in which his short game was terrible — he said after that he “won this golf tournament without a putter” — but Spieth sank a birdie putt to force the playoff and then edged Cantlay out to take the win.
Spieth has four top-10 finishes so far this season. He went T4 at the Masters last week thanks to a 7-under final round that included three bogeys, including one at the last.
“I've been playing really nice golf over the last six, eight weeks, and then resting, so finding that balance to be prepared to peak as best I can as the tournament goes on,” Spieth said Tuesday. “It's nothing new. But I don't normally have 27 holes on Sunday of Augusta right before. So that's a hard walk.
“It's not a hard walk this week, but it requires a lot of focus, a lot of — you can't really take a play off here because it tests pretty much every shot. You can get into trouble pretty quickly."
A ‘tired’ Rahm ready to run it back after Masters win
Nobody would have blamed Jon Rahm if he took the week off.
After winning the Masters last week, which marked his second major championship and his 11th career win on Tour, it’d make a lot of sense if he opted to skip this tournament in South Carolina. And, admittedly, Rahm is exhausted.
“[Withdrawing] did cross my mind, but I made a commitment earlier in the year, and I want to honor that commitment,” Rahm said Wednesday. “I also, talking to [my wife] Kelley, I put myself in the shoes of not only the spectators, but the kids as well. If I was one of the kids, I would want to see the recent Masters champion play good or bad, just want to be there.
“I still intend to hopefully do the jacket double and taking this one home. I'm not going to parade myself, right? But it did cross my mind, and obviously I think it would have crossed anybody's because I was so tired. But that's why I decided to come in yesterday afternoon and take it easier and just give my body a rest before I got into competition mode.”
Rahm is the first Masters winner to play the following week since Spieth did so in 2015. If he were to win, it’d mark Rahm’s fifth win on Tour already this season. His win at Augusta National jumped him back to No. 1 in the Official World Golf Rankings, too.
A win, though, won’t be easy. There are 17 golfers inside the OWGR top 20 in the field this week in South Carolina, including nine of the top 10. Spieth will play with Rahm the first two days and is a popular pick to win based on how he’s been playing in recent weeks. Scottie Scheffler is the betting favorite as of Wednesday, and No. 4 Cantlay, who went T14 at the Masters, is hunting for his first win of the season.
“I can promise you that every time I tee it up in a tournament, it's going to be to win,” Rahm said. “It may feel better or worse, but I intend to try my hardest to win.”
Rory McIlroy withdraws
While this week is a designated event, Rory McIlroy pulled out of the tournament Monday morning.
McIlroy withdrew for an unspecified reason just days after he missed the cut at Augusta National. He’s already missed one designated event, too, which could end up costing him a Player Impact Program bonus at the end of the year.
McIlroy, who is currently ranked No. 3 in the world, has played the RBC Heritage just twice in his career. He posted a 5-over-77 on Friday at the Masters and missed the cut, which will push his quest to complete the Career Grand Slam another year.
Will Zalatoris withdrew Monday, too, though he underwent season-ending back surgery last weekend.
