With the first major of the year complete, the PGA Tour season continues with a stop in the South Carolina Lowcountry for the 56th edition of the RBC Heritage.
Established in 1969 as the Heritage Golf Classic, the event has been through a number of naming changes in its history. Arnold Palmer, at age 40, won the inaugural event which was his 55th win of his hall of fame career.
RBC Heritage Naming History
| Heritage Golf Classic | 1969-1970 |
| Sea Pines Heritage Classic | 1971 – 1976, 1979 |
| Heritage Classic | 1977 -1978 |
| Sea Pines Heritage | 1980 – 1986 |
| MCI Heritage Golf Classic | 1987 – 1994 |
| MCI Classic | 2003 – 2005 |
| Verizon Heritage | 2006 – 2010 |
| The Heritage | 2011 |
| RBC Heritage | 2012 – present |
The RBC Heritage is the second stop in South Carolina for the PGA Tour. The CJ Cup being the other S.C. PGA Tour event.
Held in Hilton Head, the Harbor Town Golf Links has hosted the event for the entirety of its history.
This year the RBC was elevated to a designated event, which means the increased purse will attract some of the best players to attend despite playing in the major championship the week before.
Last year the field competed for a purse of $8 million, with $1.44 million going to the champion Jordan Spieth. This year the field will vie for a total of $20 million with the eventual champion pocketing $3.6 million.
Two LIV Golfer, Branden Grace (2016) and Graeme McDowell (2013) are previous RBC Heritage Champions, and LIV Golf CEO Greg Norman won in 1988 when the event was known as the “MCI Heritage Golf Classic”.
LIV Golf Defector Harold Varner III was runner up to winner Stewart Cink in 2021.
Fan Favorite Jordan Spieth will be back to defend his title from last year, however he will not be bringing PIP winner Tiger Woods with him.
The RBC Heritage is one of the few events on Tour that Woods has not won. Tiger’s best finish was in 1999 when the event was called the “MCI Classic”.
After re-aggravating his plantar fasciitis injury during the third round of last week’s Masters, we may not see Tiger for a while.
Notables in the field (OWGR Ranking)
| Jon Rahm 1 | Scottie Scheffler 2 | Patrick Cantlay 4 | Xander Schauffele 6 | |
| Max Homa 7 | Viktor Hovland 9 | Sam Burns 10 | Collin Morikawa 11 | |
| Justin Thomas 12 | Cam Young 13 | Tony Finau 14 | Jordan Spieth 15 | Matt Fitzpatrick 16 |
| Sungjae Im 17 | Tyrrell Hatton 18 | Tom Kim 19 | Kurt Kitayama 20 | Keegan Bradley 22 |
| Shane Lowry 23 | Tommy Fleetwood 25 | Billy Horschel 26 | Tom Hoge 27 | Sahith Theegala 28 |
Rory McIlroy and Will Zalatoris have withdrawn from the RBC Heritage.
Rory did not specify a reason for withdrawing, however after missing the cut at the Masters it appears that he needs to regroup after an active schedule over the last few months.
Rory noted that he wanted to get back to just playing golf after being one of the vocal leaders on the PGA Tour in the ongoing saga with LIV Golf.
Zalatoris withdrew from the RBC Heritage after also withdrawing from the Masters without playing a hole at Augusta. He noted a back injury for the withdrawal from the 1st major championship of the year. He announced that he will have back surgery which will keep off the golf course for the foreseeable future.
Players to Watch
Tony Finau
This will be Tony’s fourth trip to Harbortown Golf Links for the RBC Heritage. In three previous trips Tony made the cut twice with his best result coming in 2020 which was a 33rd place finish.
In ten events so far this PGA Tour season, Tony has nine top-25s, including three top-10s. He won the Cadence Bank Houston Open back in November.
His most recent event was last week’s Masters where he finished in a tie for 26th place.
Finau is currently ranked 9th in the FedEx Cup, and is 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Sahith Theegala
This will be Sahith’s second trip to Hilton Head for the RBC Heritage. In his first appearance in 2022 he finished in 70th place.
So far this PGA Tour season in 15 events, Sahith has eight top-25s which includes six top-10s.
His best result in official events on the PGA Tour was a tie for second place at the RSM Classic back in November.
In unofficial events, Theegala won the QBE Shootout with partner Tom Hoge.
Sahith is currently ranked 12 in the FedEx Cup and 30th in the Official World Golf Ranking
JJ Spaun
This will be JJ’s sixth trip to South Carolina for the RBC Heritage. In five previous trip JJ has three missed cuts. His best finish came in 2017 when he finished sixth.
So Far this PGA Tour season in 15 events, JJ has eight top-25s, including two top-10s. His most recent finish was a tie for 22nd place at the Valero Texas Open earlier in April.
JJ is currently ranked 51st in the FedEx Cup and 68th in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Cam Champ
This will be Cam’s second trip to Harbour Town Golf Links. He missed the cut in his first appearance in 2019.
In 11 events so for this PGA Tour season, Cam has one top-25 finish which came at the ZOZO Championship where he finished in 8th place.
Champ missed the cut the first major of the year, the Masters.
Cam is currently ranked 165th in the FedEx Cup, and 201st in the Official World Golf Ranking.
Tee Times
Finau: Thursday – 1:28 PM; Friday – 8:28 AM
Theegala: Thursday – 7:55 AM; Friday – 12:55 AM
Spaun: Thursday – 7:44 AM; Friday – 12:44 PM
Champ: Thursday – 8:17 AM; Friday -1:17 PM
How to watch
Thursday (4/13) & Friday (4/14): 2 – 6 PM EST (Golf Channel)
Saturday (4/15) & Sunday (4/16): 1 – 3 PM EST (Golf Channel); 3 – 6 PM EST (CBS)