Golf Rankings for RBC Heritage

by Ryan Baroff FFToolbox.com
 

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Tournament Stop

Harbour Town is a narrow, seaside course where accuracy is crucial, and winds will wreak havoc on the players. These greens are tiny, the fairways are narrow, and trees in front of greens block approach shots that are not coming from the correct angle. It's a typical strategist's track, with recent winners including Branden Grace, Jim Furyk, Matt Kuchar, Carl Pettersson, Brandt Snedeker, Graeme McDowell, and Boo Weekley. No bombers in that group. Typically, the greens here are fast and firm, which creates a lot of missed greens and emphasizes scrambling ability. I'm also going to factor in course history a little more this week because five players have won this event multiple times. It's a track where you have to miss in the right places, be comfortable with your sight lines, and stick to detailed plan of attack.

Driving accuracy may be the one accuracy stat to ignore because this is a less-than-driver course most of the way around. Players will be hitting a ton of fairways with irons and hybrids, so don't emphasize that as much. In terms of strokes gained statistics, strokes-gained approach and strokes gained around the green are the two I will weigh heaviest this week. I will also be looking at certain trends, such as players who gain strokes in the wind, on Bermuda greens, and on short courses. Looking at the Florida, Georgia, and Carolina residents who perform well on Bermuda greens, you'll see names like Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar, Harris English, Bill Haas, Lucas Glover, and Ben Martin. The other connection that I'll mention is that Harbour Town is a Pete Dye design. His unique course style caters towards a certain type of player, and many of these players are in the field this week: Matt Kuchar, Kevin Kisner, Bill Haas, Russell Knox, Marc Leishman, and Ben Martin.