This article is part of our Golf One and Done Pool Expert Picks series.
RBC Heritage
There was a lot of movement in the RotoWire OAD pool last week with six players on Rory McIlroy. With the purse bump for 2025 at The Masters, those players flew up the standings with $4.2 million added to their season total. It's really tightened up what was an early season runaway. It goes to show just how fast you can get back in it with a win in the big money events. While the RBC Heritage feels like a bit of a letdown after one of the most thrilling tournaments we've ever seen, it's still a signature event and the winner will take home a very consequential $3.6 million. All options are on the board for this no-cut event.
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Course Tidbits
- Course: Harbour Town Golf Links (7,213 yards, par 71)
- Location: Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
- Purse: $20 million ($3.6 million to winner)
- Defending Champion: Scottie Scheffler (-19)
- 2024 Scoring Average: 69.35
- Average Winning Score Last 4 Tournaments: -17
Harbour Town is one of the most unique venues on Tour. While many courses these days are all about distance, Harbour Town is all about positioning. If you get out of position on the tee shot, what might seem like a birdie hole can quite quickly leave you scrambling to make par. Iron play has been exceptionally important on this course over the years. Because of the narrow fairways and doglegs, the field is going to be playing from basically the same spots on most holes. The best approach players will be able to separate themselves from there. The greens are some of the smallest targets on Tour and demand players to be in control of their distances. This Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus design also feature some quirky green complex features, which can lead to some really difficult scrambling situations for errant shots into the greens.
The last few years it seems like the RBC Heritage always gets interrupted at some point by weather, but it looks like we are in for a beautiful four rounds. Day-time highs will head into the mid-70s with very little threat of any precipitation. Winds are slated to average in the 8-12 mph, but being played right on the ocean, higher gusts can never be ruled out. Hopefully the course is able to dry out a bit and we can see some runout on the tee shots, which really bring in some of the native sandy areas. Nevertheless, expect the scoring average for this elite field to be sub-70 again. It's often a tournament that sees a very bunched leaderboard going into Sunday with a lot of players having a chance for the win with a great final round.
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RBC Heritage: One and Done Picks
I've already used up Patrick Cantlay, who has six top-7 finishes in seven starts at Harbour Town, but it might work out in my favor to be able to avoid the chalk likely to come his way. Straka should be an excellent play as well at much lower ownership, especially coming off the MC at The Masters. He has finished top-five here in two of the last three years. Straka checks all the boxes for success at Harbour Town at 13th in driving accuracy, fifth in SG: Approach, third in GIR percentage and second in proximity. He also ranks top-three this season in birdie average, par-3 scoring and par-5 scoring. --Ryan Andrade
After falling even further behind this past week at the Masters, I am not fully committed to playing under the radar picks the rest of the way. With so much ground to make up, I need to take guys that will have less than 20 percent ownership each week and I think Straka falls into that category this week. He's coming off a disappointing MC this past week, but his form overall this season has been great, and he's posted top-5s in two of his past three starts at this event. --Greg Vara
This sure feels like a good spot for Thomas to break his nearly three-year winless drought, doesn't it? The attention is off him after another mediocre showing last week, but dating back to his last 10 events, he has three runner-ups. He also posted four rounds in the 60s at Harbour Town last year en route to a T5 finish. That was tied for his best result last year of the tournaments remaining, so I don't think there are going to be many better spots to use him if you still have him available. --Ryan Pohle
Priced similarly in the outright betting market to a chalky Cantlay, but at maybe a quarter of the ownership in OAD, Thomas heads back to Harbour Town where he tied for fifth last year while gaining strokes across the board. He can't try to overpower this place with wild sprays of the driver, placing more of an emphasis on his approach play and short game, the latter of which has taken a step up since THE PLAYERS. Over his past 12 rounds, Thomas ranks second in SG: Putting and seventh in SG: Around-the-Green. --Bryce Danielson
Yeah, chalk. But when you have a runner-up and four third-place finishes on your resume, it's hard to go another direction. Look, you're gonna play Cantlay at some point this season. This is the best place, even if so many others take him. It's not even halfway through the season, so it's not at the point where you absolutely have to go another direction to catch up. Even if he disappoints, he'll disappoint much of your OAD field. Cantlay hasn't been great this season, but he does have two T5s. --Len Hochberg
RBC Heritage: One and Done Fades
Spieth continues to drive the ball at a high level, and he putted very well at both the Valero Texas Open and The Masters en route to top-15 finishes the last two weeks. The problem is the iron play continues to be incredibly inconsistent, and it's going to be really hard for him to score at Harbour Town if things keep going down that road with everyone basically playing their second shots from the same spots. He's had some great showings here in the past, but all of those were when his iron play was in a much better place. Ever since the wrist became an issue, the approach numbers have gone down. He's outside the top-150 in proximity from 125-150 yards, 150-175 yards and 175-200 yards, all of which will be key on this course with the small greens. --Ryan Andrade
To be honest, I'm a bit surprised his odds are down at 40-1 this week, I thought they would be lower considering he won this event in 2022 and finished runner-up in 2023. On paper he looks like a solid play this week, but the same could have been said this past week at the Masters and he wasn't a factor. It looks like Spieth is close to finding his best game, but there's something not quite right just yet. Perhaps he just needs more time to recover from his injury or perhaps it's something more. Whatever the case, I don't think he's ready to contend quite yet. --Greg Vara
It's easy to be drawn towards Spieth considering he's a past champion with plenty of good results in Hilton Head, but he also finished T39 last year the first time this was a signature event. His iron play has still been wildly inconsistent as he's gained strokes on approach in only two events this year including losing over a stroke per round at Augusta. We still have two non-signature events left in Spieth's home state that I view as better targets to use him. --Ryan Pohle
Morikawa's elite driving accuracy can be a bit negated here when the rest of the field often has the option to just club down off the tee in order to go fairway finding around Harbour Town, and his short game could be a concern on and around these tiny overseeded greens. He'll likely land top-5 in OAD ownership this week, while I'd rather utilize him at a venue that better rewards his driving and mid-long iron precision from 175-plus when he's possibly a less popular selection. --Bryce Danielson
I get no joy from this fade. He's on two of my season-long fantasy teams. He's won here, he's finished second here, but he's also not the same Spieth as he was back then. I suspect he'll have an okay week, just not OAD worthy. --Len Hochberg
Don't get burned by late withdrawals. Visit RotoWire's PGA tournament field page for a live-updated summary of the field for the current week and list of players who have dropped out.
