BlogRBC Heritage Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

So another Masters is in the books and I have just a couple of thoughts.  Have to say that many thought the scoring was too low, I like what we saw because it’s more exciting to see lot’s of birdies made than guys struggling to make par.  Historically Augusta played to a 72.54 scoring average, making it the fifth easiest Masters of all time.  The final round saw a 70.9 average, which is the lowest final round.  May be low but I like what we saw this week.

As for Jordan Spieth, gosh as a father of a really pretty 21-year-old, hey Jordan you want to meet a great gal?  Spieth has the combination of youth and smarts, he showed that this week.  We talk about pressure in a major championship, gosh to lead from the first couple of holes that he played well to his first round 64 and keeping making birdie after birdie after birdie.  For the week, Spieth made 28, breaking the record 25 held by Phil Mickelson for 14 years.  Spieth was the fifth player to win wire-to-wire, the last being Raymond Floyd in 1976.  Think about it and how much life has changed in the 39 years since that victory.

More importantly was Spieth not looking twice to really dominate a tournament.  I was at the 1997 Masters, which I thought was the best of the 29 Masters I had been to, but I can say that Spieth’s victory was better.  Reason, when Woods won it was a stroll in the park.  He went into the final round in 1997 with a nine shot lead and never looked back.  Spieth only had a four shot lead, went out and made birdie on 2 of his first 3 holes but still had to be careful.  Yes the lead was between four and five, but when he struggled at 16 and Justin Rose had a birdie putt, if Rose makes and Spieth misses his par putt the lead would of been down to two.  But Rose missed and Spieth didn’t and it was the place that we knew that Spieth would win.

Two things, not to take anything away from Rory McIlroy but when Spieth is putting great like he did this week (he made 20 putts over 8 feet) I can’t see McIlroy beating Jordan mano-a-mano.  Spieth was in the same position that McIlroy found himself in 2011, a big lead (4) during the final nine.  But Spieth handled himself a bit better as he shot 70 while McIlroy shot 80 on the faithful day in 2011.

Tiger

One other thing that was impressive was the play of Tiger Woods.  Yes with a final round of 73 which drop him back into a T-17th it was disappointing, but Woods proved that his game is tour ready again and I can see him in the mix the next time he plays, probably the Players Championship.  I also will say this, he is my early favorite for the British Open, being played at St. Andrews in July.

Things you need to know about the RBC Heritage:

This will be the 47th edition of the Heritage, which is now well established thanks to the sponsorship deal with RBC four years ago.  It was a long haul with a lot of apprehensive monents and rumors of it’s demise, but the tournament is now healthy again.

Harbour Town has been the site of the tournament every year.   In 1989 the Tour Championship was held at Hilton Head.

The first Heritage Classic was played to great fanfare in 1969 even though it was a “turkey” of an event.  Originally it was just going to be an regular tournament on Hilton Head Island, giving away $45,000.  But Charles Price, founding editor of Golf Magazine, talked to a few people including Charles Fraser who owned the new course Harbour Town and suggested that instead of a small tournament he should apply for PGA Tour sanction.  They scrambled around and raised the purse to $100,000, then got a date for the tournament which was Thanksgiving weekend.  Jack Nicklaus, who helped Pete Dye design the course played and brought some friends including Arnold Palmer who went out and won the first Heritage Classic.  They say that thanks to Palmer winning, it put the tournament on the map and help create a nice tradition for a tournament in its first year.

The Heritage Classic was played over Thanksgiving weekend in its first four years.  It was moved in 1974 to September and then the next year to March.  Between 1983 and today it’s been played the week after the Masters, except for in 2012 when it was two weeks after the Masters.

Course information:

• Harbour Town Golf Links
• Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
• 7,101 yards     Par 36-35–71
• Harbour Town Golf Links features a course rating of 75.6 and a slope rating from the back tees of 147. The tees, fairway, and rough are TifSport bermudaGrass as the greens are bermudagrass overseeded with Poa. The course is a resort course and can be played by the public.  In 2014 Harbour Town was the 9th hardest course on the PGA Tour playing to a 72.038 average (full shot over par). In 2013 Harbour Town was the 11th hardest course on the PGA Tour playing to a 72.038 average which is 1.038 strokes over par.
• Course was designed and built by Pete Dye in 1969.  Jack Nicklaus got his start in golf course architecture as he assisted Dye on the design and building of Harbour Town.   The average green size at Harbour Town is 4,500 square feet, which means it has some of the smallest greens on the PGA Tour.  Course has 145 bunkers and water comes into play on nine of the 18 holes
• Over the years the course has changed very little change, seven new teeing grounds were put in with an added yardage of 127 yards, taking the course over the 7,000 mark to 7,101.  The holes that yardage was added to was the 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 15, 16 & 18.  In most cases players didn’t use driver but holes like 16 with an additional 36 yards will now force players to hit a driver.  The same with 18, 20 yards has been added to a hole that will now play to 472 yards.
• There was also some changes in some of the bunkers so that they are more in play and the area around the second green got some work.  Also some trees that played havoc to those who hit it in the fairway but had to contend with them were removed which will help improve the sight lines.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the RBC Heritage:

Key stat for the winner:

Harbour Town is one of the best courses in America, it’s a totally different experience in which ball placement is upmost over power.  Hitting it hard and far doesn’t work at this venue so look for a precision player to win.

So what will it take to win this week’s Heritage Classic? What makes the course tough is the greens, at 4,500 square feet they are some of the smallest greens on the PGA Tour.  Over the last 11 years they have been difficult to hit, of all the tournaments the U.S. Open is the only one that ranks harder to hit than the greens of Hilton Head.

Over the years putting and hitting greens have been key to winning at Harbour Town.  It you look at the list of Heritage champions all of them are good putters, especially from the ten to twenty feet range.

With greens as small as those Hilton Head scrambling is a very important element in being able to win.  Just look at the recent winners to see how important this stat is. Last year Matt Kuchar was 12th in that stat on the PGA Tour in 2014. The 2013 winner Graeme McDowell led the scrambling list at Harbour Town getting it up and down 79.2% of the time.  In 2012 Carl Pettersson was 21st and Brandt Snedeker did a good job at 20th. But in the years before it was even better as in 2010 Jim Furyk was 4th in this category, getting it up and down 23 of 28 times.  In 2009 Brian Gay was first in this category, getting it up and down 22 of 24 tries.  In 2007 Boo Weekley only took 97 putts and won the category, Aaron Baddeley was 7th in his win in 2006, Davis Love III was 3rd in his 2003 win, Justin Leonard was 7th in his 2002 win, Jose Coceres was 5th in 2001 and Nick Price was 3rd in 1997.

Heritage always seems to have dramatic finishes.  In the last 13 of the 16 Heritage’s, six of them have had playoffs, four have had a one stroke margin of victory while the other was two and five.  Last year Matt Kuchar beat Luke Donald by a shot, thanks to a Kuchar birdie on the 72nd hole. In 2013 Graeme McDowell won in a playoff with Webb Simpson while in 2012 Carl Pettersson had a easy time winning by five.  In 2011 Snedeker went three extra holes before beating Luke Donald.   Can’t get any more excitement than in 2007 when Boo Weekley beat Ernie Els by a shot but he chipped in on 17 and 18 for the win.  In 2010 Jim Furyk beating Brian Davis in a playoff.

After six good days of weather at the Masters, we are going to have the opposite this week.  According to forecasts every day will experience showers with with Saturday and Sunday looking terrible with thunderstorms.