There might be no let down from the 12 months’s first Major because the elevated RBC Heritage will get underway with an excellent field this week.
Enveloped as you’re by a large unfold of a welcoming citizenry that’s there in power on the first tee, and as captivated as you’re with a wind-swept view of Calibogue Sound strolling up the 18th fairway, it’s onerous to consider Harbour Town Golf Links when it comes to being confining.
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But that phrase involves Patrick Cantlay’s thoughts when he explains why he loves coming to this week’s RBC Heritage.
“It’s so confined,” Cantlay said. “The trees shape every hole.”
Cantlay, who misplaced a playoff to Jordan Spieth a 12 months in the past, has carried out all the things however win in his visits right here. Starting in 2017, Cantlay had a three-year run when he was T3, T7, and T3.
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“It’s one of the iconic golf courses on TOUR,” Cantlay stated. “I really like the golf course.”
But whereas Cantlay gushes about Harbour Town and insists “I feel like I have a good gameplan for it,” many gamers admittedly try to make a fast research of this good design that’s owed to the genius of Pete Dye, who labored with a youthful Jack Nicklaus to introduce Harbour Town in 1969.
PGA Tour’s greatest are prepared for RBC Heritage
Of the 143 on this week’s field, 29 rivals haven’t performed at Harbour Town, an inventory that features the world’s second-ranked participant, Scottie Scheffler. Throw in the truth that three different members of the world’s high 10 – No. 1 Jon Rahm, No. 7 Max Homa, and No. 9 Viktor Hovland – solely performed it within the 2020 season when the RBC Heritage served because the second match again from the 11-week break in the course of the pandemic and you’ve got a uncommon week on TOUR the place gamers are utilizing observe rounds as a school cramming session.
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Perhaps that explains why so many veterans – Adam Scott, for occasion, whose solely go to right here got here in 2001 when he was 20 – had been engrossed in learning the course and never tied to the vary.
Spieth can commiserate. He was there in 2013, a 20-year who had lately left the University of Texas to show professional.
“I wasn’t in the Masters the week before and so I got in early. I thought learning the golf course was very important,” he stated. “You can run into trouble pretty quickly as the course firms up and you can be in the fairway but be blocked out.”
Then a really younger, however very a lot a sage, Spieth earned Special Temporary Membership 4 tournaments into the season, then three begins later he was T9 at Harbour Town. Spieth moved to a hundred and seventy fifth within the Official World Golf Ranking, and the experience has been a wonderful one, together with six journeys to Harbour Town, which he likes very a lot.
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“It’s just a course where you have to pick it apart tee to green, based on where the hole location is,” Spieth stated. “You have to really think your way around.”
Harbour Town is a spot the professionals love
That side of Harbour Town, the shot-making and the course administration, is a energy of Gary Woodland’s recreation, so he does bemoan the truth that it’s solely his third go to right here and explains why he was dashing to play on a pristine day.
“Butchy (Woodland’s caddie, Brennan Little) is always telling me that he thinks Harbour Town is a good golf course for me,” stated Woodland, who performed in 2013 and 2020. “Guys who win here lean heavy on ball-striking and iron play, and that’s where I’ve made my career.”
You’d be hard-pressed to discover a PGA TOUR golf course with smaller greens, which Woodland suggests performs into his recreation. He’s ranked twentieth in Strokes Gained: Approach the Green (+.622).
Echoing a sentiment that so many others espouse in regards to the glory of Harbour Town, Woodland loves that “you have to work the golf ball in both directions.”
Not a lot of his colleagues would disagree.
“You are kind of forced to (work the ball both ways) via trees,” stated Spieth, who unquestionably has supreme inventive expertise. “I’m sure there are plenty of winners here who only had to move it the other way once or twice, but yes, in order to get to all the pins and really position yourself the right way, it requires pretty much both ball flights.”
Two days after successful the 87th Masters, his second main, Jon Rahm was noticed on the far finish of a observe vary that befits the Harbour Town persona – it’s cozy and heat. Striping iron shot after iron shot, Rahm seemed unfastened and enthused to be right here for simply the second time. He completed T33 on journeys of 71-67-66-68 when the match was held in June due to the pandemic, however reportedly the world’s top-ranked participant was right here lengthy sufficient to guage it as one which was to his liking.
That could possibly be owed to Rahm’s precision along with his irons and lofty standing in SG: Approach to Green (fourth, +1.002) and Greens in Regulation (third, 72.73 %). Those are the type of strengths that work properly right here, however for others who may not possess Rahm’s prowess and who’re new to Harbour Town, Spieth presents this:
“Fortunately, having played it, I think it’s a significant advantage (to know it),” he stated. “It’s a harder one to learn quickly.”
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