Sport
RBC Heritage preview: Morikawa’s time to shine at Harbour Town
We might be coming off the first Major of the year and as a result it wouldn’t be amiss to think the standard of the field for the RBC Heritage might have suffered. Well, think again. We’ve got five of the top nine in the world rankings teeing it up at Harbour Town, with Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas heading the betting at 14/1.
So, it’s anything but a case of after the Lord Mayor’s show and here’s our preview ahead of the opening round on Thursday.
Morikawa looks the man to beat
The field for this week’s event will face a very different test to what they faced at Augusta National. While Augusta is wide from the tee, undulating, and has decent-sized greens, Harbour Town is much tighter and with tiny greens whichever way you look, precision is a necessity. It’s certainly not a course where the big hitters have an advantage and, in fact, the average driving distance of the last 10 winners is 25 yards shorter than the PGA Tour average. As such it’s unsurprising the likes of Luke Donald (seven top-three finishes) and Jim Furyk (twice a winner and twice a runner-up) have very strong records around here.
Taking these factors into account, Collin Morikawa looks tailormade for this test and he slots in as the headline pick at 14/1. The American has played Harbour Town twice and after a tie for 64th on his first try in 2020, where he shot 69 or better in three of his four rounds and was coming off an agonising play-off defeat at the Charles Schwab Challenge, he finished seventh last year.
That only tells half the story as he was second to eventual winner Stewart Cink after 54 holes, but given he was five shots back, he was forced to push for the win and errors crept in. He did, however, rank third for Strokes Gained: Approach, second for Strokes Gained: Tee-To-Green and first in Greens In Regulation, and as the last 10 winners have on average ranked 11th, seventh and 17th in those categories, it’s clear he ranks highly in the categories that matter around Harbour Town.
He has six top 10s in eight events on the PGA Tour this term, with the most recent of those coming last week at Augusta where he closed with a 67, which, of course, ended with a brilliant hole out from the bunker on the 18th. He’s done pretty much everything but win this season and this looks an ideal opportunity to notch up the seventh win of his career.
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Harbour Town looks a match made in heaven for Fitzpatrick
While Morikawa looks the man to beat, another player that Harbour Town looks perfect for is Matthew Fitzpatrick, who looks worthy of support at 22/1. As mentioned, this week’s test doesn’t require long driving, so Fitzpatrick, who is 139th on tour for driving distance, isn’t at a disadvantage like his he is on other occasions. As such, it’s no surprise that Fitzy openly admits his love for the course and regularly enjoyed trips to the area when he was younger.
He’s played the event seven times and his results have steadily improved, with three top 14s in his last four starts, including a solo fourth last year. Those improved showings have followed his rise up the world rankings and he’s playing arguably some of the best golf of his career right now as the stats back up.
He ranks inside the top 32 in all five of the main categories on the PGA Tour this season and is in fact first in Strokes Gained: Total, so there aren’t any real weaknesses right now.
The Englishman finished in a tie for fifth at a similar test in Innisbrook last month and after a solid tie for 14th at Augusta, he should go really well at a course which should suit him much better.
