2026 RBC Heritage Preview | Harbour Town Course Guide, Conditions, Player Profiles

The Course

We are swapping a green jacket for a red tartan plaid blazer, as the players turn their attention to Harbour Town, one of the most unique tests players see all year, with a layout that strips golf back to its fundamentals. This Pete Dye course comes in at just over 7,100 yards. Harbour Town is one of the shortest courses on the calendar, filled with tree-lined fairways, sharp doglegs, and overhanging branches that force players to club down constantly. With driver being taken out of hand on a lot of holes, the importance of positioning off the tee is elevated.

Each year, the guys who finish at the top end in Strokes Gained for Approach and Around the Green are the ones who cash in. The greens at Harbour Town are the second smallest on the PGA Tour, and the Par 5s are not an automatic go for it in two as a result. With driving not being as important here as at other courses, we see more short-to-mid iron approach plays, with shots from 150–200 being up on the PGA Tour average and with the bulk of players' approach shots coming from 100–200 yards. Essentially, iron accuracy is non-negotiable, and even from the fairway, these greens are hard to hit consistently, which brings the players who can scramble into the picture.

The finishing holes at Harbour Town sum up the overall challenge of this course, with the beautiful Par 3 17th, which plays over water, and the Par 4 18th that plays along the water toward the lighthouse, which is quite often one of the most demanding closing stretches players will face. It is no real surprise to note that in the last five years we have seen a playoff victory. Overall, at Harbour Town we have four Par 3s, with all of them typically playing over par. We have eleven Par 4s, with seven of them playing less than 450 yards, and three Par 5s, with all of them offering players the ultimate risk vs reward test if going for it in two.

Weather Outlook

With Harbour Town situated on Hilton Head Island, it does bring in the potential for completely brutal and breezy conditions. A large part of what makes the Heritage such a hard place to play is the amount of heavily wind-affected rounds due to its location.

Looking at the forecast now, a few days out, it does look fairly consistent over the four days, with no rain forecast but the chance for some decent wind gusts on the Sunday, which will make things very interesting. This is probably one course where you really want to be paying attention to what it is doing a day out to see which wave you should target for First Round Leader or pick your guys going AM/PM or PM/AM on the Thursday/Friday based on what it is favoring.

Course Success

What does success look like at Harbour Town? Historically, this is a venue that favors a certain type of player: accuracy off the tee, elite approach numbers, and strong around the green. Bombers can contend, but they have to be adaptable and play a completely different style than they’re used to. Here are the key stats for this week and what I am looking at:

• SG: Around The Green
• SG: Approach
• Proximity 150–200 Yards
• Good Drive %
• Comp Courses (Less Than Driver)

With a number of really good comp courses here that force you to take the driver out of your hand, I think this is a really valuable aspect to explore when going through your research. Pebble Beach and Waialae are two good examples that do offer some similar aesthetics to Harbour Town given their proximity to the water.

Player Profiles

Before I dive into a few players I like this week, I should preface that this, to me, really feels like a Scottie week, and on the back of that, I have looked to take my shots in the mid-range part of the board and find some players who I think have value based on some of the metrics I am looking at. This won't be a big card for me this week.

Daniel Berger

This one is a tough one to completely lean into. The approach numbers are great and open your eyes so wide, but then the numbers around the greens make you want to close them. With this being a Scottie week in my mind, these are the kind of guys I want to play. However, I don't want to bet into the first group of guys behind Scottie, I want to find guys who tick some boxes, not all, and are at a decent price. Berger fits that criteria perfectly.

If we look at the last 16 rounds, Berger has these ranks in key areas:

• Proximity 100–150: 2nd
• Proximity 150–200: 6th
• SG: Approach: 6th
• Good Drive %: 10th

If we get that from Berger, and if he can simply be okay around the greens, we probably are in the thick of it come Sunday. At the price point you are getting, it is an easy play for me.

Ben Griffin

The Ben Griffin we have seen this year is vastly different to the one we saw last year. His strokes gained in approach and off the tee are at the lowest point of his career, and we are yet to see a top 10 finish for a guy who did so in almost 40% of his events last season. In saying that, I think we saw some real signs at Augusta that this ship might be turning around. Removing the final round, which was awful, over the first three days at Augusta he had these numbers:

• SG: Total - 7.13
• SG: Approach - 0.81
• SG: Tee To Green - 1.95
• SG: Around The Green - 1.40
• SG: Putting - 5.18

While the approach numbers might not be jumping off the page there, this is a guy who had lost strokes on approach in 6 of the 9 events prior to The Masters. For context, that is the same number of events he lost strokes in during his entire 2025 season. If we strip his results back and look at courses which play less than driver, in his last 10 starts we have 3 top 10s and 6 top 20s, with the approach numbers being much nicer on the eyes. Also, it is hard to really knock those putting numbers. Happy to take a stab at the price he is at.

Andrew Putnam

This one is more of a top finishes play than an outright play, but there is some merit to a small play on that in any case. While I struggle to see how a player of Putnam's quality wins in a Signature Event and in a field like this, there are some aspects to his game that likely help him find his way to a good week.

Coming off a T5 last time at the Valero Texas Open, his numbers around the green and off the tee are elite. Here are his ranks over the last 16 rounds:

• SG: Around The Green: 1st
• Scrambling %: 1st
• Driver Accuracy %: 3rd
• Good Drive %: 3rd

His proximity and approach numbers are not close to that, and that is a huge reason why I say I can't see him having a complete week to don the red tartan plaid blazer. However, if we narrow it down to courses with small greens, he has gained strokes on approach in his last five starts, including a T2 at The American Express. The approach numbers were really promising at the Valero, and with the possibility of really tough conditions on any day at Harbour Town, I am happy to have a guy who drives the ball accurately and takes care of his business around the greens.