PGA DFS Core Plays: RBC Heritage
Top-ranked DFS player, Notorious, breaks down his favorite PGA DFS picks at various salary ranges for this week’s tournament. Who should you be building around? Find out below.
RBC Heritage
While we usually feel the Monday blues after the Masters, the RBC Heritage is a designated event this season. While a lot of golfers are complaining about fatigue, you can’t have your cake and eat it too (I still don’t understand this saying, of course I’m going to eat cake if I have it). Anyway, 95 of the top 100 golfers in the world (non-LIV obviously) are set to tee it up at Harbour Town Links Golf Club. This is one of the more unique tracks on the PGA Tour and one of my personal favorites. The course is a Par 71 that has recently been lengthened and can now play over 7,200 yards.
Harbour Town is a Pete Dye design and like almost all of his courses, this one can’t be overpowered off the tee. Water is in play on all 18 holes, the fairways are tree-lined, and the fairways narrow at certain areas. The average driving distance here is much shorter than tour average because many opt to club down on a lot of the holes. I will note the fairways are quite generous in the landing areas (34.4 yards wide), which is why the driving accuracy here is so high each year. In terms of difficulty, this has ranked an average of 22.4 over the last five years. With potential rain in the forecast on Friday and very little wind on the weekend, we should see some good scoring conditions.
The real defense of the course is the greens. They are extremely small (3,700 square feet) and are shaped like an upside-down bowl. Even from the fairway and even with short approach distances, these greens are tough to hit on average. This places an emphasis on two statistics in particular — strokes gained approach and strokes gained around the green. Good iron play will help golfers hit greens in regulation and good around the green play will allow golfers to save par (or make birdie on the par fives). Ultimately, the recipe for success here is to keep it in play off the tee and be good everywhere else.
Model Video & Download Link for the RBC Heritage
Field Size:
- 143 golfers
Cut Rule:
- Top 65 and ties move on after the first two rounds
Weather Forecasts
- Roth’s 2023 RBC Heritage forecast (link coming soon)
- Windfinder
- Weather Channel
Golf Course
- Harbour Town Golf Links
- Location: Hilton Head, South Carolina
- Designer: Pete Dye
- Par 71, 7,213 yards
- Difficulty: 29th (2022), 26th (2021), 37th (2020), 11th (2019), 19th (2018)
- Fairway width: 34 yards in average landing areas
- Green size: 3,700 square feet (extremely small)
- Green grass type: bermuda
Course Notes
- More of a strategic course that negates distance
- Water hazards in play on all 18 holes
- Top 10 finishers have gained more strokes ATG than OTT
- Greens are tough to hit on average given size and shape
- Best course history: Matt Kuchar, Patrick Cantlay, Webb Simpson
Skill Sets to Target
- Total driving
- Strokes gained approach
- Strokes gained around the green
- Bermuda putting
Core Plays
Collin Morikawa
DK: $10,000 — FD: $11,300
SG: OTT — 24
SG: APP — 2
SG: ATG — 113
SG: Putting — 108
Bogey Avoidance — 29
Noto’s Rating — 83.5
I love Cantlay and the model loves Cantlay, but Morikawa is my pick to win this week. For that reason, I’m tagging him as a core play and Cantlay as a conviction play. When it comes to ball striking, there are few that do it better than Morikawa. Despite having a lack of length off the tee, he gains strokes on a regular basis. He hits so many fairways, which is half the battle here at Harbour Town. He might be the best iron player in the world. It really all comes down to his short game. If he can gain strokes on and around the greens, it’s hard not to like his chances this weekend. In each of the last two years, he has gained 10.4 strokes ball striking on the field.