RBC Heritage golfers light up the scoreboard early
The course was soft and scorable for most of Thursday’s first round of the RBC Heritage at Harbor Town. The three lowest scores of the day came from the morning tee times, with Ludvig Åberg carding a -9, 63, and Viktor Hovland carding a -7, 64. Harris English also carded a -7, 64. But, it appears that the better scoring overall came from the afternoon tee times.
The first round saw 53 of 82 players finish the day under par. Even though this event doesn’t have a cut, I’m going to give it one after the first round. There is no chance that one of the 29 players who finished at even or over par today can win this tournament. That would eliminate guys like Cameron Young, Jake Knapp, Akshay Bhatia, Tony Finau, Justin Thomas, and Tommy Fleetwood.
Hole Notes
This is the first playing of Harbor Town since it underwent some renovation. This is what I noticed on two of the holes.
On Hole 5, they moved the tree up to try to defend the right third of the green. The pin location was on that part of the green, and the tree did not do much in the way of defense. Of the 3 groups that I watched on the 5th hole, 5 out of the 6 players made birdie on the hole. They chose to attack it one of two ways: they either played it as a three-shot hole by laying up into the approach, or they went left into the bunker, where it was a relatively simple up-and-down.
On hole 9, they raised the entire green complex by 14 inches. The only time I saw that truly mattered was when Xander Schauffele left his first bunker shot just short, and it rolled back to his feet. It is important to note that almost all players chose to hit a driver. There is no laying up on this hole; it is one of the best birdie opportunities on the golf course. If you make par, it feels like a missed opportunity, but if a bogey comes into play, you are probably losing more than a shot on the field.
Player Notes
Ludvig Åberg made a couple of birdies on his front nine but then caught fire on the back nine. He had 5 birdies, including one on the difficult par-3 14th. Surprisingly, he was unable to take advantage of the lone par-5 on the back nine. When he gets hot, it is so impressive to watch; it just looks so effortless.
The grouping of Scottie Scheffler, Gary Woodland, and Rickie Fowler played a practice round together on Tuesday. Today, that grouping went a total of -15 in the first round. Woodland shot a bogey-free 65. Fowler birdied 5 of his first 7 holes, even with a bogey on 9, he shot a -6, 65.
Scottie Scheffler had an up-and-down front-9 and steadied the ship during the back-9. It is yet another round from Scottie Scheffler where it feels like it could have been more. I think that just serves as a good reminder of what the standard has become for Scottie in the eyes of the public.
Scheffler was paired with fellow former RBC Heritage champion Matt Fitzpatrick. Fitzpatrick gave the fans following Scottie the show that they were looking for. He had a -6, 65 on the day that included 7 birdies and a bogey. Fitzpatrick finished the first round strong with a birdie on 3 of his last 4 holes.
More Notes
Speaking of former champions, defending champion Justin Thomas went +5 on the day. That number had to feel a lot bigger than it was, because Thomas was paired with the first-round leader in Åberg. I think a strong performance at The Players made people think that Thomas was just back. But the reality is, he is still probably getting into form after coming back from a back injury for the Arnold Palmer Invitational.
While we are on the topic of back issues, Collin Morikawa delivered another string round of golf. He shot a bogey-free round of 67 (-4). When I saw him on 14, you could tell he was a bit stiffer than he was while warming up, which is to be expected. Morikawa continues to play really good golf on his bad back. He is coming off a T9 performance at The Masters, and even though many Brooks Koepka fans wanted him to withdraw. Morikawa’s play makes you wonder, what if he were healthy?
