Friday at the RBC Heritage hosted by Harbour Town brought us more scoring after a first round that ended with Ludvig Åberg leading after shooting 63 (-8). The first round finished with 64.6% of the field finishing under par, but day two had 69.5% of the field finish the day under par. At the end of round 2, we were left with a different leader, a fellow member of the European Ryder Cup team.
Matt Fitzpatrick has already been a champion at the RBC Heritage, and after 36 holes, he is making a strong bid for another plaid jacket. He shot a bogey-free round of 63 (-8) on Friday to make him -14 for the tournament, and that moves him into solo first place. He has only made one bogey across his first 36 holes of golf. I think what makes it all the more impressive is that he did it while being paired with world number 1 Scottie Scheffler. Fitzpatrick doubled Scheffler’s score to par both days, with Scheffler going -3 and -4 on Thursday and Friday, and Fitzpatrick going -6 and -8 on Thursday and Friday.
Fitzpatrick was also the beneficiary of one of the luckier breaks I’ve ever seen in golf, on hole 14. His ball bounced hard off of something to the left of the green, and rolled back through the front of the green and onto the front fringe. The fact that it didn’t make it back to the water was also a break. Then, based on where the ball finished up, Fitzpatrick was able to take relief from a sprinkler head. After the relief, he made a 33-foot putt from the front fringe for a birdie. It was his second in a row and a part of a closing run where Fitzpatrick birdied 4 of his last 6 holes.
Another Past RBC Heritage Champion
Justin Thomas had another rough day. I think it should be expected, given how fresh he is returning from injury, yet it is still a bit shocking when you combine the course’s scorability this week with some recent play. While his play hasn’t always been great since his return, it hasn’t looked like this.
The biggest issue is his putting. He is 82nd out of 82 in strokes gained putting. At Harbour Town, putting is probably the most important statistic; the top three on the leaderboard, after 36 holes, all rank in the top 3 in strokes gained putting so far this week. He made 34 feet and 10 inches worth of putts on Saturday, which is just never going to be a winning formula on the PGA Tour.
While putting is the main concern, pretty much everything is struggling for Thomas this week. He has negative strokes gained approach to green and negative strokes gained around the green. His driver hasn’t been accurate, which has led to fewer greens in regulation, and then once he does get there, the putter isn’t working.
I’ve given all of the bad this week, so I’ll end this with the good. I think this is a combination of frustration that has built up, along with the wear and grind of last week, weighing on a guy who still probably doesn’t feel completely back in the swing of things. Back injuries are hard and can linger even when a player comes back. We have a good example of how injuries can linger from last year with Xander Schauffele and his rib injury. The version of Schauffele we saw in 2025 wasn’t near the form that won him 2 major championships in 2024. Luckily for all golf fans Xander appears to be back in form and in time I believe we will see the same from Thomas.
