Harbour Town played the easiest it has all week on moving day. Over 75% of the field finished their rounds under par. Eight players shot a 65 (-6) or better on Saturday, with the three best rounds of the day belonging to Brian Harman shooting 63 (-8), while Scottie Scheffler and Chandler Blanchet shot 64 (-7). I would expect the conditions to remain very scorable heading into tomorrow because it appeared that the greens were being watered at the end of the round today.
Hypothetical Cut
Signature events don’t have a cut, and even events that do have a cut tend to have a silent second cut. Heading into the Final Round of the RBC Heritage, my cut line would be at -11. This is even a bit lower than I would’ve liked to have put the line, but I cannot ignore the fact that at least one player has shot a 63 (-8) in each round this week. If one of the five players who sit at -11 manages to shoot an 8 under par round, then they will be squarely in contention, only needing an average day from Matt Fitzpatrick to find themselves putting on the Tartan Jacket.
The Final Pairing
Scottie Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick find themselves paired together yet again this week. The pair spent the first two days of the RBC Heritage together, where they shot a combined 21 under par across the two days. But Scheffler saved his best scoring day for moving day, Saturday, when he shot his 64 (-7).
It was a tale of two 9’s for Scheffler on Saturday. He had a front nine that saw 6 birdies, 2 pars, and a bogey. His back 9 was rather calm in comparison with 7 pars and 2 birdies. Even with his strong moving day, he was still unable to close the gap completely as Matt Fitzpatrick shot 68 (-3).
It feels like a common thought process that a golfer isn’t going to go out and light up the scorecard all 4 days of a tournament. They are bound to have at least one off day. If this was Matt Fitzpatrick’s off day, then he will run away with the Tartan Jacket tomorrow. He made three bogeys today, which is two more than he had over the first 36 holes of the tournament. All three of his bogeys from his third round came in his first 7 holes. After that, he settled in and made 3 more birdies to go along with an eagle on the par-5 15th.
Fitzpatrick struggled in his strokes gained approach to green and strokes gained putting on Saturday; he ranked 68th and 63rd out of 82 players in those categories on Saturday. Those two areas are where Fitzpatrick had been most successful through his first two rounds. He was 17th in strokes gained approach to green and 5th in strokes gained putting during his first round. Fitzpatrick finished his second round ranked 5th in strokes gained approach to green and 7th in strokes gained putting.
Those two aspects are going to need to swing back in Fitzpatrick’s favor during the final round if he wants to become a two-time champion at the place he grew up vacationing in.
Others in Contention
Brian Harman shot his 63 (-8) on Saturday to move him into a tie for 3rd at 13 under par. When you look under the hood, it is easy to see why he was successful on Saturday; he hit 72.2% of greens in regulation and made over 133 feet worth of putts to go along with that.
There are 3 guys at 12 under that I like the most heading into the final round: Gary Woodland, Ludvig Åberg, and Patrick Cantlay. I think when you have to not only chase down a lead, but also chase down Scottie Scheffler in the process, you need to have had success at a really high level. These are the guys who stand out as having the ability to chase down this lead.
I think from the 11 under par group, I would bank on Viktor Hovland being the one who could potentially come back. A two-over-par Saturday may have him trying to rebuild his swing overnight, but it would also lead you to believe that is the worst round of golf he will play this week. The only other player I would really consider out of the 11 under group would be Harris English, based on the success he had putting earlier in the week.
I will be back Monday morning after we have crowned the 2026 Champion of the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town!
