RBC Heritage

[IanH]

Tips, previews and ratings for the RBC Heritage. 

[IanH]

RBC Heritage ratings:

RBC Heritage		Harbour Town, Hilton Head
		Par 71	7101 yards
Pos	Player	FORM	COURSE	SKILLS	TOTAL
1	Luke Donald	16	89	16	67.44
2	Matt Kuchar	29	75	0	57.78
3	Paul Casey	50	24	12	48.00
4	Charles Howell	37	23	23	46.22
5	Bill Haas	29	41	11	45.11
6	Jason Dufner	27	46	7	44.56
7	Jason Day	42	38	0	44.44
8	Charley Hoffman	40	36	0	42.22
9	Brandt Snedeker	22	34	14	39.11
10	Graeme McDowell	21	47	2	39.11
11	Russell Knox	23	14	28	35.89
12	Webb Simpson	9	54	0	35.00
13	Zach Johnson	16	36	8	33.56
14	Kevin Na	16	35	5	31.00
15	Jamie Lovemark	36	0	18	30.22
16	Billy Horschel	37	17	0	30.00
17	Graham Delaet	31	7	16	30.00
18	Marc Leishman	17	26	9	29.00
19	Harris English	21	19	0	22.22
20	Russell Henley	16	16	8	22.22
21	Matthew Fitzpatrick	28	11	0	21.67
22	Justin Thomas	38	0	0	21.11
23	Branden Grace	18	0	14	17.56
24	Kevin Kisner	16	8	6	16.44
25	Danny Lee	13	0	0	7.22

 

[IanH]

Outright tips for the RBC Heritage: 

10pts Each Way - Luke Donald (6 places) Stan James @ 56.00

20pts Win - Matt Kuchar bet365 @ 23.00

10pts Each Way - Bill Haas (5 places) William Hill @ 41.00

72 hole match bets to follow.

[Bamford]

Class tends to win around HarbourTown. A technical test, where slashing the ball from the tee actually get's punished.  Jason Day take note. Tight fairways with overhanging trees block approach angles and the greens are tiny - especially when compared to Augusta. The main defence that the course has is wind - which in 2016 will play a substantial part - unlike 2015, when the course was soft and yielded birdies for the accurate.

 

With wind a serious factor and with the winning prices seemingly 80/1 or below I'm keeping it simple this week with 3 players who have either won here or finished runner-up.

 

Brandt Snedeker (20/1), Zach Johnson (25/1) and Graeme McDowell (50/1).

[clubgowi]

PGA Tour Golf: RBC Heritage

Hard to think of a course which could be such a different test after the Masters,and Harbour Town requires a completely different skill set to Augusta. It is a short course, where drivers will not be needed too often, you have to think and plot your way around here and driving accuracy, and not distance is the key stat, leaving yourself in position to hit the very small greens. Everyone is going to miss them sooner or later and so it is important to be able to scramble too. It is a real horses for courses event and the same players do tend to do well here year after year. Luke Donald has five top 3 finishes in seven visits and missing the Masters last week , will not have done him any harm ( 3 of the last 8 winners here, since the event has followed the major ,DNP Augusta and another three missed the cut) and watching a fellow Brit win the first major of the season, might have inspired him. We were firmly with Donald on the Money List in his glory year of 2011, the game has seemingly passed him by now and to be honest, it seems longer than five years since he was at his peak, but on this course, which plays to his strengths, he is certainly not out of things at 50-1.

Another former clubgowi semi-regular is Jerry Kelly, who will turn 50 later this year and then, I assume, join the senior tour, but he is still competitive at the "big show" and whilst he will not win, he was never exactly prolific in his heyday and two wins in closing in on 600 starts tells you all about that, but career prize money of almost $30m also tells you how very consistent he has been and the Heritage has been a major contributor to the Kelly pension fund. He has three top tens here and has finished 18-31-5-29-36 in the last five years , he is ranked 2nd on Tour in scrambling this year, which is an upgrade on already solid stats in that category and is #4 for accuracy off the tee and arrives here having made 8/9 cuts in 2009, with a T9 at the Sony Open and T33 and T21 in his last two starts, shooting a Sunday 65 at the Peurto Rico open in the last of those. He was 22nd in that last year before his 18th (joint) finish here and went on a "tear up" (it is all relative !) after that, going 18-22-17-10 in consecutive events, last of which was the hugely important Players Championship, which, like Harbour Town is a Pete Dye designed course. He has finished between 5th- 36th the last five years and his key stats are better coming into the event this year and at 5.50 to finish top 20 that sounds a very fair price.

A player I really like the look of is Kevin Kisner, he was runner up here last year, losing in a playoff to Jim Furyk, but he has since made the big breakthrough winning the RSM Classic five months ago on a course with many similarities to Harbour Town. Kisner is a local lad and was born in Aiken, South Carolina, about two hours drive from Harbour Town and he will feel very much at home here, especially after his deep run last season. He went 2-1-9-5 in consecutive start either side of his win and seems sure to win again sometime soon, his form tailed off a little after that, but he played very nicely for 37th at Augusta on a course that doesn't really suit him (but which he has always dreamed of playing) and will be far happier here, where distance off the tee is not an issue.

Kisner has played the course at Hilton Head since his junior days and it sets up perfectly for his game, he felt confident he would win last year and it took 74 holes for a dogged Jim Furyk to beat him and he went close again a few weeks later at the Players, which as we have already discussed is a Pete Dye course, he shot 67-67 on Friday-Saturday to get into contention and on Sunday made birdies on 16 and 17 and almost again on the last which would have given him the win. Instead he was in a three hole aggregate playoff with Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia, he got it down to just him and Fowler, but lost out at the 4th extra hole. That was his big moment and from then on he realised he could compete with the best . Golf Channel analyst Frank Nobilo said “If any player watched this today, I’ll tell you what, not one of them wants to be in a playoff with Kevin Kisner going forward. “He flat-out said, ‘I don’t care who you are, I’m going to take you on.’”Johnny Miller, on NBC said Kisner was a “star in the making.”

Kisner had already been a star, right through his youth and college days and was Georgia’s first four-time All-American and everything had come rather easy all the way up to the PGA Tour and then he hit a wall and it was only at the third time of trying to establish himself that things clicked and he felt he could be competitive, at the Players he went a step further and knew he could win. Now that the breakthrough has come, he can be a multi winner and Harbour Town already owes him one.

Donald might go well, but I think I need to see a solid start before I could actually back him. So I will suggest......

Jerry Kelly to finish Top 20 5.50 general quote

Kevin Kisner to finish top ten 3.50 general quote

Kevin Kisner to win outright 26.0 general quote
 

[IanH]

The Law of Hilton Head says that players who have been in contention at the US Masters in the previous week should be avoided for betting purposes in the RBC Heritage. That guideline would rule out the three shortest priced players in the betting and makes Matt Kuchar the most likely outright winner. Bill Haas and Luke Donald have good profiles in the context of the Harbour Town host course and can get their careers back on track this week.  

The Heritage has been played on the same course since it was inaugurated in 1969, although it has had regular changes of sponsors over the years. It is now firmly established as the first event after the Masters. Jason Day, Paul Casey and Brandt Snedeker may not have fully recovered from contending in the first major of the season and do not have the profiles to be the exception to the Hilton Head rule.

Full Preview & Tips http://punts.pl/2ZfKKU

[owenclass]

Looks like Day is back to his best