Fantasy Golf: RBC Heritage Preview

It’s the week immediately after the Masters, so it’s no surprise that Sergio Garcia has opted to take his green jacket on a trip to the Empire State Building rather than teeing it up at the RBC Heritage this week. 

In fact, if you’ve got any of the World’s top 10 players in your fantasy golf game, you can be sure they won’t be scoring any points this week. Also, remember you don’t just have a pick of the PGA Tour this week as the European Tour returns to the Trophee Hassan II.

Instead, you’ll be seeing a mixture of the good and bad performers from Augusta National aiming to win the tartan jacket, along with those who weren’t able to make the cut.  

So who is playing in the RBC Heritage? 

There are several players who teed it up at the Masters last week, and there’s a few who produced moments of magic. But who should you pick? 

Since the Heritage moved into the post-Masters slot in 1983, just six men have won without spending the prior week at Augusta National – so with that in mind, you may want to take a closer look at who played in the Masters last week.

Past winners in the field (that are included in Fantasy game): Branden Grace (£14m), Matt Kuchar (£13m),  Jim Furyk (£13m), Graeme McDowell (£9m), Brandt Snedeker (£13.5m), Luke Donald (£9.5m), Aaron Baddeley (£6m), Davis Love III (£6m), Stewart Cink (£5.5m), Boo Weekly (£6m)

World’s Top 50 in the field (who also played at the Masters): Tyrrell Hatton (£13m), Matt Kuchar (£13m), Danny Willet (£14m), Branden Grace (£14m), Brandt Snedeker (£14m), Russell Knox (£13m), Rafa Cabrera Bello (£12m), Francesco Molinari (£12m), Marc Leishman (£12m), Matthew Fitzpatrick (£11.5m), Kevin Kisner (£12m), Bill Haas (£11m), Martin Kaymer (£11.5m), Yuta Ikeda (£11m), Adam Hadwin (£8m), Charley Hoffman (£10.5m), Hideto Tanihara (£9.5m), William McGirt (£9.5m)

Branden Grace: Fantasy Price £14m
The defending champion finished T27 at Augusta, and produced a moment of pure magic by holing out from the 15th fairway. He’s missed one cut all year, and other than that hasn’t finished in a worse position T39 at the WGC Dell Match Play. A bonus for this week is that he clearly loves the course… in eight rounds his average is 68.38. 

Brandt Snedeker: Fantasy Price £13.5m
The World no.25 finished T27 at the Masters, and is on a fairly good run of form. He’s notched up three top 10s in his last seven starts so far, which includes finishing 4th at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. The only draw-back? Snedeker missed the cut at this same event last year.

Matt Kuchar: Fantasy Price £13m
Kuchar is a man who likes playing well on a Sunday. A hole in one on the 16th hole during the final round of the Masters cemented his T4 finish in the first major of the year. The World No.17 has had two top 10s this season and had four finishes inside the top 30. Last year he finished 9th in the RBC Heritage – so he definitely seems like a safe pair of hands.

Tyrrell Hatton: Fantasy Price £13m
Hatton’s first trip to the Masters was nothing to write home about, but he comes from Augusta National as the highest ranked player in the field. Other than the Masters, it’s been a brilliant season for Hatton. He’s played four other events in 2017 so far, and they are made up of a top 5, a top 10 and two top 20s.

Charley Hoffman: Fantasy Price £10.5m
Hoffman stole all the headlines on the opening round at the Masters with an incredibly round of 65, which put him three shots clear of the rest of the field. Hoffman wasn’t able to retain this form over the next few days and ended up T22. The bonus? He showed he can navigate the toughest of conditions. In his last five events he’s gone 4th-cut-2nd-23rd-22nd, and finished T14 in last year’s event.

Marc Leishman: Fantasy Price £12m
The Arnold Palmer Invitational Champion booked his spot to the Masters with his win at BayHill, and finished T42 at Augusta National. He’s had two top 10s and only missed one cut in 2017, with his worst finish aside from that being T27. 

Martin Kaymer: Fantasy Price £11.5m
Augusta National has never been that kind to Martin Kaymer, but he found form during his final round last week – birdieing the 10th, 11th, 12th, 13th and 15th holes on Sunday to card his best ever finish at the Masters (T16). Kaymer hasn’t finished worse than T23 in 2017, which includes a T4 finish at the Honda Classic – so he’s certainly knocking on the door of a win this season. 

Matthew Fitzpatrick: Fantasy Price £11.5m
The World No. 32 has had an incredibly consistent set of results this season – he hasn’t missed a cut and in his last six events has finished inside the top 20. Coming off the back of a T32 finish at the Masters, Fitzpatrick is looking for his first PGA Tour victory.  

William McGirt: Fantasy £9.5m
The Masters rookie put on a show to remember during the first day at Augusta, and was the only one in touching distance of Charley Hoffman. He finished in the T22, and comes in to this week with scores of confidence.  

Russell Henley: Fantasy Price £9m
Henley won the Shell Houston Open to grab the last qualifying spot to the Masters, and ended up T11 – helped along by his slam dunk approach shot on the 5th hole on Sunday. He’s had two top 10s and only one missed cut this season, and with being the 6th ranked putter on the tour – he’s clearly a man on form. 

Adam Hadwin: Fantasy Price £8m
The Valspar Champion and the man who shot 59 earlier this season took a break to get married and ended up T36 in his first ever Masters. He still hasn’t missed a cut since last September, with two top 5s, two top 10s and a worst result of T49 at the Farmers Insurance Open.

Patrick Cantlay: Fantasy Price £6m
The runner-up at the Valspar Championship to Adam Hadwin has only played three events this year, but has now secured his tour card for the season. In those three events he’s finished T48-2nd-T39, and been under par in all of them. 

RBC Heritage Preview: The Course 

The RBC Heritage heads back to Harbour Town and Hilton Head Island, which suffered the worst damage from Hurricane Matthew’s tear up the southeastern coast last October – where cleanup can still be seen on part of the island. 

The Par 71 is one of the shortest courses on the PGA Tour schedule, and while the course lost several trees to the Hurricane, it still has tight fairways which means accurate driving will be a huge bonus.