This article is part of our Yahoo PGA DFS Picks series.
RBC Heritage
Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Harbour Town Golf Links - Par 71 - 7,213 yards
Field - 69 entrants
Purse - $20M
The Preview
The 2024 major championship rotation began with a dominant, four-shot victory for Scottie Scheffler in Augusta as he racked up his third win in four starts dating to the Arnold Palmer Invitational, further solidifying his stronghold on the No. 1 position in the early FedExCup standings. Albeit without the LIV contingent, another loaded field heads to Hilton Head Island this week for a swing at their portion of a $20 million Signature Event purse, and the absence of a 36-hole cut guarantees profits for these 69 entrants in attendance.
The same Harbour Town Golf Links that has always hosted the RBC Heritage once again invites players to navigate tree-lined fairways, oftentimes with less than driver off the tee, setting up an approach-play contest into some of the smallest greens we'll see on Tour, which have been overseeded with poa trivialis this time of year. Precise iron play is the most likely avenue to contention as nearly half of the approach-shot distribution falls within the 150-200 range, and all four par-3s measure between 192 and 217 yards. A coastal breeze off the Atlantic typically provides a defense, though this week's forecast looks promising for favorable scoring conditions.
Recent Champions
2023 - Matt Fitzpatrick
2022 - Jordan Spieth
2021 - Stewart Cink
2020 - Webb Simpson
2019 - C.T. Pan
2018 - Satoshi Kodaira
2017 - Wesley Bryan
2016 - Branden Grace
2015 - Jim Furyk
2014 - Matt Kuchar
Key Stats to Victory
SG: Approach
Proximity: 150-200 yards
GIR percentage
Scrambling
Yahoo Value Picks
Based on $200 salary cap
Cream of the Crop
Scottie Scheffler - $44
Not worried about a Masters hangover for the best player in the world, especially one that already had a green jacket hanging in his locker, and this sub-$45 salary is entirely too low for someone who's 4-1 to win another golf tournament outright. If others want to fade Scheffler because of his wife's upcoming due date, be my guest, but he's lost to just one player throughout his last four outings.
Xander Schauffele - $42
Schauffele ranked top-5 among the field in both SG: Approach and scrambling en route to an eighth-place effort at Augusta National last week, clinching his seventh top-10 result through nine starts to begin the 2024 campaign. He's second in SG: Tee-to-Green and Par-4 Efficiency over his last 24 measured rounds, and Schauffele notched a solo-fourth here at Harbour Town last year when he paced the 2023 RBC Heritage in SG: T2G.
Ludvig Aberg - $38
The 24-year-old Swede certainly justified his "young phenom" reputation with a runner-up performance in his Masters debut, even clearing the third-place finishers by three whole shots while leading the field in SG: Putting on Augusta's difficult greens throughout the week. Aberg's elite driving prowess might be slightly nullified at a track like Harbour Town, but he's first in P3: 200-225 Efficiency, third in proximity from 150-175 yards and sixth in GIR Gained over his past 24 rounds as well.
Glue Guys
Cameron Young - $35
Young's iron play has been sharp since the WM Phoenix Open, ascending to a top-5 ranking in SG: APP and Prox: 175-200 over his last 24 rounds, and he just hit the fourth-most greens in regulation on the way to a T9 at Augusta. He secured first-round leader honors at the 2022 RBC Heritage in his Harbour Town debut when he fired an eight-under 63 in the opener, and he ultimately went on to lead the tourney in total birdies with 22 tweeters.
Collin Morikawa - $34
Morikawa's ball striking returned to form at the Masters where he ranked third among the field in each of SG: APP, GIR and driving accuracy, but he also finished seventh in SG: Putting. The T3 leaderboard result could boost Morikawa into chalky territory at just $34 this week, especially given how well his game suits the setup at Harbour Town, where he's a collective 26-under-par across the past three editions of the RBC Heritage.
Will Zalatoris - $28
Zalatoris rebounded from a MC-T74 stretch at THE PLAYERS Championship and the Texas Children's Houston Open by posting a T9 at the Masters, where he finished third in SG: T2G and fourth in SG: APP. The putter can be an obvious concern for Zalatoris, but he gained 3.8 strokes on these greens in his lone RBC Heritage appearance back in 2021. The fact that he's priced below names such as Nick Taylor ($30) and Sepp Straka ($29) is simply absurd.
Bargain Bin
Si Woo Kim - $24
Not only did Kim pace the Masters in FIR percentage as he hit a tournament-best 49-of-56 fairways in regulation, but he's No. 1 in driving accuracy over his last 24 rounds, a larger sample in which he also sits sixth in P3: 200-225 Efficiency. Considered a relatively volatile player in past seasons, Kim has yet to miss a cut through his first 10 starts of 2024, and he finished runner-up here at Harbour Town in 2018 when he led the field in both total birdies and par-5 scoring.
Corey Conners - $24
One of the best iron players on Tour, Conners is No. 1 in GIR Gained and third in SG: Approach over his last 24 rounds, while he's also top-25 in driving accuracy this season. The Canadian has placed T31 or better in four straight trips to Harbour Town, gaining at least 5.4 strokes with his ball striking in each of these four instances. The venue's tiny greens hopefully can help mask Conners' putting woes.
Christiaan Bezuidenhout - $22
I expect a lot of ownership to flock in the direction of the aforementioned Kim and Conners, which could leave Bezuidenhout with deflated exposure despite the South African ranking third in scrambling, fourth in Prox: 175-200, sixth in P3: 200-225 Efficiency and ninth in SG: Putting en route to three consecutive top-25s over his last 12 rounds. Bezuidenhout has excelled on the greens at Harbour Town throughout his three RBC Heritage showings, gaining a combined 14.2 strokes with the putter here while placing T19-T33-T28 along the way.
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