The RBC Heritage is one of the PGA Tour’s designated events this year, and though it was difficult for it to feel that way coming in off the Masters, the leaderboard is starting to shape up in a way that may convince you otherwise as the tournament plays out.
One of last week’s first-round leaders (Viktor Hovland) is again leading this tournament — which was suspended for darkness with six golfers yet to complete Round 1 — but he has some other big names on his heels like Jordan Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Xander Schauffe, Patrick Cantlay, Sam Burns, Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas.
Let’s take a look at Hovland’s first round and see how this tournament is shaping up for the next few days.
The leader
1. Viktor Hovland (-7): Hovland shot a clean 7-under 64 in the first round. After a disappointing Masters fade it’s a nice rebound for him and emblematic of a bigger trend on the year. After finishing T42 at the Phoenix Open, he’s proceeded to finish T20, T10, T3 and T7 in his last four stroke play events. Hovland said Thursday after his round that he learned a lot from leading the Masters after the first round and moving backwards over the next three days. Part of that was putting, yes, but some of it, he said, was golf course management.
“I didn’t putt it as good the last three rounds last week as I did the first round, which obviously is hard to do,” Hovland said. “I hit it OK, but I didn’t hit it as great as I did the first round. But I took a big lesson from not short-siding myself as much last week because out there on that golf course on some of those pins, I got a little too greedy and I missed it in the wrong spots, and I just can’t allow myself to do that.
“So this week I’m just trying to play a bit more, not conservatively, but making sure that I hit more greens, center of the greens, and can kind of lean on my putter. And if I do miss a green, I feel like my short game’s in a good spot where I can make an up and down.”
Hovland again putted the lights out Thursday, leading the field in that category. Let’s see if that continues and whether he makes some better decisions as it relates to approach play over the next 54 holes.
Other contenders
T2. Brian Harman, Aaron Rai, Jimmy Walker (-6)
T5. Joel Dahmen, Scott Stallings, Matt Fitzpatrick, Zach Johnson, Justin Rose, Sungjae Im (-5)
T11. Xander Schauffele, Rickie Fowler, Andrew Putnam, Wyndham Clark (-4)
It makes sense that Schauffele is playing well here. He’s a tremendous iron player playing a golf course that demands it. He played the back in 31 and finished in the top five in the field on Thursday in approach play.
“I’ve kind of had my head in the sand every time I’ve been here,” Schauffele said of Harbour Town. “Probably it’s always after a major, so a little bit more tired. So now that I’m a little bit older, I think I can handle it a little bit better maybe. Yeah, the greens are concrete. You have to hit your spots. You’ve got to be smart around the property. It should be a place where I play well, and I just haven’t done it. So why not start now?”
Masters champ struggles
Jon Rahm struggled to a 1-over 72 in Round 1 (eight back of Hovland), but I wouldn’t be too concerned. Most of his issues were with the putter, and he will bounce back from both that and the fatigue he’s surely feeling right now. In fact, it wouldn’t be shocking if he bounced all the way back and finished in the top 10 this week.
Matt Fitzpatrick, back?
Nobody has had a tougher start to 2023 compared to where I thought he would be than Fitzpatrick. I thought he had “could challenge for No. 1 in the world in 2023” written all over him, but he has been pedestrian for most of the season. This has mostly been because of injury, but he rebounded a bit with a T10 at the Masters last week (just his second top 10 since January) and played tremendously on Thursday in the first round. His finishes at this course are great — two top 15s in the last three years — even though he said he doesn’t particularly feel like it fits his game. He’s leaning on that nice Masters result and trying to get things rolling ahead of the next three majors.
“There were definitely a lot of positives for me [last week],” he said. “Yeah, there was a lot of positives. I spoke a lot about expectations the start of the week and how it felt coming into the Masters. I felt like because of that, I kind of just understood where my game was, and then I felt like that gave me almost a little bit more freedom to kind of just play. I feel like the same here with this week is just having those expectations of the right spot, and it can go in and kind of freewheel a little bit.”
2023 RBC Heritage updated odds, picks
Odds via Caesars Sportsbook
- Viktor Hovland: 4-1
- Scottie Scheffler: 9-1
- Sungjae Im: 10-1
- Matt Fitzpatrick: 12-1
- Xander Schauffele: 14-1
- Brian Harman: 16-1
These are all fine, but let’s get crazy with Rahm at 65-1. He’s only eight back, which is nothing for him. Fatigue will be an issue, surely, but 65-1 for somebody playing at that level isn’t out of reach at all.
Rick Gehman is joined by Kyle Porter to discuss Round 1 of the RBC Heritage. The crew discusses Rory McIlroy missing out on $3 Million for missing the RBC Heritage and the new FedEx Cup Fall plan from the PGA Tour. Follow & listen to The First Cut on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.