Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2024 RBC Heritage

2024 RBC Heritage Fantasy Sleeper Report

Was there any doubt that Scottie Scheffler wouldn’t win The Masters?

The sportsbooks didn’t seem to think so, with quotes of 4/1 as short as Tiger in his prime. And with Augusta historically a layout that favors those with an elite all-round game, Scheffler made for a worthy short-priced favorite.

But would his putting hold up? You bet: Scheffler gained +0.45 on the field with the flat stick – not huge numbers, but plenty for a player whose ball-striking is as good as anybody that’s ever played the sport.

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Unsurprisingly, nobody could really get close over 72 holes. The likes of Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, and Bryson DeChambeau went toe-to-toe with Scheffler for a while, while Ludvig Aberg finished well on debut, but like all good heavyweight sluggers, in the end Scheffler’s class told.

Literally an hour or so after slipping into the Green Jacket, Scheffler was off on a private jet back to Dallas, where his wife Meredith is due to give birth to their first child any day now. As such, his place in the field for this week’s Signature Event, the RBC Heritage, is surely in doubt.

The rest of the field will certainly be hoping so. Matt Fitzpatrick will look to defend his Tartan Jacket – okay, so it’s not the Green Jacket, but it’s not pretty good in its own right, while a clutch of top-10 finishers at The Masters will be making their way to South Carolina: Aberg, Collin Morikawa, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, and Cameron Young chief among them.

There’s more questions than answers in Rory McIlroy’s game right now – will he unlock his best at Harbour Town?, while the presence of Wyndham Clark, Brian Harman, Jordan Spieth, and Patrick Cantlay only serves to highlight the classy nature of this event.

But what will be greeting them at the Harbour Town Links? Well, it’s quintessential Pete Dye, no less. This short Par 71 track cannot be overpowered, with many of its meandering holes, thick tree lines, and often strong breezes favoring those who can flight down a 3-wood or long iron and find the fairway.

There’s water in play on every single, while the overseeded Bermuda greens are both small in size and upturned saucer in shape – finding, and holding, them is not always easy.

In the past five years alone, the winning score in the RBC Heritage has gone from -12 to -22, which helps to explain just how of a factor the weather is at Harbour Town.

Now that the RBC Heritage has Signature status, we can expect the winning score to be lower thanks to the quality of the field, but remember this is a venue that takes driver out of the hands of many – classy approach play, reliability around the greens when missed, and a solid week with the flat stick are more arguably more important than what you do off the tee.

As we saw on the Florida Swing, such conditions can lead to surprise results – a certain Masters fatigue may also be a factor. So we can take on the favorites with confidence, as we will in our 2024 RBC Heritage sleeper shortlist.

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Denny McCarthy – 60/1 – A Masters debut yielded a solid enough T45 finish for Denny McCarthy, who you’ll recall ended the Texas Open a week prior like a train.

He carded a final round of 63, including seven straight birdies on the back nine, to force his way into a playoff in the Lone Star State, where he just came up short to Akshay Bhatia. 

McCarthy’s approach play was in fine order there, which given his outstanding short game is a combination always likely to yield birdies. More of the same at Harbour Town and he could go very close.

Tom Kim – 66/1 – Quite what has been ailing Tom Kim’s game of late only he knows, but it’s fair to say he found the answer on Sunday at The Masters.

He went round in a staggering 66 in super-fast conditions, finding 92% of fairways (at an average of 302 yards), 83% GIR and gaining nearly five strokes on the field on approach or around the greens.

It’s the kind of round which will have the Korean chomping at the bit to get back out there, and a shorter, wind-affected track should be Kim’s ideal vehicle – a British Open runner-up, he’s also banked a top five at Kapalua in his short PGA TOUR career to date.

Chris Kirk – 66/1 – There was a decent T16 finish for Chris Kirk at The Masters, where he performed better than the stellar field average on approach, and with flat stick in hand.

It’s a handy angle in for a player with a top-10 finish to his name at Harbour Town already, and given his excellent wedge game and reliability around the greens that comes as no surprise.

Kirk has played well at a stack of our correlating courses this week, including TPC Sawgrass, Sea Island, and Waialae, so there’s no doubting his aptitude for the test at Harbour Town.

Sepp Straka – 80/1 – Ranking inside the top-10 for both fairways found and GIR, it’s fair to say that Sepp Straka’s game stood up to scrutiny in the tough Augusta conditions.

It was his short game that ultimately prevented any improvement on T16 at The Masters, but that lofty finish reveals that it’s only a minor improvement that’s required to propel Straka into the mix for silverware once more.

A T3 finish at Harbour Town in 2022 comes as no surprise – the Austrian has quality throughout his bag on approach, and if he can just make some putts, as he was doing consistently in the second half of 2023, then Straka, a British Open runner-up last summer, has the game to win this week.

Adam Schenk – 80/1 – Given the quality of his driving and short game, T12 at The Masters should come as no surprise for Adam Schenk. 

But his excellent effort there – and his T5 at the Texas Open – were both backed by much-improved approach play, which at a venue like Harbour Town comes as a timely update.

If his irons and wedges fire again, Schenk can do some damage at the RBC Heritage – after all, he’s posted quality efforts at the likes of the PLAYERS Championship, St Jude, and RSM Classic before.

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Want more of this week’s fantasy predictions? Check out our full fantasy preview for the RBC Heritaget here.

Fantasy Golf Predictions This Season (2023-2024)

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