Fantasy Golf Sleeper Report – 2022 RBC Heritage

2022 RBC Heritage Tournament Fantasy Sleeper Report

You can bet your bottom dollar that neurologists and sports psychologists would love to poke around inside Scottie Scheffler’s mind.

Just 60 days ago, Scheffler was a fine young talent awaiting his turn in the PGA TOUR’s winner’s circle. Today, he’s a four-time champion, with an Augusta green jacket and a position as the world’s undisputed number one golfer to his name.

Heading into the weekend at The Masters, there was a jarring certainty to Scheffler’s play – he drove the ball superbly well, and his beautifully-flighted iron shots were landing on the right portions of the Augusta with flawless regularity.

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Almost like a throwback to yesteryear, Scheffler is a polite, likable young man who acts with complete professionalism at all times. It’s not rock and roll golf by any means, but for the past two months he has proven that slow and steady can win the race in a big way.

Major season gets parked for a little while now as we begin the slow trajectory towards the U.S. Open. In the meantime, the PGA TOUR takes a hop and a skip around the Deep South, Mexico and up to Canada, but first on the menu is the annual jaunt to the Harbour Town Links for the RBC Heritage.

As has become somewhat customary, those that flogged themselves in the wind and rain at Augusta are willing to go through another ordeal at the hands of Pete Dye. That said, Harbour Town is one of his more amenable layouts, and generally it’s the tiny greens that provide most of the resistance to scoring.

Dye even signed off on the planting of lots of trees, and so while we would normally consider Links courses to be open and exposed, that’s not strictly the case at Harbour Town. Water will gobble up the most errant of drives, but short rough ensures that those slightly off-line still have a chance to get onto the green in good order.

The putting surfaces are formerly Bermuda that has since been overseeded with Poa to try and smooth them out, and so it’s no surprise that short game fanatics tend to thrive at Harbour Town given the conditions.

Mind you, Stewart Cink romped to victory here 12 months ago, and his approach was based around hitting bombs and then knocking short range wedges as close as he could. It was simple but effective – the veteran won by four shots from a quality chasing pack.

Others, like Webb Simpson in 2020, have taken a more tried and tested route to success at a Pete Dye layout – fairways, greens, chip well when missing, putt the lights out.

So there’s no single way of dominating at Harbour Town, and that’s why the layout offers risk and reward for all in the field. With that in mind, who makes our team of sleepers for the 2022 RBC Heritage?

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Alex Noren – 50/1 – You sense that Alex Noren is edging closer to the winner’s enclosure on the PGA TOUR, and Harbour Town seems as likely a venue as any for him to get over the line.

A ten-time champion on the DP World Tour, four of the Swede’s victories came on courses that could be described as Links in nature – a formline of 25-21-28 at this layout hints at a certain level of comfort too.

Noren’s formline is appetizing – T5 at the Honda Classic, T6 at the Phoenix Open and T12 at the Valspar Championship, and a week of soul-searching watching The Masters on TV rather than playing in the event should not be construed as a negative.

Chris Kirk – 55/1 – One of the noticeable things about Chris Kirk’s renaissance as a golfer is just how much further he is hitting the ball these days.

Since returning to the TOUR after battling personal demons, Kirk has added around ten yards off the tee, and while that might not sound a lot it means that he can contend at the top of leaderboards without straining every sinew to compete with his big-hitting rivals.

He finished T7 here last year, and with top-10s in his rear view mirror at the Arnold Palmer Invitational and Honda Classic, we like Kirk to shoot low numbers at Harbour Town once again.

Kevin Na – 60/1 – Like Kisner, Kevin Na made 16 birdies at Augusta during Masters week, and that really is no mean feat.

Even averaging just 272 yards off the tee, Na is able to make it work, and that’s because his long-range approaches and short game are elite – all weapons of use at Harbour Town.

After becoming a new dad just after THE PLAYERS Championship, Na has played well in the WGC Match Play and at Augusta, and has three prior top-10s to his name at Harbour Town. All of which makes him an enticing proposition for bettors….

Adam Hadwin – 66/1 – We’re in danger of falling off a cliff with Adam Hadwin, but it’s hard to ignore a player that has served up three consecutive top-10s in quality events and is still available at such generous odds.

Judging by his price, you would think Hadwin has a horror show of form at Harbour Town, but in six visits he’s made four cuts with a best of T22 – there’s plenty of room to build on that too given his recent form.

While more in the Webb Simpson style than the Stewart Cink when it comes to former RBC Heritage champions, here’s one thing we would say about Hadwin – there’s players with less talent than him that have lifted this trophy in recent years.

Brian Harman – 66/1 – We’d drafted Brian Harman in our fantasy line-up, and so we’re pretty miffed when he missed the cut on the number.

But it wasn’t a disastrous performance from the left-hander by any means, and otherwise we’re looking at a guy with T5 and T14 finishes at the Valspar Championship and Phoenix Open to his name.

You know the drill by now – we’re looking for course form at Harbour Town (two top-10s and a T13 within his last eight visits) and form at the correlating Hawaiian Swing events (Harman has finished top-five at both). So why not give him another go this week?

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

Sleeper Report Predictions This Season (2021-2022)

[skill_bar heading=”Total Top 3s” percent=”3.47%” bar_text=”4 out of 115 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 10s” percent= “17.39%” bar_text=”20 out of 115 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Top 25s” percent=”20.86%” bar_text=”24 out of 115 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Winners Picked” percent=”4.34%” bar_text=”1 out of 23 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Runners-Up Picked” percent=”4.34%” bar_text=”1 out of 23 events” style=”background-color: #5fb341″][skill_bar heading=”Total Made Cuts (Includes Sleepers)” percent=”56.52%” bar_text=”65 out of 115 picks” style=”background-color: #5fb341″]

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Cover photo via Instagram