The RBC Heritage

The Masters may well be the busiest event of the year, but the buzz of the year’s first major shouldn’t overshadow the prestige of the tournament that follows it. Moving down from Augusta and across the state border to South Carolina's east coast, the RBC Heritage takes place at the Harbour Town Links on Hilton Head Island.

Much like the Arnold Palmer, the Heritage is one of the 5 PGA Tour events that has “Invitational” status. The criteria for being invited to one of these prestigious events largely revolves around a player needing to have won an event within the past 5 years.

Since 1969, every Heritage event has taken place at the Harbour Town Golf Links, a challenging course that rewards precise shot-making. Similar to how The Masters offers the winner a green jacket, winners of the heritage receive a unique plaid jacket that’s made in Scotland and transported to the US for the event every year.

This year’s winner was none other than Justin Thomas who ended a 3-year-long drought, his last victory being when he secured his second major at the 2022 PGA Championship. He took the lead right from the start having equalled the course record on his opening round, submitting a card of 61.

Keeping himself at the hot end of the leaderboard all weekend, Thomas had to grapple with staying ahead of the likes of Brian Harman and Scottie Scheffler. He nearly outright won the tournament on Sunday before fellow American Andrew Novak made a birdie on the 16^th hole, joining Thomas on 17-under and forcing a playoff.

The playoff lasted for only one hole when Thomas beat Novak by sinking a tremendous 21-foot putt for birdie on the 18^th green. His emotion at having ended up in the winner’s circle after a long time away was palpably similar to Rory’s victory at The Masters just the week before.

He put his win this weekend down to keeping a steady head and playing methodically “I feel like I didn’t do anything crazy. I just drove the ball well, which is very, very important out here, and I felt it was just one of those days I put the ball in a spot that I had a lot of good numbers.”

Having been a former World No.1 golfer, the win saw Justin Thomas jump from 8^th to 6^th place in the OWGR, passing Russel Henley and Hideki Matsuyama. Could we be witnessing a return to his former form? If you’d like to improve your own golf game, we’re in the pro shop this week and ready to help you get some lessons in the diary.