It may only be days since the conclusion of the 2023 Masters at Augusta National, but another high-profile tournament follows hot on its heels. That’s because the sixth designated event of the PGA Tour season takes place with the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town.
The top players have an obligation to play in the majority of designated events, and that means a stronger field than usual will be appearing in South Carolina this week.
There are some notable absentees. World No.8 Will Zalatoris has had back surgery which will keep him out for the rest of the PGA Tour season, while World No.3 Rory McIlroy has withdrawn from the tournament despite it being the second designated event he will miss in 2023. Former World No.1 Jason Day and 2021 Masters champion Hideki Matsuyama are skipping this week’s tournament too.
Despite those withdrawals, there are still 17 of the world’s top 20 taking part this week. Jon Rahm returned to the World No.1 position following his Augusta National win, and he heads the field hoping to take that stunning form into this week’s tournament.
Rahm is the first Masters champion to play the following week on the Tour since Jordan Spieth in 2015, so it’ll be interesting to see how he gets on given the short time period between that gruelling victory and this week’s event. On the subject of Spieth, he is the defending champion following his defeat of Patrick Cantlay in a playoff last year. Cantlay is back this week too.
Spieth has played in 11 PGA Tour events as defending champion and has yet to hold onto the title, so he will be hoping to draw a line under that unenviable run this week. It will be far from easy for the World No.16, though. He will also be up against the likes of 2022 Masters champion Scottie Scheffler, Max Homa, Xander Schauffele, Viktor Hovland and Justin Thomas, who are all in the world’s top 10.
Beyond that, big names including two-time Major winner Collin Morikawa, US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick and PGA Tour Rookie of the Year Cameron Young also play. Sam Burns, Tony Finau, Tyrrell Hatton, Sungjae Im, Tom Kim and Kurt Kitayama, who won the Arnold Palmer Invitational in March, complete the list of those appearing from the world’s top 20.
Aside from Spieth, the field is packed with former winners too, including 2021 victor Stewart Cink, Webb Simpson, who won in 2020, and 2019 champion CT Pan.
Overall, the scene is set for an enthralling tournament as players compete for a purse of $20m, with $3.6m on offer to…
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