RBC Heritage 2022: Course and current form stats ahead of this week's event at Harbour Town

It's another week in America's Deep South, as the pros swap the generous fairways of Augusta National, for the much narrower avenues of Harbour Town.

This week's journey to South Carolina has been taking place for over five decades and, despite the tournament's close proximity to the first major championship of the year, it usually attracts a strong field.

This is largely because Harbour Town is one of the most popular and interesting layouts in professional golf.

For this year's instalment, 10 of the world's top 20 are among the entry list.

Course Characteristics

Located at Sea Pines Resort, on the south-west edge of Hilton Head Island, Harbour Town is one of the shortest layouts on the PGA Tour calendar.

However, thanks to its tight fairways and small greens, it is certainly no pushover - even for today's master blasters who regularly drive the ball in excess of 320 yards.

At Harbour Town there is very little room for error. The putting surfaces are slick and much smaller than the Tour average, and it's never a simple case of finding fairways and attacking pins.

If a golfer fails to find the correct part of the fairway from the tee, there's every chance that their route to the flag will be blocked by overhanging trees.

This can happen on as many as 10 holes, where finding a straight line to the pin can never be guaranteed.

Locating these small greens in regulation can be tricky at times, so the ability to scramble successfully is also important this week.

Ahead of the tournament in 2020, 10 fairways were slightly widened, yet it remains a course where accurate iron play is absolutely vital.

This much-loved public course was designed by Pete Dye, in conjunction with Jack Nicklaus, and opened 55 years ago.

In 1969 it hosted its first PGA Tour event and has remained on the schedule ever since.

Latest betting for this week's RBC Heritage

Stroke Averages

Lowest 12 At Harbour Town (2016-21)
Average .... (Rounds)
68.25: Daniel Berger (12)
68.40: Abraham Ancer (10)
68.40: JT Poston (10)
68.75: Dustin Johnson (16)
68.83: Alexander Noren (12)
68.86: Patrick Cantlay (14)
69.00: Matt Kuchar (24)
69.00: Webb Simpson (24)
69.07: Tyrrell Hatton (14)
69.07: Kevin Streelman (14)
69.08: Dylan Frittelli (12)
69.14: Emiliano Grillo (14)
Min. No. of Rounds = 10
Only those entered this week are included in table

PGA Tour Consistency Table

Most Times Within Eight Strokes Of Winner (2021-22 season)
Total
6: Sung Jae Im
6: Si Woo Kim
6: Cameron Smith
6: Justin Thomas
5: Corey Conners
5: Adam Hadwin
5: Russell Henley
5: Chris Kirk
5: Denny McCarthy
5: Maverick McNealy
5: Scott Stallings
5: Sahith Theegala
5: Cameron Young
Only those entered this week are included in table

Latest betting for next month's PGA Championship

Six To Watch

Corey Conners: A career-high No 31 in the world thanks to a string of solid performances since early March. Tied-fourth at Harbour Town 12 months ago.

Matt Fitzpatrick: Has the game to prosper at Harbour Town where three of his last four starts have yielded top-15 finishes. Only once outside the top-20 this year.

Matt Kuchar: A former champion at Harbour Town who was a joint-runner-up in Texas two weeks ago which was his highest PGA Tour finish since before the March 2020 lockdown.

Shane Lowry: Enjoying the most consistent run of form of his career. Surely his next victory is not too far away. He posted a podium finish at Augusta on Sunday, which sits neatly alongside his brace of top-10s at Harbour Town.

Webb Simpson: The 2020 Harbour Town champion usually performs well here. The 36-year-old from North Carolina can halt his recent slide down the World Ranking with another good performance at Hilton Head Island this week.

Harold Varner: His best season to date, which leaves the 31-year-old at a career-high number 39 in the world.

Twitter: Golf Stats Alive

MC* - Missed Additional 54-Hole Cut

Note: List Contains Leading Reserves