Sleeper Picks: RBC Heritage

Hayden Buckley (+650 = Top 20) … It’s been four years since C.T. Pan was the last of four straight first-time winners at Harbour Town. For a course that’s rewarded veterans and yielded 10 multiple champions of the tournament itself, that burst of breakthroughs feels like a comet in the night sky. When you further consider the recent construct of the fields along the Calibogue Sound, it could be a generation or three before something like that streaks across again. Buckley has teased in connecting for his first PGA TOUR victory a couple of times, most recently at Waialae to lift the lid on his 2023. He then sputtered for a couple of months before recording a T10 at TPC San Antonio two weeks ago where he finished fifth in proximity to the hole, second in scrambling and first in one-putt percentage. His default strengths are finding fairways and greens, so he’s in the right place to star.

Tyler Duncan (+450 = Top 20) … Even if he didn’t have a pair of third-place finishes among his most recent five starts, he’d be a good fit at Harbour Town, but that momentum doesn’t hurt! The sharpshooter is inside the top 40 on the PGA TOUR in fairways hit, total driving, Strokes Gained: Off-the-Tee and greens in regulation. En route to a T12 here last year, he ranked T4 in driving accuracy and T2 in GIR. He also picked off his only TOUR title just down the coastline at Sea Island in the fall of 2019.

Maverick McNealy (+333 = Top 20) … Since returning to competition after an injury in his upper body, he’s 3-for-3 but without a top 35. He’s also throttled back off the tee. Now, after taking the last two weeks off, he can attack Harbour Town without needing to lean on the driver as often to hang. If anything, the rest of the field will attempt to keep up with him on the greens. He leads the PGA TOUR in Strokes Gained: Putting and he’s T6 in one-putt percentage and 12th in scrambling. He’s also still seventh in adjusted scoring thanks to a razor-sharp start to the season. Oh, and he’s perfect in three trips to Harbour Town with a T4 in 2021 and a T26 last year.

Ben Griffin … The early noisemaker at THE PLAYERS Championship a month ago is 14-for-17 with six top 25s in his rookie season, but it’d be wiser to target a top-40 market where available in the seriously deep field at Harbour Town where he’s making his debut. He’s compensated for average ball-striking with a confident short game and putter across a variety of tests on which he’s never teed it up in competition. His story of returning to golf from working as a loan officer in the mortgage industry is well-documented, but it cannot be overstated of how much he isn’t taking for granted the success he’s enjoying inside the ropes. He’d be among the TOUR’s leaders in Strokes Gained: Perspective if it could be quantified.

Doug Ghim … The 26-year-old remains in pursuit of his first top 10 in over a year, but he’s navigated the waters deftly since capitalizing on the eligibility extension of the super season of 2020-21. This is to say that until he fails to retain his card, there’s an expectation that he’ll pop for something special to deliver on it. Given his skill set of splitting fairways and piling up scoring opportunities, Harbour Town is on the shortlist where it can happen. He’s 2-for-2 with a pair of top 35s and a scoring average of 69.38 on the course. His secondary weapon is a confident short game to cover inconsistent putting that also can hide when greens are this small.

Odds were sourced on Tuesday, April 11, 2023. For live odds, visit BetMGM.

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