Some thoughts on this week's tournament.
#1) Again a very strong field for this week at the RBC Heritage in South Carolina- Field Strength of 72 (Last Year 58)
Top 6 in world
8 of top 10 (no Adam Scott, no Patrick Cantlay)
15 of top 20 (no Fleetwood, Woods, Leishman)
38 of top 50
5 Canadians (interesting for me)
#2) For those betting this weeks course is very much a course management course -- it is not a course that you can bomb through that many holes because angles are very important around the trees on many holes.
I think course experience matters on this one more than others, so I would not bet on those that have never played here or those that rely on overpowering (For example Rory and Rahm). In fact most of the top players have always avoided playing this tournament - perhaps because it is after the Masters. But I think many because of the course layout not that appealing to victory.
#1 Rory Mcilroy - Never played
#2 Jon Rahm - Never played
#3Justin Thomas - Skipped last 3 years when he could get more picky on scheduling. 2016 (75th), 2015 (11th),
#4 Brooks Koepka - Never played
#5 Dustin Johnson - 28th, 16th last two years. But before that despite being South Carolina born, had not played the event since 2009 -- obviously it was not a favourite of his.
#6 Patrick Reed - Has not played since 2015. His placing here have been #33, #48, #71
#9 Webb Simpson - plays here every year - 16,5, 11, 66,55, 2. He has a fairly strong history and three straight top 20's. Although he stank last week and missed the cut.
#10 Xander Schauffele - Has played last two years and has finished 63rd and 32nd
So not that much appealing from the top 10 except for maybe Webb Simpson, who struggled last week.
#3) I have read that this week has the most former winners of a PGA tour event (around 110) in a field ever on the PGA tour --- beat the record set last week.
That is great and all but here is my problem -- these fields have many senior tour former winners of the tournament who are playing and taking up spots of carded PGA players who are stuck on the sidelines because they cannot get in the field which could really impact their career. Now to be fair those players as former tournament champs have higher status - but they typically do not play. You are getting more senior tour players who would not typically play, getting cut badly -- I suppose they have nowhere to play right now so do not blame them, but they would typically pass on the tourney.
The three worst players last week were all senior former winners - Keith Clearwater and David Frost (missed cut by 18 shots, and Olin Browne missed by 15 shots. Browne and Frost had not played in the tournament since 2014 and 2013 respectively.
Other seniors who played last week were Langer, Lehman, McCarron, and Stricker -- but at least they are still amongst the best seniors in the world and while all cut were competitive.
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