We have the RBC Heritage starting tomorrow on the PGA Tour and we will definitely be covering this on Sunday, possibly Saturday. It is an event I/we have done well at in the past and it is fun, not just because we have found the winner nine times, but as it is so very different to the Masters which it almost always follows.

 

The Harbour Town course is short,flat, narrow and a Par 71, Augusta is wide (although,not as wide as it used to be), hilly and a Par 72 where scoring on the Par 5's is key, here in South Carolina , at Hilton Head Island you require a very different skill set and the layout is designed NOT to favour long hitters.

 

Dustin Johnson is playing this relatively low key event , why ? It certainly doesn't suit him !

 

DJ was born in Columbia which is about a two hour drive away from the course and that makes him a native of South Carolina and he also went to college in the state (which could all explain it), but the course hardly suits his game and he has planned all year to peak for Augusta and not a week later. Johnson has played here five times, he missed the cut the first two occasions and did not put the event on his schedule for the next nine years, he has played the last three finishing outside the top 15 each time and this at a time when he has pretty much been the best golfer on the planet.

 

I can probably tell you why, in February 2018 DJ signed a massive sponsorship deal with RBC (this is the RBC Heritage remember) and he has played here in 2018/2019/2020 , call me a cynic if you wish, but there is only one reason he is playing an event that doesn't suit, at a very inconvenient time of year and where he did not play for 9 years and that is because his main sponsor wants him to !