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RBC Heritage Preview: Field, Course, History, Tee Times, How to Watch

A week after the Masters, it's time for another PGA Tour signature event. Here's everything you need to know.
Max Schreiber|
Justin Thomas is the RBC Heritage's defending champion.
Justin Thomas is the RBC Heritage's defending champion. | Jim Dedmon-Imagn Images

A tradition unlike any other. 

No, we’re not talking about the Masters. We’re talking about going to Hilton Head Island the week after the year’s first major. 

The RBC Heritage, played a few hours north of Augusta in South Carolina at Harbour Town Golf Links, has been a PGA Tour staple since 1969, when Arnold Palmer won. This year, an 82-player field will tee it up for the signature event that boasts a $20 million purse, with the winner collecting $3.6 million. 

From its field, course, history, tee times and how to watch, here’s what you need to know for the 2026 RBC Heritage. 

The field: Plenty of star power, but not everyone

With the RBC Heritage a signature event, the game’s biggest stars are making the short trip up from Augusta. 

Masters champion Rory McIlroy and Justin Rose won’t be teeing it up, but the field will include 41 of the top 50 players in the world ranking, including eight of the top 10, highlighted by Scottie Scheffler. 

In all, 53 players who competed in the Masters are playing this week. 

Also, with the cancellation of the Sentry, PGA Tour winners from 2025 who did not finish inside the top 50 of last season’s FedEx Cup standings were added to the field. Those names include: Michael Brennan (Bank of Utah Championship), Steven Fisk (Sanderson Farms Championship), Garrick Higgo (Corales Puntacana Championship), Joe Highsmith (Cognizant Classic), Min Woo Lee (Texas Children’s Houston Open), William Mouw (ISCO Championship), Aldrich Potgieter (Rocket Classic), Adam Schenk (Butterfield Bermuda Championship), Sami Valimaki (RSM Classic) and Karl Vilips (Puerto Rico Open). 

There are nine players this week making their signature event debut: Chandler Blanchet, Brennan, Ricky Castillo, Fisk, Johnny Keefer, David Lipsky, Mouw, Jordan Smith and Sudarshan Yellamaraju. 

There are also four past RBC Heritage champions in the field: Jordan Spieth (2022), Matt Fitzpatrick (2023), Scheffler (2024) and Justin Thomas (2025), who topped Andrew Novak in a playoff to end a three-year winless drought.

Course: Always-interesting Harbour Town 

The vibes at Harbour Town are chill compared to Augusta National. 

“Augusta, everything is really big at times and then you come here and everything is really, really small it seems like,” Scheffler said ahead of the 2024 RBC Heritage. “It’s a great golf course. I think it’s a lot of fun to play. I think it’s very interesting.”

It’s not quite a British Open setup, but on the Calibogue Sound, it feels a little like a links course. And at 7,213 yards, the Pete Dye and Jack Nicklaus design does not put a premium on driving distance, as it’s one of the Tour’s shorter courses. Accuracy, though, is a different story—and windy conditions can throw a wrench into that game plan. 

“I think for some people, distance debate type people if they’re ever looking at golf course design and how to combat people only trying to hit the ball really far, they need to come here and do a case study on this golf course because it’s really, really good,” Scheffler said. “You’ve got to curve the ball both directions, and you have to control your distance. You have to control where the golf ball is going. It’s not just a place where you can go bomb it.”

The par-71 is littered with trees, has an average green size of 3,700 square feet (the smallest on Tour), 51 bunkers and water in play on 18 holes. In 2024, it was the 34th hardest course on Tour (out of 50) with a scoring average of 69.36 (1.636 strokes under par). 

Harbour Town’s hardest hole last year was the 469-yard, par-4 3rd. The hole’s scoring average was 4.15, making it the 154th toughest hole on Tour (out of 882). Meanwhile, the course’s easiest hole is the 550-yard, par-5 2nd, which last season had a scoring average of 4.49, ranking as the 51st easiest on Tour. 

The course’s 472-yard, par-4 18th has the widest fairway on Tour, at 81 yards. It’s not a gimme, though. Wind blows from the west and trees line the right. 

One of the most famous blunders on No. 18 came in 1987. Steve Jones, who got into the field as an alternate, was leading on the 72nd hole when he sent his drive right, out of bounds. After re-teeing, he eventually made double and handed David Love III his maiden Tour victory. Love III went on to win a record five titles at Harbour Town. 

The course also underwent a restoration after last year's RBC Heritage.

History: Starting off with a bang 

In the late 1960s, Jack Nicklaus helped Pete Dye design Harbour Town Golf Links, which hosted the inaugural RBC Heritage, then known as the Heritage Classic. 

At the time, Nicklaus’s main rival was, of course, Arnold Palmer. And the King wanted to claim his crown on the Golden Bear’s land.

“Since late August, [Palmer] has been doing 50 sit-ups every morning and 50 sit-ups every evening for the old hip hurt, and he was in a very pleasant frame of mind about his golf—almost as if he had reconciled himself to the fact it would all come back sooner or later if he only stopped pressing so hard and worrying about it,” Sports Illustrated’s Dan Jenkins wrote in ‘69, which was recalled by Golf Digest in 2014. 

“Finally, however, he was fired up about playing on Jack’s course, and on a course that he wasn't supposed to be able to play well.”

However, at 6,700 yards, the course didn’t suit Palmer’s or Nicklaus’s game, two of the longer hitters of that time. 

But that didn’t stop Palmer. On Thanksgiving weekend, he won by three strokes over Bert Yancey and Rich Crawford. It was Palmer’s first victory in over a year. 

Palmer’s title helped put Hilton Head Island on the map. In 1969, it had a full-time population of roughly 2,000 people. Today, it draws over 2.6 million visitors a year. And the tournament generates an estimated $102 million for the South Carolina economy. 

It’s also one of the players’s favorite PGA Tour stops, despite being the week after the Masters. 

“It feels like a really easy week for us coming off of Augusta,” Scheffler said a year ago. “The golf course is really great. It’s a simple week for us. Most people rent houses here in the community. It’s easy to get to the golf course. It’s a simple, calm week for us, and it’s a lot of fun as well.”

How to watch (all times ET)

  • Thursday: 2–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
  • Friday: 2–6 p.m. (Golf Channel)
  • Saturday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3–6 p.m. (CBS)
  • Sunday: 1–3 p.m. (Golf Channel); 3–6 p.m. (CBS)

ESPN+ will also have coverage during each round. 

First- and second-round tee times

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Max Schreiber
MAX SCHREIBER

Max Schreiber is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated, covering golf. Before joining SI in October 2024, the Mahwah, N.J., native, worked as an associate editor for the Golf Channel and wrote for RyderCup.com and FanSided. He is a multiplatform producer for Newsday and has a bachelor's in communications and journalism from Quinnipiac University. In his free time, you can find him doing anything regarding the Yankees, Giants, Knicks and Islanders.

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