Best bets
2pts each-way Jordan Spieth @ 18/1
2pts each-way Shane Lowry @ 28/1
1pt each-way JT Poston @ 80/1
1pt each-way Patrick Cantlay @ 12/1
1pt each-way Tyrrell Hatton @ 33/1
How ironic that if the Masters had been played over 54 holes – the short-haul duration of the breakaway LIV Golf tournaments – then one of their most notable signings, four-time Major champion Brooks Koepka, would be wearing the Green Jacket of an Augusta hero.
The game’s top brass, the denizens of the PGA Tour and the committee of the great traditional golf club itself, would be in mourning or choking on their G & Ts about a defector who had sold out to the Saudi money men stealing the Crown Jewels and my Fitzdares followers would be celebrating a 33/1 winner instead of a mere consolation prize.
But proper golf has never been decided over 54 holes, not in the modern era anyway, it has always taken 72 or more to identify a true champion.
A collective sigh of relief must have been heaved when the good guy, Jon Rahm, came through four crazy days of teeming rain mixed with blue skies, falling trees and wintry temperatures to claim his first Masters and keep at bay the rampant LIV marauders, not only fading 54-hole leader Koepka but a reborn Phil Mickelson too in an extraordinary performance at age 52 that recalled the great days of his three Masters triumph.
On an exhausting 29-hole Sunday for the leaders and 29 too many for a distressed Tiger Woods (will we ever see him again?), the burly Spaniard had the minerals, the concentration, the stamina and the patience emphatically to see off all-comers and justify his 9/1 starting price for his fourth victory of this annus mirabilis … and we’re only into the second week of April.
Fitzdares have installed Rahm, now back as world No. 1, as 8/1 clear favourite for the USPGA Championship at Oak Hill in upstate New York on May 18-21, the next time the stars of the rival tours will re-engage. Without the 18 LIV qualifiers, Augusta would have been a far duller place and a vastly inferior competition so credit to all concerned for letting them in.
They are back in their box this week as LIV players remain barred from PGA Tour events but the field for The Heritage at Harbour Town Links, South Carolina, is without doubt the strongest ever as this is one of the designated elite tournaments with a hugely increased prize fund, $20m, that the top names are required to play, thus ensuring sponsors are getting value for money.
Rory McIlroy, who embarrassed himself by missing the cut at Augusta, is sitting this one out but Rahm and Scottie Scheffler tee it up along with Masters fourth and defending champion Jordan Spieth and crowd-pulling names like Justin Thomas, Viktor Hovland, Collin Morikawa, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay and US Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick.
This is only Rahm’s second Heritage (33rd on debut in 2020) and Scheffler’s first but with so much money on the line as well as the prized world No. 1 spot, neither will be taking his foot off the pedal. Even so, it will be difficult for Rahm to maintain the 100 per cent focus he brought to Augusta and it may pay to look elsewhere on a course that is very different from the PGA Tour norm.
Played at Harbour Town on Hilton Head Island ever since 1969, the 7191-yard par 71 Pete Dye creation (with assistance from Jack Nicklaus), a part links with narrow fairways, overhanging mossy oaks and tiny greens, takes knowing and suits positional rather than power players.
The last two winners, Spieth and canny veteran Stewart Cink, were No. 1 on the week in strokes gained tee to green. That was Cink’s third Heritage triumph but as he has missed his last five cuts, it makes it hard to recommend him, a pity as at 225/1 the 2009 Open champion was the biggest-priced winner of my life two years ago.
Spieth, finishing like a train for a share of fourth in the Masters, came to life too late to catch Rahm but produced some astonishing golf on Sunday afternoon to zoom up the leaderboard.
He had luck on his side in last year’s playoff with Patrick Cantlay as the loser was plugged in the face of the greenside bunker and had no chance of emulating Spieth’s stone-dead explosion shot.
Both should go close again although Cantlay’s short putting at Augusta was a cause for concern. Even so, he finished a decent 14th and has a fine Heritage record with three top-threes in five appearances.
Bluff Irishman Shane Lowry loves the place. He really should have won last year and was leading until chipping into the water at the 14th, but that’s the story of his pro career outside that heroic Open Championship glory week. Beaten by a stroke into third place in last year’s Heritage, he occupied the same position in 2019 and provided he has enough puff left after Sunday’s marathon – he finished a sturdy 16th – he has to be there or thereabouts yet again.
It’s almost criminal that this short-game wizard should have won only once in the States, and that eight years ago. He did come good at Wentworth last year in the DP World Tour’s flagship event but this is definitely the last-chance-saloon as far as tipping him in the States is concerned.
This is also a good course for deadeye putter JT Poston, from neighbouring North Carolina. Like Lowry, he was just a shot out of last year’s playoff to follow top-tens in 2019 and 2020. Not an exciting player and probably punching above his weight in this enhanced company, JT hold each-way appeal in a tournament where the expected rarely happens.
Fitzpatrick and Tyrrell Hatton have each finished in the top four in recent renewals so a British victory is not ruled out, particularly as Hatton was in such blistering form at Bay Hill (4th) and Sawgrass (2nd). More recent form, like 34th at the Masters, is less compelling but he has the tools for this job. Rahm has shown him the way as regards controlling a fiery temperament.
Obscure names regularly shine at Harbour Town: local boy Wesley Bryan has barely made a ripple since doing the business in 2017 and the same goes for 2018 champion Satoshi Kodaira and 2019 surprise packet CT Pan. Boo Weekley, the straightest driver on tour, won back-to-back Heritages in 2007-8 but never anywhere else.
Sam Stevens, Justin Suh and Akshay Bhatia are just three unlikely names to be interested in if there is to be a similar upset.
Stand by for more weather delays with thunder and lightning on the schedule. With the winner getting $3.6m (as opposed to a paltry $1.44m last year) these hardy chaps will just have to grin and bear it.
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