Thanks to Designated Events, the RBC Heritage Isn't a Sleepy Stop This Year

The PGA Tour always goes to Hilton Head after Augusta, and unlike most years many Masters players will be competing.

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The Masters is an exhausting tournament. Even more so when bad weather is a part of it. The lead-up to the first major championship of the year is intense and the golf course so exacting and then throw in the cold temperatures and rain and it’s a good time to sit back and relax.

Normally, that is what the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head would present this week. A good number of players take the week off and nobody minds. Others play because they like the relaxed vibe at Harbour Town and the low-key atmosphere that tournament presents.

Things will be different this week in South Carolina. Harbour Town is still the same, but the feel of the event could be quite different. That’s because it has its best field in years, with 26 of the top 30 in the Official World Golf Ranking entered (23 of 30 SIWGR). Only Hideki Matsuyama and Rory McIlroy among eligible players are skipping. (Will Zalatoris announced Monday he is out for the season after back surgery.)

And it’s all due to the new designated event format in place this year.

RBC Heritage joins the WM Phoenix Open, the Wells Fargo Championship and the Travelers Championship as tournaments with $20 million purses and elite fields; for this year, those players who were part of the Player Impact Program are required to play in 19 of the 20 designated events or those for which they are eligible.

That means a loaded field. Defending champion Jordan Spieth figured to be there anyway. But not all of those in the top 20 would have been had the system not been changed.

And so it will be interesting to see how it takes out in this manner. The field has swelled beyond 132 players due to a stipulation that all eligible under the tournament regulations must be accommodated.

This event is being considered for designated status going forward and the question is if it really works this week. Including the Masters and the Players Championship, this is the seventh designated event in 10 weeks going back to Phoenix.

Next year, there will be no WGC-Match Play, so it would lessen the load to six out of 10. But playing one the week after the Masters—the Travelers is the week after the U.S. Open—is an interesting aspect to the new PGA Tour world.