RBC Heritage betting information: 5 picks our playing professional loves

elcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, that includes picks from GOLF.com’s professional prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a number and common visitor on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio community dedicated to sports activities and sports activities betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can observe Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you’ll learn his picks beneath for the 2026 RBC Heritage, which will get underway Thursday in Hilton Head, S.C.

Going from Augusta National to Harbour Town is my favourite week-to-week transition on the PGA Tour. After experiencing every week of intense-pressure, major-championship golf nirvana, why not settle into the low nation for a much-needed respite and play a bit of resort golf alongside the South Carolina coast? Just heavenly in my view.

It’s humorous too, the stark distinction between the Masters and the RBC Heritage. From a behemoth of a golf course to a compact, little check of accuracy. From Bentgrass to Bermudagrass, from 50-yard extensive fairways to these of half that width, and even right down to the enduring prize of a inexperienced jacket to a tartan plaid one. There actually are polar opposites nearly all over the place you look, however equally great too.

The RBC Heritage bought an enormous increase just a few years in the past when it was awarded Signature standing on the PGA Tour. What we have now now’s a subject of 82 golfers, that includes nearly each high identify within the sport. Of those that are certified, solely Masters Champion Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama have chosen to skip this week.

Harbour Town Golf Links is a terrific Pete Dye design that I used to be fortunate sufficient to play not way back. As famous, the fairways are slim and tree-lined, with most of the bushes presenting overhanging limbs that have an effect on sight traces and strategy photographs into among the smallest greens on Tour. For these causes, I checked out Strokes Gained: Approach this week, Driving Accuracy, Greens in Regulation Gained, and Scrambling — as a result of greens will probably be missed very often.

One facet that Harbour Town shares with Augusta National is that course kind and course historical past are very sturdy. Players that play effectively right here, have a tendency to take action repeatedly. And this ties into the correlated programs. Another Dye design we noticed not too way back, TPC Sawgrass (Players Championship) has had numerous crossover champions, together with Scottie Scheffler, Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar, and Davis Love III. Simpson and Love III have additionally every received the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. Waialae (Sony Open), Colonial (Charles Schwab Challenge), and Sea Island (RSM Classic) have produced many related outcomes over time as has Royal Birkdale, most not too long ago residence to the Open Championship in 2021 and in 2017. In 2017, Jordan Spieth and Kuchar completed 1-2 at Birkdale, each former RBC Heritage champions.

It can be one thing to think about within the handicap this week and that’s how the Masters impacts the instant follow-up efficiency. One factor is for positive, the final 5 RBC Heritage winners all performed the Masters the week prior. Diving deeper, did these winners contend at Augusta, and have been they subjected mentally to the grind and the strain of being oh so shut? Were they an element in any respect, or did they miss the reduce? It is the entire above however going again to 12 months 2000, the vast majority of the winners at Harbour Town did play within the season’s first main championship and most of them both missed the reduce or completed exterior of the highest 15.

Russell Henley (18-1)

Henley completed third on the Masters, so he’s considerably within the minority, however current Harbour Town winners (Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick) have been additionally very a lot within the combine the week prior, and in Scheffler’s case, he received each occasions. Henley, comparatively quietly, has grow to be one of many absolute best gamers on the earth, and any such golf course actually has at all times been in his wheelhouse. He’s completed high 10 right here thrice. He’s received at Waialae and has completed high 10 on the Wyndham Championship in every of his final 4 visits. Over the final 24 rounds, Henley ranks sixth on this subject for Fairways Gained, fourth in Scrambling, and fourth on the 400-450 yard Par 4s.

Patrick Cantlay (28-1)

It has been a minute since I’ve landed on the UCLA Bruin however he positively confirmed some indicators final week, and over the past decade, he’s in all probability the very most profitable participant right here at Harbour Town, ending third 4 instances, seventh as soon as, and runner-up as soon as in 2022. At the Masters, Cantlay ranked third in that subject for SG: Around the Green, seventh on strategy, and ninth for SG: Tee to Green. It seems to be just like the timing might be proper for Cantlay, who additionally completed thirty second on the Players Championship and was then seventh the following week on the Valspar Championship. His subsequent begin was final week at Augusta the place he completed twelfth, and now he goes to a course at which he matches so effectively.

Robert MacIntyre (36-1)

I’ve seen Bobby Mac available at 40-1 in different spots. I had a sense we could be getting a greater than regular quantity on the Scotsman, given how poorly he regarded final week in lacking the reduce on the Masters. But 40-1 does really feel a bit of excessive for a man that simply completed fourth at TPC Sawgrass, was runner-up on the Valspar, and was fourth to start the season at Waialae. MacIntyre was additionally eighth at Royal Birkdale in 2021. Over the final 24 rounds, MacIntyre ranks ninth on this subject on the 400-450 yard Par 4s, is seventh in Scrambling, and is No. 1 for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass).

Akshay Bhatia (60-1)

Bhatia additionally missed the reduce final week at Augusta however previous to that had gone 3-6-16-1-13 in his 5 prior begins, with the Thirteenth-place end coming at TPC Sawgrass, the place he completed third in 2024. He was 18th right here at Harbour Town in 2024 and was Thirteenth on the Sony Open in Hawaii. He at the moment ranks eighth on Tour in SG: Approach and ninth for SG: Putting.

Daniel Berger (90-1)

In the tip, all 5 of our choices performed final week on the Masters. One positively contended, one flashed briefly, and three, together with Berger, didn’t make it to the weekend. Similar to Henley, Berger’s sport looks like an ideal match for Harbour Town, the place he has twice completed third and by no means missed a reduce in six profession journeys to Hilton Head. Berger was sixth at Waialae to start the season after which misplaced to Bhatia in a playoff at Bay Hill, which additionally contains a very related placing floor to what we’ll see this week. Berger has received at Colonial, completed runner-up at Sea Island, twice completed ninth at TPC Sawgrass, and was eighth at Royal Birkdale on the 2021 Open Championship. Over the final 24 rounds, Berger is third on this subject for SG: Approach, seventeenth for Fairways Gained, twelfth in Greens in Regulation Gained, and ranks ninth in Hole Proximity from 150-175 yards.