Nine spots gone, and Hilton Head has one of them
Harbour Town has hosted the same tournament since 1969. From 2028 it hosts a bigger one. The PGA Tour confirmed on Thursday that the RBC Heritage will join its Championship Series, making it the ninth regular-season event to earn a place in the new premium circuit.
Hardly a surprise. The Heritage had been near the front of the queue for months, one of the obvious candidates for a set that will run to 23 or 24 tournaments. History, a sponsor that keeps writing cheques, and the calendar slot everyone wants: the week straight after the Masters.
Tournament director Steve Wilmot did not wait long to speak. “It is an incredible honour for the RBC Heritage to be part of the PGA Tour’s Championship Series,” he said, before thanking RBC, Boeing, the volunteers and the crowds that fill Hilton Head every April.
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A course that punishes power
Harbour Town Golf Links, on Hilton Head Island in South Carolina, does not look like the rest of the American schedule. Narrow. Lined with trees. Built for players who can put a ball where they aim it rather than players who can hit it 330 yards.
Matt Fitzpatrick is the defending champion, and the Englishman will defend next April in that same post-Augusta week. That slot does most of the work when it comes to explaining why the field here often looks close to a major.
February 22 is the date that matters now
The Championship Series will not stop with the Heritage. Four majors and The Players form the spine. Around them sit the Memorial, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, The Sentry, the Truist Championship, the Cadillac Championship at Doral, the Travelers Championship, The GO by Raymond James, formerly the Wyndham, and a Sompo-backed event that still has no name.
PGA Tour boss Brian Rolapp said last week that conversations with other potential partners were still running. The full schedule lands on February 22.
What nobody at the Tour has said yet is what becomes of the tournaments that end up on the outside.
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