Strong field set for 2026 RBC Heritage. Will Masters champ be in Hilton Head?

All the professional golf’s heavyweights — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, all of ’em — descended on Hilton Head Island on Thanksgiving weekend in 1969 to compete in the inaugural Heritage Golf Classic.

Dan Jenkins described the scene this way in Sports Illustrated:

“In a dolled-up swamp off the coast of South Carolina’s low country and on an island with more dripping moss and crooked magnolias than you would find in a dozen Civil War novels, Jack Nicklaus made his debut as a golf-course designer last week before the toughest possible audience — his fellow touring pros.”

Nothing much has changed since.

The date? Yep, that’s different. From fall to spring time, for now a fixture on the golf calendar the week after the Masters.

The name? Just a bit, with the Royal Bank of Canada and Boeing paying big bucks to get their names involved.

And, yes, Pete Dye did the design work in consultation with Nicklaus.

Everything else? Pretty much the same with top players on hand, the biggest names winning the early tournaments and the most recent ones and — especially — the same golf course, Harbour Town Golf Links.

To wit: A who’s who on the PGA Tour — well, all except 2026 Masters champion Rory McIlroy — ventures from the Masters to South Carolina’s Lowcountry to battle in the tournament now dubbed the RBC Heritage presented by Boeing.

And they will face pretty much the same golf course that the golfers encountered in 58 years ago that really revolutionized golf course architecture. That comes courtesy of restoration work by Davis Love III’s design company.

“We intentionally call this project a restoration in respect to Pete’s original design,” said John Farrell, director of sports operations at Sea Pines Resort. “Every ‘change’ we made had some documentation or images or video of what it was like previously.”

Love Golf Design restored features from Dye’s original design. Upgrades included rebuilding bunkers and bulkheads, regrassing the entire course and returning greens to their original shapes.

Love, who won the Heritage five times, said: “It’s still the original, honest Pete Dye strategy. ... We were able to refer to lots of photographs and videos of the early days, and we can add back some of what we see in those old pictures.”

The golf course the players will leave behind, Augusta National, could not be more different than Harbour Town. Yet, both are demanding.

“Two very different golf courses,” 2022 Heritage champion Jordan Spieth said Sunday after posting a final-round 68 at the Masters. “I like them both a lot.”

He has talked to Davis Love a bit about the restoration at Harbour Town and has seen some pictures of some changes.

“It looks like it’s going to be really good,” Spieth said. “I don’t think he did a ton (of changes), but he kind of put some trees where we were getting bailed out on some spots and maybe updated greens and bunkers. It should be awesome.”

Jacob Bridgeman, the former Clemson star, played Harbour Town during his junior golf days and looks forward to “a fun tournament.”

“They made some changes, regrassed, maybe change a little bit of the greens,” he said. “I don’t know if anything else was done, but it’s always been one of my favorites. I played junior golf there and always played the tournament, so looking forward to getting back down there.”

Getting back to Harbour Town is always a relief from the stress of the Masters. The event always drew the top players in the early years, then some big names passed on playing a week after a major.

That changed with the tournament’s becoming a Signature event and its increased purse. The past four champions — Spieth, Matt Fitzpatrick, Scottie Scheffler and Justin Thomas — illustrate the quality.

But that’s not really new. Remember Dan Jenkins’ note about the course making its debut before the most severe critics — the touring pros? Remember the winner? Arnold Palmer.

Impressive, then and now.

RBC Heritage dates, details

Dates: April 16-19

Site: Harbour Town Golf Links (7,243 yards, par 71), Hilton Head Island

Tickets: Online at www.rbcheritage.com

How to Watch: TV channel, stream

Golf Channel: 2-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1-3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

CBS Television: 3-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday

Streaming Options on PGA Tour Live

Radio/SiriusXM: Noon-6 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 1-6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

Heritage field

A Signature event on the PGA Tour, the limited, no-cut field of approximately 70 players will compete for shares of a $20 million purse.

Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 player and the 2024 Heritage champion, headlines the entry list that includes all the Tour’s top players except Rory McIlrory.

In addition to Scheffler, recent champions include Justin Thomas (2025), Matt Fitzpatrick (2023) and Jordan Spieth (2022).

Top 10 players in the world rankings who are entered include Scheffler, Cameron Young, Tommy Fleetwood, J.J. Spaun, Fitzpatrick, Collin Morikawa, Robert MacIntye, Justin Rose and Xander Schauffele.

South Carolina players include Jacob Bridgeman, No. 1 in the FedEx Cup standings heading into the Masters, Andrew Novak, who lost in a playoff for the 2025 Heritage title, and Lucas Glover.

• Ludvig Aberg
• Daniel Berger
• Akshay Bhatia
• Chandler Blanchet
• Keegan Bradley
• Michael Brennan
• Jacob Bridgeman
• Sam Burns
• Brian Campbell
• Patrick Cantlay
• Ricky Castillo
• Bud Cauley
• Corey Conners
• Pierceson Coody
• Jason Day
• Nico Echavarria
• Harris English
• Steven Fisk
• Matt Fitzpatrick
• Tommy Fleetwood
• Rickie Fowler
• Ryan Fox
• Ryan Gerard
• Lucas Glover
• Chris Gotterup
• Ben Griffin
• Harry Hall
• Brian Harman
• Russell Henley
• Garrick Higgo
• Joe Highsmith
• Ryo Hisatsune
• Tom Hoge
• Nicolai Hojgaard
• Viktor Hovland
• Sungjae Im
• Johnny Keefer
• Michael Kim
• Si Woo Kim
• Kurt Kitayama
• Jake Knapp
• Min Woo Lee
• David Lipsky
• Shane Lowry
• Robert MacIntyre
• Denny McCarthy
• Matt McCarty
• Maverick McNealy
• Collin Morikawa
• William Mouw
• Alex Noren
• Andrew Novak
• Taylor Pendrith
• JT Poston
• Aldrich Potgieter
• Andrew Putnam
• Patrick Rodgers
• Justin Rose
• Xander Schauffele
• Scottie Scheffler
• Adam Schenk
• Jordan Smith
• Austin Smotherman
• JJ Spaun
• Jordan Spieth
• Sam Stevens
• Sepp Straka
• Nick Taylor
• Sahith Theegala
• Justin Thomas
• Michael Thorbjornsen
• Sami Valimaki
• Jhonattan Vegas
• Karl Vilips
• Matt Wallace
• Gary Woodland
• Sudarshan Yellamaraju
• Cameron Young

This story was originally published April 12, 2026 at 7:00 PM.