Harbour Town favorites come with 3 letters on their sleeves

What does it take to win the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing? A look at the past six winners certainly turns up some common traits.

Ballstriking, no question. Harbour Town Golf Links give little advantage to the long ball, plenty to the accurate shot. Not only is the Pete Dye masterpiece one of the shortest layouts on today’s PGA Tour, but only Pebble Beach has smaller greens.

With greens that small, too, you’d better be able to scramble. And nobody wins these days without strong putting.

Forget the numbers, though. The most common thread actually may be found in the blue-and-gold threads on the sleeves of Brandt Snedeker, Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar and Jim Furyk.

They all wear the RBC logo. And they’ve taken five of the past six titles at Harbour Town, even before the Canadian banking firm stepped in to rescue the Heritage from the sponsorship brink.

“It’s been a fun run,” said Snedeker, who won the 2011 edition in an all-RBC playoff against Luke Donald.

“I think it gives us all a little extra incentive to play when you’re being sponsored by the sponsor of the event. We’ve got to make sure we show up and play good.”

Only Carl Pettersson has managed to break RBC’s stranglehold on the tartan jacket, cruising to a five-shot triumph in 2012. Team RBC responded with a vengeance, with McDowell and Kuchar taking dramatic victories before Furyk added last year’s trophy to his 2010 version.

It’s enough to wonder if the fix is in. Of course, it would be near impossible to get the other 120 non-RBC guys in the field to cooperate.

And don’t overlook this: The RBC lineup is pretty strong no matter where they may be teeing it up.

Start with Jason Day, who signed on only last year and now stands atop the world rankings. He owns six wins in his past 14 starts, even with a long winter break after wife Ellie gave birth to their second child.

Snedeker is 15th in the rankings, also a winner this year after a windblown triumph at Torrey Pines. Furyk was in the top 15 as recently as January until his chronic wrist pain required surgery in February. Kuchar currently ranks 28th.

McDowell is a former U.S. Open champion and a winner last fall in Mexico. Ernie Els won three majors and is now in the World Golf Hall of Fame, though last week’s putting follies at Augusta National briefly pushed that to the side. The roster also includes up-and-coming Canadians Adam Hadwin, David Hearn and Graeme DeLaet.

“So you have quite good players to start with,” McDowell said.

Not only that, but the majority of them seem a made-to-order fit for Harbour Town’s tight fairways and small greens.

“Look at this golf course and what it takes to win,” Furyk said before departing Sea Pines. “You’re looking at guys that typically fit the profile of this golf course. Great ballstrikers, very precision oriented. This golf course fits that type of player extremely well.”

Even so, the RBC roster accounts for only about a dozen players. There has to be something else.

Magic dust, perhaps? Some once-dormant Gullah hex, with a Canadian twist?

“I don’t know what it is,” McDowell said with a chuckle. “Obviously we enjoy what we do with RBC. They put on nice events and they look after us really well.”

For what it’s worth, there’s a similar trend developing at the RBC Canadian Open, where Day began his hot streak last year and Furyk and Snedeker are former champions.

“We were actually talking about it this morning, pulling off the double,” Snedeker said. “I’ve pulled off the double, Jim Furyk’s done the double. So Kooch and Graeme, they’ve got some work to do. Jason’s got the other end of the double — he’s got the RBC Canadian Open, but he’s got to work on this one.”

So who’s the better bet this week, Team RBC or the rest of the field?

Hey, the non-RBC lineup could give you Kevin Kisner, Zach Johnson, Bill Haas, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Paul Casey and Bryson DeChambeau.

Sometimes, though, it’s better to ride the hot streak until it fizzles.

“Long may it continue,” McDowell said. “Hopefully it’ll be another RBC guy this week. Then that gives me about 12-to-1 odds, you know?”

This story was originally published April 13, 2016 at 8:19 PM with the headline "Harbour Town favorites come with 3 letters on their sleeves."