Featured Groups: RBC Heritage

This week we head to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and the iconic Harbour Town Golf Links, designed by Pete Dye in consultation with Jack Nicklaus. With views of the Calibogue Sound and the iconic red-and-white-striped lighthouse, the watery and sometimes windy course makes for one of the most scenic stops on the PGA TOUR. It’s also one of the favorites among the players, who enjoy unwinding in the Low Country after the Masters. Harbour Town has come back strong since Hurricane Matthew, and it continues to be a bellwether on TOUR: In the FedExCup era (since 2007), seven of the 10 winners of the RBC Heritage have qualified for the season-ending TOUR Championship by Coca-Cola. PGA TOUR LIVE is scheduled to air from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday and Friday. After Featured Groups, the coverage will switch to Featured Holes at 3 p.m. The Featured Holes are the 192-yard, par-3 14th, where water down the right side protects a small green, and the 174-yard, par-3 17th, which is exposed to the wind and where a 90-yard bunker catches many left misses before they reach the water. PGA TOUR LIVE can also be viewed on Twitter from approximately 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. Thursday and Friday. (Note: All times Eastern; FedExCup ranking in parentheses.) THURSDAY Martin Kaymer (NA), Matt Kuchar (45), Russell Henley (11): This group features two winners of the PLAYERS Championship in Kaymer and Kuchar, the latter of whom also won the 2014 RBC Heritage at Harbour Town with a stunning hole-out at the last. All three players come to Hilton Head on the upswing, with Kaymer having recorded his best Masters finish (T16) and Kuchar (T4) no doubt still basking in the glow of his crowd-pleasing ace at the 16th hole at Augusta on Sunday. Then there’s Henley, who is enjoying a career revival in 2017. A week after his spectacular victory at the Shell Houston Open, he recorded a career-best T11 at the Masters. Tee time: 8 a.m. off 10th tee. Graeme McDowell (110), Ernie Els (211), Luke Donald (136): Three International stars including one past champ in McDowell (2013), a Hall of Famer in Els and a five-time TOUR winner and former world No. 1 in Donald. All are looking to jump-start their seasons, and McDowell, especially, would seem to be trending in the right direction. He finished T28 finish while serving as a host of the Arnold Palmer Invitational, after consecutive T14 finishes at the Valspar and The Honda Classic. Els broke a seven-tournament missed cuts streak at the Masters. Donald is looking to improve on a season-best T17 at the Genesis Open.   Tee time: 8:10 a.m. off 10th tee FRIDAY Davis Love (207), Jim Furyk (121), Brandt Snedeker (35): This trio of past champions and RBC favorites have won a combined eight times at Harbour Town, with five of those victories coming from Love (’87, ’91,’92,’98, ’03), two from Furyk (’10, ’15) and one from Snedeker (’11). Love, who made the cut at the Shell Houston Open in his first start since breaking his collarbone, turns 53 this week but is making no concessions to age. (He’s not giving up the snowboarding.) Furyk is a 17-time TOUR winner who is looking to get back to the form that saw him finish T6 at this season’s RSM Classic, and Snedeker has already posted top-10s at the Farmers Insurance Open (T9), AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am (4th), and World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship (T7). Tee time: 8 a.m. off 10 Branden Grace (85), Adam Hadwin (5), Marc Leishman (13): This high-wattage group might comprise 25 percent of this year’s International Presidents Cup team. South African Grace, the defending RBC champion, is matched with two recent winners on TOUR: Canadian Hadwin (Valspar Championship) and Australian Leishman (Arnold Palmer Invitational Presented by Mastercard). The recently-married Hadwin comes to Harbour Town after making the cut in his first career start in the Masters, and Leishman, too, is enjoying one of the best stretches of his career.     Tee time: 8:10 a.m. off 10

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