By Shane Ryan
Like most men with oversized chests and arms, the New Bryson DeChambeau looks perpetually uncomfortable, as though his body retains a memory of the range and fluidity it once knew, and yet can’t adjust to life inside the prison bars of bulging muscle.

There is not much grace to his game now, and he’s never more rigid and confined than when he’s on the green. Contrary to perception—or at least my perception of the broader perception—he’s been an above-average putter in the 2020 season and has performed decently at the RBC Heritage this week. But the stroke is ugly, stiff and regimented, and though he must have a great deal of “feel” and “touch” to the shot, those elements are invisible to the naked eye. All you can see is a slab of a man attempting to turn into a plank, to become a thick fulcrum with no deviations … robotic, repeatable.

The drive is different. The drive is a thunder-slap, and the shot on which all those cumbersome muscles come unleashed and you can see the strongman give way to the athlete. It only lasts a millisecond, but there’s a whip-like quality then, and the remnants of his thinner, more graceful self find equilibrium with all that new strength. The synthesis is almost frightening. I watched in awe the first time I saw him pull out the driver on the par-five second hole at Harbour Town Golf Links on Saturday, and I stayed in awe even though he blasted it out-of-bounds at one of the easiest holes he’d play all day.

This is why I came to Hilton Head, if I’m being honest with myself. To see DeChambeau hit that drive, and to reckon with the question of whether he’s some kind of lunatic Don Quixote, gulping down snake oil, or whether he’s about to transform the sport.

* * *

Driving into Harbour Town, you could almost convince yourself it was a normal day. The sun shone, people in the outlying neighbourhoods were out walking and riding bikes and generally looking happy. The putting green was full of players and caddies, the course employees wore their red tartans, and a quaint toy cannon overlooked the first tee. Waiting to follow DeChambeau and Webb Simpson in the day’s last group, I had a fantasy that I’d set a record for fewest people to trail the leading group in PGA Tour history; that it would be just a few of us on a lonely 18-hole odyssey.

Instead, the scene was practically teeming. At a given moment, between the TV crews, photographers, volunteers both on and off duty, a handful corporate guests, and a few mysterious others, there were 30-40 people within a 30-yard radius of the DeChambeau and Simpson. The people living in the houses lining the fairways watched from their porches and front lawns, and they invited their friends, so there was even something of a gallery. One homeowner held up a banner reading, “Welcome Back, PGA Pros. Hilton Head Welcomes You.” I hope she didn’t spend too much.

I spent Friday night wondering if I was an idiot to be here at all, and while the jury is still out on that question, I can report that it was pleasant to wander a mostly empty course and take the time to obsessively focus on DeChambeau.

The fascination here has been well-covered: He bulked up to a ludicrous degree, became something of a meme in the days leading up to the Colonial, and then came a shot away from winning despite a below-average putting week. Rory McIlroy professed to be in awe of his bombs from the tee. Suddenly, it bore asking: Was he about to change the sport? Ten years from now, would golf be populated by barrel-chested lumberjacks chopping balls 350-plus yards down the defenceless fairways of America and the globe?

He’s a man of very big ideas, and it’s not easy to tell which are transformational and which are the equivalent of “why don’t we build the entire plane out of the black box?” After six rounds, though, Project Big seemed to have some legitimacy, and it was definitely a compelling narrative.

On the first tee, standing behind the sunscreen-smeared Simpson, DeChambeau twisted his neck to the side. It’s a tic I noticed on TV that’s more noticeable in person; he seems to be trying to loosen up his levator scapulae, or relieve some tightness or pain. At times, he’ll place a hand beneath his chin to get a fuller turn, and it’s always accompanied by a grimace. He’s almost always grimacing, actually, whether he’s swinging or walking or telling his Puma-clad assistant outside the ropes to be careful where he walks. The moments of levity are over quickly:

“How do I become like you?” shouted a lawn spectator, holding a beer.

“Work out more!” DeChambeau shouted back.

It was a hot day, and mostly a quiet day, with the chirpy rise-and-fall drone of the cicadas providing the audio. Tendrils of Spanish moss hung from the live oaks, now and then blowing to the side like a wizard’s beard with the palliative wind. DeChambeau’s gray shirt was almost soaked through long before the turn, and clung ever more tightly to the torso it could barely contain in the first place.

Bryson DeChambeau lines up a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the RBC Heritage. (Streeter Lecka)

On the front nine, his approaches were just a little off, but he slowly fought back from the mistake on No. 2. Putts of 12 feet, 27, 21, 22, and 14 feet slid past the hole, but he made birdies from 11 feet and 18 feet, and used his length to turn the par-4 ninth into a medium-hard par 3. By the time he reached the turn, having passed the palm trees and pines and the murky waters that threatened but never proffered an alligator, he was within two shots of the lead.

But the back nine is not the same sugary meal as the front, and by missing his opportunity to go very low, he watched the field surge ahead. He was five-under on six par 5s in the first two days, but ended up playing them even on Saturday, and though he finished the day at 12 under, just three shots off the lead, there are 15 players in front of him. Winning this tournament will likely require something along the lines of 64 or better.

* * *

The thing about uprisings is that sometimes they bloom into full revolution, and sometimes they fail. The implication of what Bryson is trying here, which is nothing less than a fundamental shift in how professionals approach the sport, could go a few ways. He could get hurt or go cold, he could dominate the sport, or the results could be middling, in the sense that an extreme beef-up regimen works for him—a guy who was already one of the world’s best golfers—but doesn’t recommend itself to anyone else. We’re in the early days, and that’s what makes this so good.

DeChambeau wasn’t available after his round, but I asked Webb Simpson if he thought there might be something transformational afoot, and he didn’t laugh me out of the room.

“I think so,” he said. “When a guy at this level puts on that much weight and is still able to play great and puts on that much speed, I certainly think guys are going to ask him questions and try to at least figure out how they can do something similar. … I think that’s been the biggest surprise in a good way is how well he’s able to hit it still just as good, if not better, at this weight.”

Anticipation is always better than fulfillment, and it’s certainly better than disappointment. For now, Bryson’s wild gambit suggests future scenes we can barely imagine. Whether he knows it or not, he’s attempting to change far more than his body.

The post The Bryson Uprising, witnessed in the flesh appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

But there’s been another, perhaps unexpected, new normal that actually isn’t so new at all: Driving from one tournament to the next.

At least that’s what C.T. Pan and his wife, Yingchun Lin, are doing, eschewing plush but pricey private jet travel as well as the tour’s more affordable but also more crowded weekly charter flight (another new normal) for the open road.

“Before we bought the RV we searched out the routes between tournaments,” Pan said. “It’s not that bad.”

That depends on one’s definition.

The trip from Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, where the tour resumed its season last week after three months off, to this week’s RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island, S.C., covered six states and spanned 1,105 miles, almost all of them on Interstate 20. The drive took Pan and his wife 16 hours in all — nine on Saturday after he’d missed the cut in Texas the day before and another 10 on Sunday — with an overnight stop at Roosevelt State Park, outside Jackson, Miss., along the way.

There, they took in a panoramic view of the Bienville National Forest, lazy scenes of visitors relaxing and fishing along 150-acre Shadow Lake and enjoyed a comfortable night’s sleep. It was a prospect made easier by the fact they’re traveling in a luxe 20-foot long Mercedes Sprinter, which is outfitted with a queen-size bed, a small but modern kitchen and a shower and bathroom.

It has all the safety and comforts of home, including their own pillows, Pan said.

Still, he and his wife have a long way to go. Their trip from Hilton Head to next week’s Travelers Championship in Connecticut will take 14 hours. From there, it’ll take about eight hours to get to the Rocket Mortgage Classic outside Detroit. Then it’s only a few hours to central Ohio for the Workday Charity Open and Memorial tournament, both at Muirfield Village.

Of course it wasn’t all that long ago that driving was how most players got from one event to the next. Though Arnold Palmer began flying to tournaments, doing the piloting himself, it wasn’t until decades later that most players took to the skies. In the early 1980s, for example, Paul Azinger barnstormed his way across the country in a 24-foot motor home his first few seasons. Many other players traveled similarly before commercial and private jet travel became the norm. Now, almost no one drives (though Viktor Hovland is also hitting the road in his car these next few weeks).

But these also aren’t normal times. With concerns over the ongoing pandemic, plus a joy for driving, Pan preferred not being cooped up in a steel tube with recirculated air alongside 100 or so of his colleagues.

“During these crazy times [my wife] doesn’t want to fly, and I don’t want to fly,” he said. “And she wants to travel with me.”

Pan, 28, and his wife, both of whom were born in Taiwan, also understand the dangers of infectious disease. He was just shy of a teenager when SARS spread from China in 2002 to his country and elsewhere. Though it was contained relatively quickly with just 8,500 worldwide cases, it had a high fatality rate at 11 percent. In Taiwan, the percentage was even higher with 668 total cases and 181 of them fatal.

That experience, plus reports that Pan and his wife were getting from family members back in Taiwan about the coronavirus, coupled with news reports about the virus’ spread in the United States, shaped Pan’s decision to withdraw from the Players Championship in March the morning of the opening round. Later that night, the tour canceled the tournament and went on hiatus.

“Back in January we knew this virus was different,” he said. “It was a tough decision to withdraw because I had never withdrawn from a tournament, but by March we knew a lot more [about coronavirus].

“We remember [SARS] very much. It was a very scary time. Taiwaneese people are very careful now. We wear masks pretty much everywhere.”

When the Tour announced that it was resuming its season, Pan, who lives in Houston, still had reservations about playing. He thought a June restart would be impossible to pull off and that it would be too soon.

But the tour, he said, made him and his wife feel comfortable with the steps they’ve taken. He said so far they’ve done a “great job” on testing and other protocols to keep players safe.

Pan’s concerns were also eased by being able to carry on in their own bubble, traveling and living out of their RV, which he says that he and his wife will continue to drive to tournaments for at least the next year if not longer.

There is one exception: If Pan qualifies for August’s PGA Championship at Harding Park in San Francisco.

“If I get into that, I probably will fly,” he said. “That’s a tough one to drive to.”

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By Greg Gottfrie
Last week’s PGA Tour event was fun. Let’s do it again.

This week, we will see another loaded field travel to the Hilton Head Island in South Carolina for the RBC Heritage. The five best golfers in the world will all be playing at the Harbour Town Golf Links, after participating in the Charles Schwab Challenge.

After earning his first career victory at the RBC Heritage in 2019, C.T. Pan will be looking to defend his title against the aforementioned top five of Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Justin Thomas, Brooks Koepka and Dustin Johnson. Five-time RBC Heritage winner Davis Love III will be competing, as will Rickie Fowler and Sergio Garcia—who haven’t played this event since 2012 and 2010, respectively.

Last week’s event at Colonial came down to a playoff, and it’s quite possible that we see another one in Harbour Town this week. Three of the last seven tour events at this course have required extra holes.

The winner of this event will receive 500 FedEx Cup points and a $1.278 million share of the $7.1 million purse.

Thursday Tee Times (all times EDT, all rounds at Harbour Town Golf Links)

Tee No. 1
6:45 a.m. — Harris English, Byeong Hun An, Patrick Rodgers
6:56 a.m. — Vaughn Taylor, Nick Watney, Luke List
7:07 a.m. — Kyle Stanley, Scott Stallings, Jason Kokrak
7:18 a.m. — Cameron Smith, Kevin Tway, Sergio Garcia
7:29 a.m. — Sebastian Munoz, Ian Poulter, Patton Kizzire
7:40 a.m. — Andrew Putnam, Si Woo Kim, Luke Donald
7:51 a.m. — Jim Herman, Sung Kang, Martin Trainer
8:02 a.m. — Tyrrell Hatton, Joaquin Niemann, Aaron Wise
8:13 a.m. — Xander Schauffele, Ted Potter, Jr., Stewart Cink
8:24 a.m. — Ernie Els, Vijay Singh, Bernhard Langer
8:35 a.m. — Charley Hoffman, Carlos Ortiz, Kyoung-Hoon Lee
8:46 a.m. — Talor Gooch, Denny McCarthy, Erik van Rooyen
12:10 p.m. — Russell Henley, Bud Cauley, Abraham Ancer
12:21 p.m. — Danny Lee, Sepp Straka, Christiaan Bezuidenhout
12:32 p.m. — Emiliano Grillo, K.J. Choi, Rafa Cabrera Bello
12:43 p.m. — Webb Simpson, Bryson DeChambeau, Davis Love III
12:54 p.m. — Gary Woodland, Dustin Johnson, Hideki Matsuyama
1:05 p.m. — Justin Thomas, Jon Rahm, Justin Rose
1:16 p.m. — Dylan Frittelli, Max Homa, Adam Hadwin
1:27 p.m. — Scott Piercy, Brice Garnett, Jimmy Walker
1:38 p.m. — Tyler Duncan, Corey Conners, Charles Howell III
1:49 p.m. — Chez Reavie, Ryan Palmer, Russell Knox
2 p.m. — Jhonattan Vegas, Kevin Streelman, Matt Jones
2:11 p.m. — Chesson Hadley, Bo Van Pelt, Cameron Tringale
2:22 p.m. — Branden Grace, Alex Noren, Victor Perez

Tee No. 10
6:45 a.m. — Aaron Baddeley, Doc Redman
6:56 a.m. — Matt Every, Scott Brown, Matthew NeSmith
7:07 a.m. — Harold Varner III, Joel Dahmen, Harry Higgs
7:18 a.m. — Kevin Kisner, Jordan Spieth, Zach Johnson
7:29 a.m. — Daniel Berger, Patrick Reed, Brooks Koepka
7:40 a.m. — Rory McIlroy, C.T. Pan, Rickie Fowler
7:51 a.m. — Nate Lashley, Bubba Watson, Jason Day
8:02 a.m. — Collin Morikawa, Tony Finau, Jim Furyk
8:13 a.m. — Viktor Hovland, Adam Long, Kevin Chappell
8:24 a.m. — J.T. Poston, Wesley Bryan, Danny Willett
8:35 a.m. — Brian Harman, Matthew Fitzpatrick, Bronson Burgoon
8:46 a.m. — Michael Thompson, Matt Wallace, Roger Sloan
8:57 a.m. — Mark Hubbard, Adam Schenk, Jazz Janewattananond
12:10 p.m. — Ryan Moore, Tom Hoge, Maverick McNealy
12:21 p.m. — Chris Stroud, Charl Schwartzel, Lucas Glover
12:32 p.m. — Mackenzie Hughes, Peter Malnati, Rory Sabbatini
12:43 p.m. — Matthew Wolff, Billy Horschel, Austin Cook
12:54 p.m. — Brendon Todd, Brandt Snedeker, Troy Merritt
1:05 p.m. — Shane Lowry, Keith Mitchell, Pat Perez
1:16 p.m. — Lanto Griffin, Graeme McDowell, Louis Oosthuizen
1:27 p.m. — Sungjae Im, Andrew Landry, Michael Kim
1:38 p.m. — Matt Kuchar, Ryan Armour, Jason Dufner
1:49 p.m. — Sam Ryder, Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns
2 p.m. — Brian Gay, David Hearn, J.J. Spaun
2:11 p.m. — Brian Stuard, Bill Haas, Glen Day
2:22 p.m. — Michael Gligic, Andy Ogletree, Spencer Ralston

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By John Strege
Tiger Woods turned back the clock last week, but presumably, he did not turn it back to the 2000s, when any tournament without him was consigned to the remainder table.

The world of golf has changed. Woods, a fifth green jacket notwithstanding, is not likely to dominate, not at 43, battered and bruised and unable to commit the time he once did to prepare, while also facing a surfeit of talent unafraid of the challenge. Presumably.

For golf not to devolve again into a tour of the haves and the have-nots, the latter tournaments with fields sans Tiger, it needs the best players in the world to do their part to ward off apathy when Woods is not there to do it for them.

This was what the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., was facing. Masters fatigue and Easter weekend double-teamed the tournament, which seemed to effectively counterpunch with the best player in the world rising to the top of the leader board.

But if the RBC Heritage was a test, Dustin Johnson, World No. 1, failed spectacularly, a week after tying for second at Augusta. Johnson took a one-stroke lead into the final round, was tied for the lead after an indifferent front nine, then played a five-hole back-nine stretch in seven-over par, including consecutive double bogeys.

Has anyone seen the remote?

Johnson, 6-foot-4 and as athletic and talented as anyone in golf, shot a 77 (41 on the back nine) and tied for 28th. The tournament was won by C.T. Pan, a 5-foot-6 package of professional mediocrity prior to posting his first PGA Tour victory. In nine previous starts in the calendar year, he had not finished better than a tie for 42nd.

Good for him, of course. But players ranked 113th in the world don’t generally outplay the No. 1 by 10 shots in the final round of a tournament the latter is leading.

Johnson hit half the 14 fairways and half the 18 greens in regulation. His score equalled the second worst of the day, only better than the 82 from Satoshi Kodaira.

At least the indestructible and ubiquitous Matt Kuchar did his part to breathe life into the proceedings. Twice a winner this season and ranked 16th, he birdied the 18th hole to take the clubhouse lead at 11-under par. Pan, however, played the difficult three closing holes in one-under par to win by one.

“Another great week,” Kuchar said. “You come here, you try to win a golf tournament. I certainly had a chance. I had to make that birdie on the last. That was a thrill. I thought that might be good enough. Hats off to C.T. for closing strong. Those last three holes, 16, 17 and 18, are tricky holes with the wind. To play those steady is well done.”

So the tour is on to New Orleans and the two-man team event, the Zurich Classic. The field has Brooks Koepka (teaming with brother Chase), Jon Rahm (with Ryan Palmer) and Bubba Watson (with J.B. Holmes) to elevate it in the absence of Tiger.

The onus, in the absence of Woods, now falls to them.

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Somehow, even in the tough conditions, Johnson managed to shoot a three-under 68, with much of the credit for that going to a red-hot putter. The 20-time tour winner made over 150 feet of putts in his third round, and if he putts half as well on Sunday, he could be raising his 21st career trophy on the PGA Tour in his home state of South Carolina.

“It’d be special, but still got 18 holes of golf and there’s a lot of guys right around the lead,” said Johnson of winning in the Palmetto State. “I’m going to have to go out and play a really solid round tomorrow if I want to win.”

Johnson dropped his first long putt at the par-4 sixth, a 19-footer for his second birdie of the day that got him to nine under. After playing his next five holes in even par, he made an 18-footer for birdie at 13 and then a 47-foot bomb at the par-3 14th that hit the lip, took a little hop in the air and dropped. He knew he got away with one.

“All I could do is laugh at that one.”

He made another at the par-5 15th that got him to 12 under and earned him a three-shot lead at the time. Just when it looked as though he might pull away though, he made back-to-back bogeys at 16 and 17 to fall back to 10 under. At 18, he hit a deft chip from behind the green to a few feet and snuck in the short par putt that eventually gave him the solo 54-hole lead at 10-under 203.

Three players are one back, including Ian Poulter, who fired his second straight 67 despite making a double bogey at the opening hole. Rory Sabbatini and 36-hole leader Shane Lowry are also at nine-under 204 with Poulter.

Patrick Cantlay, who surged to the top of the leader board last Sunday at Augusta, put together a similar round on Saturday in Hilton Head. His five-under 66 tied for the low round of the day and vaulted him into a tie for fifth at eight-under 205.

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Ask Satoshi Kodaira, who tried to get through the PGA Tour’s Qualifying Tournament in 2014, played a few Web.com Tour events but then retreated to his native Japan, where he started finding some success. Two of his six victories on the Japan Tour came just last year when he also made the cut in the U.S. Open and PGA Championship.

Now the 28-year-old is a winner on the PGA Tour after defeating reigning Players champion Si Woo Kim in a sudden-death playoff Sunday at the RBC Heritage. Kodaira sank a 25-foot birdie putt on the third extra hole at windswept Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head, S.C., to win in just his 15th PGA Tour start.

“This is a stage I’ve been dreaming about, and to have an opportunity to play full-time on the PGA Tour is a dream come true,” Kodaira said, readily accepting membership and the two-year exemption that comes with the victory.

The Tokyo native received a sponsor exemption into the event because he is ranked among the top 50 in the world. That status also gave him a berth in the Masters a week earlier, where he finished T-28 in his debut at Augusta National.

Kodaira won in just his 15th PGA Tour start after six wins in his native Japan. (Tyler Lecka/Getty Images)

Though he hadn’t recorded a top-10 finish previously in a tour event, that hardly mattered Sunday when he began the day six strokes behind third-round leader Ian Poulter and five back of Kim. Despite the gusting winds, Kodaira posted a closing 66 and 12-under 272 total, and then watched Kim, Poulter and Luke List struggle coming home.

Winning wasn’t even his primary thought entering the final round. “I was thinking mostly of getting into the top-10 so I could play next week,” Kodaira admitted. Then he offered another admission. “To win this quickly is a big surprise to me.”

Kodaira, who shot a tournament-low 63 in the second round, became the sixth straight win at Harbour Town to start from at least three shots behind on the final day. The victory will make him the 27th-ranked player in the world come Monday morning when the newest World Ranking is officially released.

RELATED: The club Satoshi Kodaira used to win the RBC Heritage

He seems to have taken the road less travelled to arrive at this place. But perhaps not. Winning breeds winning, no matter where it occurs.

It’s difficult to win on the PGA Tour. Just ask Phil Mickelson, Rory McIlroy, Jason Day, Paul Casey or Poulter, all who ended victory droughts of various lengths this season despite having levels of talent that would seem to prevent them from such extended streaks. But the truth is, winning on any tour demands excellence.

So Kodaira is a surprise. Then again, he is not.

While Japan’s latest sensation revels in his accomplishment, at the other end of the spectrum sits a talented player like Luke List, who tied for third and still seeks his first victory after 109 PGA Tour starts. He began the final round just a stroke behind Poulter, but his up-and-down day in winds blowing 20-25 miles per hour wasn’t the recipe required for victory.

After a third-round 67, List was asked about his chance to break his maiden. “You hear a lot of greats talking about keep knocking on the door,” said the 33-year-old Vanderbilt graduate. “I feel for me, whether it’s tomorrow or next week, I feel like it’s going to happen. I’m playing too well for it not to. I’m just going to keep that attitude.”

A missed birdie try on the 18th on Sunday left List one stroke out of a playoff, and still searching for PGA Tour win No. 1. (Ryan Young/PGA Tour)

List, who closed with a one-over 72 while battling an illness, had a chance to join the playoff, but a 10-foot birdie putt wouldn’t go down. It was the third time this season he knocked on the door but didn’t bust it down, after a second-place finish at the Honda Classic in March and a T-5 at the CJ Cup @ Nine Bridges last fall.

RELATED: After six straight wins of golf, Ian Poulter finally ran out of gas

What does it take to break through? A key putt at the right time? A bit of luck? Maybe a lot of luck? Timing? The answer for Kodaira was his ball striking. He topped the field by +1.514 in strokes gained/approach-the-green by leading in proximity to the hole, averaging 29 feet, 6 inches—six feet closer than the field average.

A winner of one Web.com Tour title, the 2012 South Georgia Classic, List is still searching for success at the highest level.

“Hopefully next week,” List replied to a question about when his time might come. “I’m getting better each opportunity. And I feel like my game has risen to the point where I expect to contend every week. So it’s going to happen.”

If he maintains this form, you have to think he’s right. But there are no guarantees, even if a player feels ready. Meanwhile, a guy with hopes of a top-10 finish has added an iconic plaid jacket to his wardrobe for winning at Hilton Head.

When Sam Saunders grabbed the early lead at the Genesis Open in February, folks wondered what his grandfather, Arnold Palmer, might say to him. Said Saunders: “He’d say, it’s about time you started winning some tournaments.”

And he expected to win, too. So did Beau Hossler before Poulter pilfered the Houston Open from him. Every good player expects to win. If they didn’t, there really would be no point in competing.

How one gets started isn’t easily prescribed.

Back to Nicklaus, who had an answer for his players on the U.S. Ryder Cup team that lost to Europe at Nicklaus’ Muirfield Village Golf Club in 1987. The Americans continually lost the 18th hole that week, and Nicklaus, for their own good, challenged them to look inside themselves, figure out what works in their games, what doesn’t, and then play to their strengths when they are in contention. Among the players who responded to the advice were Curtis Strange, who won consecutive U.S. Open titles in 1988 and ’89, and the late Payne Stewart, who won three majors, including two U.S. Opens.

Even if his previous wins occurred on the Japan Tour, Satoshi Kodaira had been there, had figured some things out about himself, about what works. And he is there again.

It’s a surprise, but it isn’t.

The post There is no formula for a breakthrough PGA Tour win. Just ask Satoshi Kodaira and Luke List appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.

The course — home of the RBC Heritage since 1969 and one of the more unique, charming venues on tour — was devastated by the hurricane, with debris scattered throughout the premises. Many of the docks on the iconic 18th hole were destroyed.

“In Sea Pines [the gated community that houses the course], there are a lot of trees on houses, a lot of water behind the new Plantation Club,” said town manager Steve Riley to the Island Packet upon return. “Harbour Town appears to have taken a hard hit.”

Harbor Town before and after #hiltonhead #HurricaneMatthew pic.twitter.com/D5ZCf3FFEB

— Steven “Lumpdawg” Swinehart (@s_swine) October 8, 2016

Hilton Head Island. #HurricaneMatthew pic.twitter.com/8oHRHen34y

— Tim Scott (@SenatorTimScott) October 11, 2016

And yet, just six months later, the course and community welcomes the PGA Tour this week. In an opening ceremony Monday, Hilton Head mayor David Bennett extended his gratitude to all those who labored to get the property in shape for the RBC Heritage. “Today, you see no signs that a hurricane was here,” he said, according to WSAV.

The course itself lost about 300 trees from the storm, but the docks on the 18th were rebuilt, many finished within the past two weeks.

“The whole decking of that pier was washed away. It took away our charter docks, 18th green docks; they were all down the fairway of the 18th green,” said harbourmaster Nancy Cappelmann. “The marina’s been virtually rebuilt; every dock in here has new whales and rods or new floats. Everything is brand new in the harbor and today is day one of our reopening.”

The players have noticed the recovery efforts as well, many remarking on the immaculate shape of Harbour Town.

“We’ve been hearing about the golf course since the hurricane and decided to see what it looked like, and it really, actually, doesn’t look that different,” said Davis Love III, who’s won the Heritage five times. “It’s in excellent condition. Obviously since I’ve been around here quite a bit, I noticed the trees that are gone, but it doesn’t seem to affect the golf course very much. I’m excited to be back playing.”

The RBC Heritage, which began in 1969, starts on Thursday. Branden Grace is the defending champ. — by Joel Beall

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