By Ryan Herrington
There was no reason for Brooks Koepka to play it safe on Sunday at the RBC Heritage. He started the final round three shots off the lead and after seeing some early scores posted, knew that Harbour Town was vulnerable once more to red numbers. He was paired with good pal Dustin Johnson, so a relaxed atmosphere was guaranteed. And, you might not be aware but, Koepka, No. 4 on the World Ranking, sits a surprising 204th on the FedEx Cup points list with only nine more tournaments to play (as long as the re-vamped schedule doesn’t see any other tournament cancellations). A good finish, then, in any of his next few starts is critical if he is going to move into the top 125 and compete in the Playoffs.

The go-for-broke mentality only intensified after making bogeys on the third and fourth holes on Sunday. Going backwards was not something Koepka had in mind. But he started to turn things around with a two-putt eagle on the par-5 fifth hole.

And then, on the drivable par-4 ninth hole, Koepka did this …

Before play was suspended, @BKoepka was playing par 4s like par 3s.

330 yards to 3 feet … Incredible. ?#QuickHits pic.twitter.com/7u08WhLra8

— PGA TOUR (@PGATOUR) June 21, 2020

It’s not often that you roll in a 3½-footer for eagle and you’re kind of disappointed. Then again, it’s not often you make a hole-in-one on a par 4 on the PGA Tour. (It’s happened just once, to Andrew Magee at the 2001 Phoenix Open). Not long after finishing the hole, play was suspended at Hilton Head Island because of lightning in the area. Koepka came off the course and apparently got to take a peek at his own handiwork as you can tell by the fact he retweeted the shot to his own followers while waiting to get back on the course.

Fascinating stuff out there… https://t.co/mjxuDUEtax

— Brooks Koepka (@BKoepka) June 21, 2020

Koepka eventually finished solo 7th at Harbour Town on -18, three shots adrift of new champion Webb Simpson who fired a closing 64 to claim his 7th PGA Tour title.

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By Daniel Rapaport
Perfect weather and soft greens almost always result in one thing on the PGA Tour: low scores. Saturday at Harbour Town was no different—a noticeable absence of wind and some extremely gettable pin positions yielded a historic day of scoring at the RBC Heritage, with 63s being handed out like candy and no less than 27 players three shots or closer to the lead heading into Sunday.

Tyrrell Hatton, Abraham Ancer, Webb Simspon and Ryan Palmer all share the lead at 15 under, setting up what should be a wild final round. Here are five takeaways from a birdiefest at Hilton Head.

Something in the high 60s simply wasn’t good enough on a remarkable scoring day

The Heritage’s move from its normal mid-April date to mid-June has resulted in tremendously low scoring.

Coming into this week, the most 63s that had ever been shot at the RBC Heritage for the entire week was four. There were six on Saturday alone, courtesy of Hatton, Carlos Ortiz, Joel Dahmen, Joaquin Niemann, Chris Stroud and Daniel Berger. The latter is 13 under and will absolutely have a chance to follow up his win last week at Colonial with another at Harbour Town.

Thirty-five players are double digits under par heading into the final round. The previous record heading into a Sunday was seven, and Dustin Johnson was the lone guy at 10 under after Saturday last year. This is nothing short of a shootout.

Tyrrell Hatton has a chance for back-to-back
Super under-the-radar here, but Hatton actually has a chance to go back-to-back on Sunday. It’s not a conventional back-to-back, but it certainly satisfies the definition of a back-to-back. Hatton’s last start on the PGA Tour was at the Arnold Palmer Invitational, which he won. After a prolonged celebration and a gnarly hangover, he did indeed tee it up in the Players Championship. But that was cancelled after one round, and he opted against playing last week at Colonial, so technically this is his first start since the API. Despite saying he “doesn’t feel comfortable” over the golf ball, Hatton followed up a 64 on Friday with a 63 on Saturday to snag a share of the lead heading into Sunday. You fear what he might accomplish when he does indeed feel comfortable.

Nick Watney’s positive COVID-19 test loomed over the course all day
News of Nick Watney’s positive test for COVID-19 dominated headlines on Friday, and the fallout continued to loom over Harbour Town all day. A number of players had some pretty eye-opening things to say about what Watney’s test means going forward.

Vaughn Taylor, who played the opening round alongside Watney: “I was talking to Joel (Dahmen) this morning, and we were both kind of like this is a little eye-opening. We need to be more careful. I felt like coming in the last week everyone was super careful, and then we got here, and the vibe on the Island is a little more relaxed. I feel like we might have gotten a little more relaxed too, complacent with being careful.”

Kevin C. Cox
Vaughn Taylor hits his tee shot on 18th hole in third round of RBC Heritage.

Justin Thomas: “I mean, no offence to Hilton Head, but they’re seeming to not take it very seriously. It’s an absolute zoo around here. There’s people everywhere. The beaches are absolutely packed. Every restaurant, from what I’ve seen when I’ve been driving by, is absolutely crowded. So I would say it’s still coincidence that there’s got to be a lot of stuff going on around here.”

Rory McIlroy: Nick said the thing that got him yesterday morning was he wears a WHOOP strap. A lot of us, we wear these WHOOP straps on the wrist or on the biceps. One of the big telltale signs that they’ve found over the last few weeks, they’ve done studies where, if your respiratory rate goes up during the night by more than two breaths per minute, that’s sort of a telltale sign that you might have something. So it was actually his WHOOP that told him his respiratory rate went up, and that’s why he thought maybe I could have it.”

So far as we can tell, there is no evidence Watney infected another player. But you have to think this will not be the last time a PGA Tour player tests positive. How the Tour contains this will go a long way in determining not just the immediate future of golf tournaments, but all other sports eyeing a return as well.

Kevin C. Cox
Erik van Rooyen lines up a putt on the 18th green during the third round of the RBC Heritage.

A big day coming up for Erik van Rooyen
American golf fans may best know Erik van Rooyen for his joggers, but that could change with a solid round tomorrow. Van Rooyen, a 30-year-old South African who graduated from the University of Minnesota, has spent the first eight years of his professional career on his homeland’s Sunshine Tour and, more recently, the European Tour, where he won his first tournament last fall. Some more solid play in Europe and a T-3 at the WGC-Mexico moved him inside the top 50 in the world rankings, but he’s still trying to lock down his PGA Tour card. That could be accomplished with a solid finish tomorrow—a top-10 finish (he’s T-8 right now) should lock up playing privileges for next year via the Tour’s non-member FedEx Cup points list. A big opportunity indeed.

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By Brian Wacker
Nick Watney is the first player on the PGA Tour to test positive for COVID-19. He has withdrawn from the RBC Heritage and begun self-isolation, the Tour said in a statement on Friday afternoon.

Watney, who shot an opening-round 74 at Harbour Town in Hilton Head, S.C., indicated on Friday morning that he had symptoms consistent with the illness and consulted with a physician, according to the Tour. He was tested and the result came back positive.

The Tour’s health and safety protocols call for contact tracing of anyone who had been in contact with Watney, which includes his playing partners for the first round, Vaughn Taylor and Luke List, both of whom were told as they made the turn on Friday afternoon.

“I was a little shocked, to be honest,” Taylor said. “Heart started racing, got a little nervous. Just hope Nick’s doing well and we get through this.

“It was on our minds that second nine. We were all chitchatting about it. It’s hard not to think about it.”

Though both players said they felt fine, Taylor and List, along with their caddies, confirmed they would undergo testing on Friday.

“Yeah, it was hard to concentrate out there for me, just thinking about different stuff, and I wasn’t playing my best anyway,” said List, who won in the Korn Ferry Tour’s return to action last week at TPC Sawgrass in Ponte Vedra Beach but shot two-over 73 on Friday to miss the cut. “It would be nice if they had an option you can kind of say if you want to know or not in a situation like that. I would definitely like to find out after the round next time.”

Meanwhile, Brooks Koepka said that he was next to Watney in the parking lot on Friday morning, while Rory McIlroy added that he and Watney had a conversation on the putting green before McIlroy’s round on Friday, though McIlroy said it was at a safe distance.

According to Tour guidelines, Watney must also self-isolate for at least 10 days. Though he is allowed to drive home, he lives in Austin, Texas, which would make that difficult. Watney will also receive a $100,000 stipend from the Tour.

Prior to arriving at the RBC Heritage, the 39-year-old five-time tour winner played in last week’s Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth, where he missed the cut. The Tour said Watney was not on its chartered flight on Monday to South Carolina and instead travelled privately from Texas to South Carolina.

A total of 369 tests were administered by the Tour to between players, caddies and essential personnel—including Watney—prior to this week’s tournament, and there were zero positive results, according to the Tour.

The Tour said it will have no additional comment at this time. Watney’s agent has yet to respond to an email from Golf Digest.

Last week, in its first PGA Tour event in three months, the Tour issued 487 tests to players, caddies and essential personnel. All came back negative.

Players and caddies were asked to social distance and “show best practices for playing golf to our fans watching the telecast.” However, it was mostly business as usual early on, with players and caddies exchanging clubs and many caddies not wiping off flagsticks or bunker rakes after using them before the Tour again reminded them of the suggested guidelines.

Meanwhile, on the Korn Ferry Tour, one player and three caddies tested positive prior to that circuit’s resumption of play last week, while two more positive results came back prior to this week’s event on that tour, both from non-players.

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By Christopher Powers
Judging by his first-round 67 that included a back-nine 32 at Harbour Town, Brooks Koepka didn’t lose his fastball on the golf course during quarantine. He also didn’t lose it in the press room, where he threw one 99 mph on the black Thursday afternoon at the RBC Heritage.

Following the success that both the TaylorMade Driving Relief event and The Match II had with mic-ing up players, golf fans hoped something similar could be adopted on the PGA Tour. Rickie Fowler, who was among those mic’d up at Seminole, agreed to wear a mic last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge.

Fowler brought the goods during the broadcast, but it was Koepka who actually made the most on-air noise at Colonial, and he wasn’t even mic’d. A boom microphone captured him saying “pretty f—ing good there” to Rahm after Rahm had chipped in for birdie at the par-3 eighth.

Koepka could care less about an F-bomb being caught on a microphone (Jim Nantz did apologize to viewers, however), but that doesn’t mean the four-time major winner wants to wear one during competition. Instead, Koepka offered up his solution on Thursday afternoon in Hilton Head, and it doesn’t involve mic-ing up anyone. When asked his thoughts on the matter, Koepka didn’t mince words, as is tradition.

“I don’t understand why they want us to wear a mic when there’s a boom mic that stands 10 feet away from every shot that I hit,” said Koepka, before dropping the hammer.

“If the announcers would just shut up and listen, you could hear every word that we’re talking about. I don’t understand what the thing is. Half the time the lady’s holding a boom mic, and she’s listening to everything we’re saying all the way down. If they would just shut up, they could hear everything.”

Brooks Koepka laying absolute waste to everyone in his path. NOW golf is officially back.

He’s hardly alone in his stance that mics are not necessary. Justin Thomas, who played alongside Fowler last week, simply stated “that’s not me.”

“What I talk about with [caddie Jimmy Johnson] and what I talk about with the guys in my group is none of anybody else’s business, no offense,” Thomas said. “If I want somebody to know what I say, I’ll say it in a press conference, I’ll say it in an interview or put it out on social media, whatever it is. I personally am not one that would care to get mic’d out there.”

Additionally, Rahm last week said he didn’t have any interest in wearing one during competition either.

For those counting, that’s three of the top four players in the world saying “thanks, but no thanks” to being mic’d up. That doesn’t seem good for the future prospects of the experiment. That said, Fowler has already stated he’d happily do it again, and a number of other players would likely give it a chance as well. Just don’t expect Thomas or Koepka to be one of them.

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After Bryson DeChambeau nearly won the Charles Schwab Challenge by treating it like a World Long Drive event, the response was about as typical as it gets. “That swing is not sustainable” and “he’s going to get injured” and “I’m already tired of all the Bryson love” were among the takes from the Bryson haters, of which there are many.

Now, some of those takes could very well prove to be right. But for now, maybe we should just enjoy Bryson hulk-smashing his way around these courses and have a little fun for once. This week he’ll take on Harbour Town, a course that wouldn’t be described as a bomber’s paradise. You have to be able to shape shots, lay back on certain holes and position yourself in certain parts of the fairway for a good angle into the green on the Pete Dye design.

The same could be said of Colonial, though, and DeChambeau cut every corner and had wedges into greens all last week. Judging by this video of DeChambeau at the Harbour Town range, he may be sticking to that plan in Hilton Head:

https://twitter.com/JonathanYarwood/status/1273001799969054721

What’s so unique about this video? Well, according to Jonathan Yarwood, one of the top teachers in South Carolina according to Golf Digest, DeChambeau had to move to the back of the range so he didn’t hit it over the net. As Yarwood states, these heat-seeking missiles may have ended up in someone’s kitchen if DeChambeau was hitting from where everyone else was. The man is absolutely drunk with power.

On Thursday and Friday, DeChambeau will play alongside Webb Simpson and Davis Love III, who average 302.1 and 282.7 yards off the tee, respectively. Bryson might have a football field between the both of them if he’s flying it 360.

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Pan didn’t let a late slip-up deter him on Sunday at Harbour Town, playing the final three holes in one under and nearly making one more birdie at the 18th, where his second-to-last putt hit the lip and didn’t drop. His four-under 67 was still enough to win by one over Patrick Cantlay, who needed to birdie the final hole to force a playoff but instead made bogey.

Pan’s win comes with a lot of perks, the best of all being an invite to next year’s Masters Tournament, where he’ll be making his debut.

Finishing in solo second was Matt Kuchar, who posted a final-round 67. He’s now finished T-7 or better six times this season, including two wins and a pair of runner-ups.

Scott Piercy and Shane Lowry tied for third with Cantlay, while J.T. Poston, Seamus Power and Kevin Streelman tied for sixth. Dustin Johnson, who held the 54-hole lead, shot a disastrous final-round 77 that dropped him into a tie for 28th. After carding an even-par 36 on the front nine, Johnson went bogey-bogey-bogey-double bogey-double bogey beginning at the 11th hole, falling from 10 under to three under in just five holes.

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By Ryan Herrington
It didn’t really matter how Sunday shook out at the RBC Heritage. That Ian Poulter found himself atop the leaderboard entering the final round at Harbour Town was an impressive accomplishment. The 42-year-old Englishman, on a mission to qualify for last week’s Masters, was making his six straight PGA Tour start. Having accomplished his goal when he won at the Houston Open the week prior to Augusta, and after a T-44 in the year’s first major, no one would have held it against him if he chose to pass on playing in Hilton Head.

Still, Poulter showed up in South Carolina and with rounds of 69-64-67 appeared poised to build on his career renaissance. Until that is, he finally ran out of gas on Sunday.

After a birdie on the ninth hole to turn in one under for the day, Poulter bogeyed five of the next eight holes on Harbour Town’s inward nine, falling from off the lead to an eventual T-7 finish.

The night before Poulter joked about his long stretch of play, hinting that exhaustion frequently would have already set in by then. “I’m surprised I’m still awake, to be honest. Normally after three, I’m begging for a week off,” he joked on Saturday.

RELATED: Japan’s Satoshi Kodaira wins RBC Heritage in playoff

Poulter hadn’t made a bogey since the 10th hole of the first round until finally losing a shot on the second hole Sunday. It was a stretch of 47 holes without a bogey that was reminiscent of the 49-hole bogey-free streak he posted en route to his win at Houston, his first worldwide win since 2012 and just his third PGA Tour title.

Ryan Young/PGA Tour

This was the fourth time Poulter has held at least a share of a 54-hole lead on the PGA Tour but has failed to convert any into wins.

Poulter will be taking a well-earned break. During that time, he can proudly look back on his play this spring and where he stands competitively compared to just a year ago. Entering Hilton Head in 2017, Poulter was ranked No. 210. This year he was 31st and has the ability to pick and choose his starts again after playing the last 18 months anxious just to keep his playing status on the PGA Tour.

“It’s a position I really haven’t been in for the last couple of years, and it’s been difficult,” Poulter said on Saturday. “I’ve always kind of been in a good position for a long time. And it’s been nice to plan schedules, work out where you’re playing, what you’re doing, with the family going. So to have that kind of fresh in my mind, knowing I know where they’re going, knowing where I’m going to go, it kind of fills the tank up full of fuel again. I feel pretty good.”

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By Christopher Powers
As we saw at the Masters, the PGA Tour has a surplus of young, talented stars, many of whom have already notched wins this season. Yet none of them is currently playing better golf than 42-year-old Ian Poulter, who has rounds of 69, 64 and Saturday’s bogey-free, four-under 67 at Harbour Town to grab a one-stroke lead in the RBC Heritage at 13-under 200.

Despite an uncommon, exhausting six -week stretch of events, the Englishman has played some of the best golf of his career, having made the quarterfinals at the Match Play and winning the Houston Open to earn an invitation to the Masters, where he tied for 44th.

“Still standing, that’s a good thing,” said Poulter. “Six weeks is unusual for me to play that many weeks in a row, but I can muster up another day, see if we can pull it out of the bag again.”

Poulter’s round featured just four birdies and a bunch of pars, many of which he had to scramble for, a statistic he leads the field in through 54 holes.

“Clean card, that’s what’s key around this golf course,” he said. “I’m driving it well, I feel confident with my irons, distance control. I hit a couple of loose shots out there today, I was probably in between clubs and rushed when I had the perfect wind, pulled it left there on the par 3. It’s the right place to miss it if you’re going to miss it left, chipped it down there to hole it. The two par 3s were the key pars I think to my round today on the back nine.”

While everything is clicking, the most noticeable improvement in Poulter’s game has been with his putter, one that he famously used during the 2012 Ryder Cup at Medinah. Entering the week he still ranked 160th in strokes-gained/putting, but ranks eighth in that same statistic at Harbour Town and is tied for eighth in putts per green in regulation.

“I needed a bit of inspiration,” Poulter said of his old flat stick, adding, “I know I’ve been playing well for a long period of time, I’ve been very frustrated, I was frustrated in Tampa, played exceptional golf and the putter just wasn’t working. So I switched to a new one there and gave it to a kid on the back of the green.

“I went home and I was kind of in disarray at home, I’ve got an office full of old putters and picked it out of the bag and I’m looking at it going ‘come on,’ surely I can remember how good this thing was or how good I was with the putter because it’s the feeling.”

A few more good rolls with the putter on Sunday could give Poulter his second victory in the last three weeks, this strong run of form coming more than six years after his last worldwide victory. His 54-hole lead is the fourth of his career, and he’s only converted once, which came at the Houston Open.

One back at 12-under 201 are Luke List (67) and Si Woo Kim (68). List, who fell in a playoff to Justin Thomas at the Honda Classic, is still in search of his first career win, while Kim can grab a victory for a third consecutive year if he closes it out on Sunday.

C.T. Pan and Billy Horschel are at 11-under 202, and Kevin Kisner and Chesson Hadley are at 10-under 203.

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