Value Report: RBC Heritage Classic

What a week The Masters was! We’ve been waiting years for Augusta National to play to the firmness that it did, and the test it provided was spectacular. From a DFS perspective, when Scottie Scheffler is winning tournaments at the clip he is, the sub-$7.5K salary range is going to become increasingly important to have high-end finishes.

Looking back at the $10 Milly last week, Patrick Reed ended up being the only one who steamed ownership-wise into double digits. With a smaller field as well, I’m not surprised to see a handful of this group surpass 5%. The Value Crew ended up going 5/10 on made cuts for the second week in a row, but this one’s a bit more disappointing as the expected cut rate was a good bit higher than the Valero. The biggest disappointments by far of the group were Sergio Garcia and Austin Eckroat. Their incoming ball-striking form felt like a perfect recipe to take Augusta National by storm, but neither of the two could avoid the trouble looming and too many big numbers were on the card.

But what was present in this group was three top-20 finishes and a GPP-winning upside performance out of Chris Kirk. The normally steady-as-ever Kirk had one of the wildest scorecards I have seen in his career, combating a plethora of bogeys with an absolute flurry of birdies. Although he finished T16, his DraftKings performance was 10th for the week, falling behind only Nicolai Hojgaard in the $6K range. Shout-out to Levitan for his big week with Kirk rounding out his lineup!

Taylor Moore seemed like he was well on track for a top-end performance before the back nine Saturday, but he is one that really continues to impress me at Augusta National. Patrick Reed continued his major display, but a 12th-place finish will not be enough for him to earn exemptions into future majors, so he will have to battle his way on the Asian/DP World Tour to earn more starts. My last note is on Akshay Bhatia, who really projected well for us and his lack of ownership shows just how much a questionable tag can make an impact. An in-form lefty showing up at The Masters off a win would typically be a popular click, and although injury reports seem to always be muddy, I’m willing to take those risks more often than not if the field is discounting them.

Now we head to the lovely Hilton Head island for a signature event on the PGA Tour that brings us a 69-golfer field without a cut. That being the case, RBC Heritage is likely to bring in more ownership than a typical week from this range, and I really want to focus on a critical few that can separate us from the pack. From the looks of it and with good reason after great finishes at The Masters, both Adam Schenk and Lucas Glover should pull in a reasonable number of clicks in this range. And I wouldn’t be shocked in the least if Matthieu Pavon and Cameron Davis join those two after being featured on the front page of the leaderboard most of the week. Tom Kim represents an interesting conundrum in this range too, as his Sunday charge is fresh on the mind of many, making him the most tipped outright bet selection so far. Also being a beautiful course fit, I’d expect him to make his way into many more lineups than he will project compared to our optimals. I’m sticking with a 7-pack of golfers for the RBC Heritage that will hopefully slip through the cracks to give us the scoring upside that can take down this no-cut event!

Keegan Bradley, $7,300 – With what seems like the most name value in this range (and last week as well), Keegan has not been a popular click his last few times out in 2024. Since a playoff loss in Hawaii to kick off the year, he’s only racked up one other top-20 finish, which is well behind pace of the nine he had in both 2022 and 2023. But what has remained consistent is the ball striking, where he has not lost strokes to the field since last June. Coincidentally enough, that was the week prior to his win at the Travelers Championship and the course correlation between TPC River Highlands and Harbour Town runs strong in my eyes. This is another track that simply cannot be overpowered and instead focuses on positional golf, rewarding precision like Pete Dye intended. It’s no surprise that his best performances of the year have been at the Sony Open and Pebble Beach, which require a similar skill set, and after a very under-the-radar 22nd-place finish at The Masters, Keegan looks ripe to pop again.