RBC Heritage betting guide: 5 picks our gambling expert loves this week

elcome to our weekly PGA Tour gambling-tips column, featuring picks from GOLF.com’s expert prognosticator, Brady Kannon. A seasoned golf bettor and commentator, Kannon is a host and regular guest on SportsGrid, a syndicated audio network devoted to sports and sports betting, and is a golf betting analyst for CBS Sportsline. You can follow Brady on Twitter at @LasVegasGolfer, and you can read his picks below for the 2026 RBC Heritage, which gets underway Thursday in Hilton Head, S.C.

Going from Augusta National to Harbour Town is my favorite week-to-week transition on the PGA Tour. After experiencing a week of intense-pressure, major-championship golf nirvana, why not settle into the low country for a much-needed respite and play a little resort golf along the South Carolina coast? Just heavenly in my opinion.

It’s funny too, the stark contrast between the Masters and the RBC Heritage. From a behemoth of a golf course to a compact, little test of accuracy. From Bentgrass to Bermudagrass, from 50-yard wide fairways to those of half that width, and even down to the iconic prize of a green jacket to a tartan plaid one. There really are polar opposites just about everywhere you look, but equally wonderful too.

The RBC Heritage got a huge boost a few years ago when it was awarded Signature status on the PGA Tour. What we have now is a field of 82 golfers, featuring just about every top name in the game. Of those who are qualified, only Masters Champion Rory McIlroy and Hideki Matsuyama have chosen to skip this week.

Harbour Town Golf Links is a terrific Pete Dye design that I was lucky enough to play not long ago. As noted, the fairways are narrow and tree-lined, with many of the trees presenting overhanging limbs that affect sight lines and approach shots into some of the smallest greens on Tour. For these reasons, I looked at Strokes Gained: Approach this week, Driving Accuracy, Greens in Regulation Gained, and Scrambling — because greens will be missed quite often.

One aspect that Harbour Town shares with Augusta National is that course form and course history are very strong. Players that play well here, tend to do so repeatedly. And this ties into the correlated courses. Another Dye design we saw not too long ago, TPC Sawgrass (Players Championship) has had a number of crossover champions, including Scottie Scheffler, Webb Simpson, Matt Kuchar, and Davis Love III. Simpson and Love III have also each won the Wyndham Championship at Sedgefield Country Club. Waialae (Sony Open), Colonial (Charles Schwab Challenge), and Sea Island (RSM Classic) have produced many similar results over the years as has Royal Birkdale, most recently home to the Open Championship in 2021 and in 2017. In 2017, Jordan Spieth and Kuchar finished 1-2 at Birkdale, both former RBC Heritage champions.

It is also something to consider in the handicap this week and that is how the Masters affects the immediate follow-up performance. One thing is for sure, the last five RBC Heritage winners all played the Masters the week prior. Diving deeper, did these winners contend at Augusta, and were they subjected mentally to the grind and the pressure of being oh so close? Were they a factor at all, or did they miss the cut? It is all of the above but going back to year 2000, the majority of the winners at Harbour Town did play in the season’s first major championship and most of them either missed the cut or finished outside of the top 15.

Russell Henley (18-1)

Henley finished third at the Masters, so he is somewhat in the minority, but recent Harbour Town winners (Scheffler and Matt Fitzpatrick) were also very much in the mix the week prior, and in Scheffler’s case, he won both events. Henley, relatively quietly, has become one of the very best players in the world, and this type of golf course really has always been in his wheelhouse. He’s finished top 10 here three times. He’s won at Waialae and has finished top 10 at the Wyndham Championship in each of his last four visits. Over the last 24 rounds, Henley ranks sixth in this field for Fairways Gained, fourth in Scrambling, and fourth on the 400-450 yard Par 4s.

Patrick Cantlay (28-1)

It has been a minute since I’ve landed on the UCLA Bruin but he definitely showed some signs last week, and over the last decade, he is probably the very most successful player here at Harbour Town, finishing third four times, seventh once, and runner-up once in 2022. At the Masters, Cantlay ranked third in that field for SG: Around the Green, seventh on approach, and ninth for SG: Tee to Green. It looks like the timing could be right for Cantlay, who also finished 32nd at the Players Championship and was then seventh the next week at the Valspar Championship. His next start was last week at Augusta where he finished 12th, and now he goes to a course at which he fits so well.

Robert MacIntyre (36-1)

I’ve seen Bobby Mac readily available at 40-1 in other spots. I had a feeling we might be getting a better than usual number on the Scotsman, given how poorly he looked last week in missing the cut at the Masters. But 40-1 does feel a little high for a guy that just finished fourth at TPC Sawgrass, was runner-up at the Valspar, and was fourth to begin the season at Waialae. MacIntyre was also eighth at Royal Birkdale in 2021. Over the last 24 rounds, MacIntyre ranks ninth in this field on the 400-450 yard Par 4s, is seventh in Scrambling, and is No. 1 for SG: Putting (Bermudagrass).

Akshay Bhatia (60-1)

Bhatia also missed the cut last week at Augusta but prior to that had gone 3-6-16-1-13 in his five prior starts, with the 13th-place finish coming at TPC Sawgrass, where he finished third in 2024. He was 18th here at Harbour Town in 2024 and was 13th at the Sony Open in Hawaii. He currently ranks eighth on Tour in SG: Approach and ninth for SG: Putting.

Daniel Berger (90-1)

In the end, all five of our selections played last week at the Masters. One definitely contended, one flashed briefly, and three, including Berger, did not make it to the weekend. Similar to Henley, Berger’s game feels like a perfect fit for Harbour Town, where he has twice finished third and never missed a cut in six career trips to Hilton Head. Berger was sixth at Waialae to begin the season and then lost to Bhatia in a playoff at Bay Hill, which also features a very similar putting surface to what we will see this week. Berger has won at Colonial, finished runner-up at Sea Island, twice finished ninth at TPC Sawgrass, and was eighth at Royal Birkdale at the 2021 Open Championship. Over the last 24 rounds, Berger is third in this field for SG: Approach, 17th for Fairways Gained, 12th in Greens in Regulation Gained, and ranks ninth in Hole Proximity from 150-175 yards.