How the 2024 RBC Heritage is a familiar scene with a different ‘signature’

The countdown to the 2024 RBC Heritage dropped below 50 days last week, creating a sense of urgency for tournament officials to assure a smooth operation for the PGA Tour’s annual April visit to the Palmetto State.

That’s business as usual.

Bleachers are already overlooking on parts of the Harbour Town Golf Links. Markings to place the hospitality suites dot the area around some greens. Paint just off fairways provides direction for electrical and television cables.

The scene is familiar.

The wonderful Pete Dye-designed course is still a demanding challenge that requires precision over power for the game’s elite players. And the sponsors with names on the title, the Royal Bank of Canada and Boeing, remain on board.

Yet, the 56th edition of the Heritage (April 18-21) will be different.

With the combination of the COVID outbreak in 2020 and the turbulence created by the emergence of LIV golf to challenge the PGA Tour for supremacy in the pro game at the highest level, change became inevitable.

This year’s tournament wears a “signature” tag, which translates into a field of only 70 or so golfers playing in a no-cut event for shares of a $20 million purse.

“We’ll have the best competing against the best on a great golf course,” longtime tournament director Steve Wilmot said.

“The best” includes household names: Rory McIlroy, Scott Scheffler, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas, Ricky Fowler, Xander Schauffele, Patrick Cantlay, Victor Hovland and defending champion Matt Fitzpatrick, among others.

Those names on the tee sheet put the Heritage in the top tier of Tour events.

Yet, getting to this point has been a logistical nightmare for tournament officials. Remember, the pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 Heritage in March. Then, tournament emerged with a June date — with no spectators allowed.

The 2021 Heritage unfolded with limited fans, and normalcy seemed to be the theme in 2022.

To borrow announcer Lee Corso’s signature line: “Not so fast!”

Along came LIV, and the PGA Tour went into scramble mode.

By October 2022, officials announced the 2023 Heritage would be a “designated” event, which meant the stars would be playing for $20 million, but the field would be stretched into the 150-player range.

“We didn’t have time to change much,” Wilmot recalled. “In fact, we had to add 18 players, which meant more housing and courtesy cars and parking places — all the other things for the players, their families and caddies.”

Now, the field will be 70 or so, and the no-cut provision assures the stars will be around to play the weekend.

“We will have 50 to 60 fewer players, families, caddies and entourages, and that will make everything more manageable,” Wilmot said.

In turn, the fewer players will enhance the experience for fans, he said, “and that’s something we’re always striving to improve.”

Still, there are challenges.

The refined format limits sponsors’ exemptions to four, and some players who are RBC “ambassadors” have not qualified. Plus, Wilmot said, “There are players who have been great supporters of the tournament through the years, guys like Webb Simpson and Kevin Kisner, are not in the field yet.”

No matter which players receive the exemptions, “we’ll have the best field ever,” Wilmot said, “and we’ll provide a great experience for the fans.”

One of the tournament’s most compelling points is its list of winners, starting with Arnold Palmer in 1969. Jack Nicklaus would win and so would Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Davis Love and Payne Stewart to provide a who’s who of champions.

Jordan Spieth joined that select company in 2022 and Matt Fitzpatrick earned the champion’s plaid coat a year ago.

Big name winners. That’s not different; that’s business as usual at the Heritage.

Chip shots. Save the date: The South Carolina Golf Ball, a fund-raiser for the South Carolina Junior Golf Association Foundation, coincides with the opening round of the Masters, April 11, and is set for 6:30-9:30 p.m. at USC’s Pastides Alumni Center. ... Casey Kosney (Spartanburg) led the boys’ division and Ella Kate Barnett (Galivants Ferry) won the girls’ title in the SCJGA’s Morgan Lucas Championship at Greenville CC.