Justin Thomas won the RBC Heritage on Sunday with his playoff victory over Andrew Novak.
Thomas had not won on the PGA Tour in almost three years, so it was a popular result at the Signature Event.
After The Masters last week, where Rory McIlroy finally earned the Green Jacket, it could easily have been an underwhelming tournament.
Yet, the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links delivered plenty more exciting golf, which fans thoroughly enjoyed.
Smylie Kaufman didn’t like one aspect of the RBC Heritage
Kaufman gave an almost entirely positive review of the RBC Heritage, highlighting Novak and Mackenzie Hughes’ performances.
He explained: “I just wanted to give you a final thought on this RBC Heritage. We talk a lot about Signature Events and whether they’re good or bad. This week, particularly, I thought it was a good one because Mackenzie Hughes, a sponsor invite, who’s 93rd in the FedEx Cup coming into the week, finished T3.
“The sponsor exemption thing is debatable, whether that’s the right way, should there be sponsor invites or not? That’s a totally debatable topic, but a guy like Andrew Novak, who is playing his way into these events, I love to see almost win the golf tournament.
“I don’t know if we’ve had an Aon Swing 5 guy win a Signature Event yet. I don’t think it’s happened yet. I’d be surprised if there’s been a top two. I just want to tee you up with that before we head to the next event. When you look at this leaderboard and see Novak and Mac up there.”
But Kaufman didn’t like one element of the Signature Event and said he would change it going forward.
“I still don’t like the no cut thing,” he added. “I wish there were no sponsor invites, 100 dudes, and you cut it to 50. That, to me, is the way to do it.”
There were 72 players in the field for the RBC Heritage, and all of them played four rounds, unlike most PGA Tour events.
Two players who benefited from no cut at the RBC Heritage
Arguably, the biggest beneficiary of no cut at the RBC Heritage was European Ryder Cup hopeful Matthieu Pavon.
The Frenchman was eight under over the weekend to climb up to 42nd in the leaderboard after a nightmare start to the tournament.
Tony Finau was another player thankful for no cut as he rose to 38th with back-to-back 68s on Saturday and Sunday.
However, Min Woo Lee (T61), Sahith Theegala (69th) and Max Homa (70th) didn’t make the most of the weekend as they all finished near the bottom.
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