(Photo credit: Bill Streicher-Imagn Images)

The famed red and white lighthouse that overlooks Harbour Town Golf Links symbolizes the RBC Heritage and has become synonymous with a deep breath and a 'vacation' vibe after the Masters.Juxtaposed with that, though, is the fact that the Heritage is in its fourth year as a PGA Tour 'signature event' with a $20 million purse and no 36-hole cut. The post-Masters unwinding is reserved for an elite field of 82 that will tee off Thursday in Hilton Head Island, S.C.Of the top 10 players in the Official World Golf Ranking, eight are playing this week, excluding only Rory McIlroy after he went back-to-back at the Masters and Justin Rose, who withdrew after he came up short at Augusta once again.Some heavy hitters have won the past four tournaments. After Jordan Spieth won the 2022 event, the last iteration before the Heritage received its signature promotion, he lost a playoff to Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick in 2023. Scottie Scheffler captured the prize right after winning the Masters in 2024, and Justin Thomas beat Andrew Novak in a playoff last year.Thomas' wife and first child, Molly, made the trip with him from Augusta to South Carolina. He knows the balance between taking Harbour Town seriously and spending time with family.'Molly is almost a year and a half, but last year was our first year having her here and she was so young,' Thomas said. 'But it'll be different this year. She's running around. She's doing more. Hopefully we'll get some time to go to the beach, especially with how nice the weather is. I remember we actually, Sunday morning last year before the final round, we all went to the beach and let her play in the water, stuff like that.'Thomas tied for fifth the year before his victory at the Heritage and has shot in the 60s in 12 of his last 13 rounds at the course.The par-71, 7,213-yard Harbour Town track has undergone a restoration since last year, but Thomas described the updates as 'very, very subtle tweaks' that keep the course's character intact.'This golf course, I think, is pretty highly revered by everybody,' Max Homa added. 'It's such a funny change from last week. We heard a lot about the redos and things that changed -- I guess not redo, but renovations, and it's one of the rare (cases where) nothing has gotten worse, which is awesome.'Homa picked a fine week for his first top-10 of the season, closing the Masters with a 67 to tie for ninth. He has worked hard to put a disappointing 2025 season behind him.'Right around May of last year I knew that I had gotten through the really bad part, that it was probably going to take a minute to find a week where it started to move forward,' Homa said. 'But pretty much all last fall I played really nicely and have kind of kept it going this year. I haven't had high results, but the game has been quite good.'This could be the week for another victory for Jacob Bridgeman, who finished top-30 in the FedEx Cup playoffs last year as a relative unknown, then broke through in February to win the Genesis Invitational. No. 3 in the current FedEx Cup standings, Bridgeman is a South Carolina native and Clemson grad.'This one sort of feels like a home game to me, even though it's about four hours away from my house,' he said. 'I grew up playing junior golf at this course, playing the Junior Heritage, and then I got to play in my first Heritage last year. Coming back is amazing.'--Field Level Media