Harbour Town Golf Links, one of the most beloved golf courses on the PGA Tour, underwent renovations this year to help maintain its place in the modern game.
The Pete Dye design is one of the most unique challenges in the game, forcing players to prioritize positioning and accuracy over distance as they navigate the tree-lined fairways.
Some holes have been lengthened and bunkers moved in a series of changes made to the course, and there were fears among players that Harbour Town’s identity would be stripped away with the increased distance.
Scottie Scheffler, the 2024 RBC Heritage winner, said what surprised him about these changes after his first round this year.
Scottie Scheffler ‘surprised’ by changes to Harbour Town Golf Links
The consensus among players after the opening round of the tournament was that the changes to the course don’t really feel like changes at all.
In truth, this was a restoration, not a renovation, and the designers have done a phenomenal job of respecting the identity of Harbour Town.
After playing his opening round, world number one Scheffler said, “Yeah, I was pleased. When you play great golf courses, I think when you get a designer that comes in and gets a little overaggressive, I’m not a huge fan of that.
“I’ve talked a decent amount in the past, I’m not a huge fan of the restoration movement that we’re in in golf. When you look at a place like this, if you had one of the restoration guys come in, typically what they do is they kind of widen things, they take out some trees, they make the greens a little bit bigger.
“When we heard this golf course was going to get renovated, I think that was a fear of ours because it’s a special and unique place in the sense of you have to control your ball. You have to shape it both ways. You have to do different things with your golf ball, which when you look at modern golf course design, I think it’s a bit of a lost art in the way they do things.
“When I got here and was looking at the yardage book to see the changes they made to the course, I had to do a double-take; I’m like, did I get the right yardage book? This thing doesn’t even look any different.
“I think Davis has a great understanding of what makes this golf course amazing, and he’s obviously had some success here, so he wasn’t going to come in and do a bunch of changes.
But the things that he did, I definitely liked.
“But overall he didn’t really do a whole lot, which I think, when you have a gem like this, is a good thing.”
But while Scheffler is a fan of the course’s renovations, he wasn’t able to produce his very best stuff out there.
Scottie Scheffler’s big weakness at RBC Heritage
A slow start at Augusta National is all that prevented Scheffler from winning his third Green Jacket, as he hunted down Rory McIlroy from 12 shots back over the weekend to lose by just one stroke.
He looked back to his dominant self over the weekend, but Scheffler finished his first round at the RBC Heritage five shots back of the leading Ludvig Aberg.
Scheffler’s swing still does not look right, as his ball striking continues to plague his 2026 season. The four-time major winner lost nearly a stroke off the tee and was forced to hit a provisional on the first hole after sending his drive out of bounds.
His approach play wasn’t much better, as he gained just 0.05 strokes on approach. Scheffler was bailed out by his incredible play on and around the greens.
The concerning trend of Scheffler’s ball striking struggles has continued into round one, but if The Masters is anything to go by, he’ll be well in the mix come Sunday.
