The Heritage: Steve Palmer's betting preview, lowdown & TV details

TV: Sky Sports Golf, 12.15pm Thursday

Tiger Woods is up to sixth in the world rankings after his Augusta heroics, but the man who is number one takes centre stage in the Heritage at the Harbour Town Links this week. Dustin Johnson is a short-priced favourite in his home state of South Carolina.

Johnson, who tied for second behind Woods on Sunday, became a brand ambassador for RBC last year, so he is obliged to tee up in the RBC-sponsored Heritage - he would almost certainly be taking the week off if he had no corporate commitments. Harbour Town is not ideal terrain for big Dustin and something similar to his lacklustre share of 16th place last year can be expected this week.

Xander Schauffele, alongside Johnson on the Augusta leaderboard after the Masters, has also made the journey south, while Francesco Molinari, surely drained from competing in the final group alongside Woods in the opening Major of the season, is a surprising entrant.

Palmer's top tip
Patrick Cantlay 22-1

Players who get into the thick of things on Masters Sunday traditionally struggle to make an impact at Harbour Town the following week, suffering with mental letdown, but there are reasons for believing that Patrick Cantlay is strong enough to buck the trend.

Cantlay briefly took the lead at Augusta with a brilliant eagle at the 15th hole before a defensive tee shot at the 16th resulted in bogey, another dropped shot followed at the 17th, and he found two bunkers at the 18th. It had been a short flirtation with the Green Jacket, but he gathered himself well to scramble a par at the last, finishing in the top ten to book an immediate ticket to the 2020 Masters.

Given how little time Cantlay spent in Masters contention, the event may not have taken much out of him. An opening pair of 73s left him well off the pace, before a magnificent third-round 64 hauled him to within seven shots of the lead. He made a run on Sunday, fell three shots shy, and left Georgia content with his best ever Major result.

Cocksure Cantlay was the world number one amateur for 55 weeks and always looked destined for superstardom. He carries enormous levels of self-belief and will have seen Sunday as merely a stepping stone to when he takes over from Woods as the main man. They share the same management company and mutual respect.

A second US Tour victory could come for Cantlay in South Carolina this week. Injuries have halted his career progress, but he won the Shriners Open in 2017 to get off the mark, turned 27 a month ago, and a hugely consistent 2019 campaign suggests future success is assured. In 11 outings this season, his form figures are 17-7-2-5-9-MC-15-6-MC-24-9, and he has gained strokes in all six of the main statistical categories.

There is an all-round class to Cantlay and he loves to demonstrate it at Pete Dye designed tracks. He has great affection for Dye's work and two starts in the Heritage have yielded third and seventh-place finishes. He has been beaten by a total of only five shots in this event and should be in the shake-up again on Sunday.

Next best
Kevin Kisner 33-1

Victory in the mega-bucks WGC-Match Play at the end of last month has given Kevin Kisner a sniff of the FedEx Cup and the typically carefree Carolinian may be more focused than normal in the Heritage. The short but straight hitter is the first to admit that there are only a few courses on the US Tour that suit him – and to keep his FedEx hopes alive he must make them count. Harbour Town would be near the top of his hit list.

Triumphs at Sea Island GC and Colonial CC have shown what Kisner can do when accuracy and sharp scrambling are the keys to success, and he lost a playoff for the 2015 Heritage as a US Tour maiden. He has tied for 11th and seventh at Harbour Town in the last two years, and a final-round 69 for 21st spot at Augusta has set him up well for another title challenge.

Other selections
Bryson DeChambeau 18-1
Byeong Hun An 45-1
Matthew Fitzpatrick 35-1
Aaron Baddeley 95-1

With only one tournament to attack this week, and six players ending up on the shortlist, there is no urge to shave it any further, particularly with four firms offering each-way terms of eight places, and Bryson DeChambeau gets a spot in the team.

DeChambeau shared the first-round lead in the Masters before dropping away, but a hole-in-one at the 16th on Sunday – his first ace anywhere – meant he left Augusta in high spirits and took positives from 29th place. Expect this prolific champion, fourth on his Heritage debut in 2016 and third last year, to threaten a sixth US Tour title.

Byeong Hun An, who has said he may start chewing gum on the course after watching his hero Woods do so at Augusta, is another dangerous runner. An, twice a US Tour playoff loser, is too good to remain a maiden for much longer and a solid start to 2019 could lead to the breakthrough. He was seventh in the Texas Open last time out and seventh in the Heritage last year, outscoring everyone bar the champion over the final three days.

Matthew Fitzpatrick adores the Harbour Town Links and closed with a 67 for 14th spot last year. A runner-up effort at Bay Hill last month suggested his partnership with new caddie Billy Foster was going to be successful and Fitzpatrick was superb after opening with a 78 at Augusta. An 11-under-par burst followed – matching Woods for the final three days – and the Sheffield lad must be in the staking plan.

Complete the line-up with 2006 Heritage champion Aaron Baddeley, who won the first of his four US Tour titles on this course. Six top-25 finishes have followed at Harbour Town, including second place in 2008, and Baddeley has shown enough this season – fourth in the Safeway, second in Puerto Rico, seventh in the Corales – to suggest he can be a Heritage factor again.

Others to note
Jason Kokrak
The US Tour form horse can handle Harbour Town, where he was 12th in 2014 and sixth in 2016, and this is another excellent chance to shed his maiden tag.

Charles Howell
The Augusta-born swinger loved his Masters return and signed off with a morale-boosting 69. He won the RSM Classic in November on a similar course.

Branden Grace
The South African made no impact at Augusta – he never does – but he was Heritage champion three years ago and should be more of a factor this week.

Tommy Fleetwood
The Heritage debutant, third at Bay Hill and fifth at Sawgrass, could take a shine to an assignment typically won by the best ball-strikers.

Scott Brown
The South Carolina-based 35-year-old was seventh in the Texas Open last time out and could prove dangerous at a massive price on a course where he was fifth in 2014.

Webb Simpson
The grinder from North Carolina notched a Masters PB on Sunday with fifth place and will expect to contend at a course where he lost a playoff to Graeme McDowell in 2013.

Staking plan
P Cantlay
2.5pts each-way 22-1 Betfair, Paddy Power
K Kisner
2pts each-way 33-1 Betfair
B DeChambeau
2pts each-way 18-1 Betfred
B H An
1pt each-way 45-1 Betfair, Paddy Power
M Fitzpatrick
1pt each-way 35-1 BoyleSports
A Baddeley
0.5pt each-way 95-1 Betfair, Paddy Power

The Heritage lowdown

Course Harbour Town Links, Hilton Head Island, South Carolina
Prize money $6.9m ($1.206m to the winner)
Length 7,099 yards
Par 71
The Field 132
Course records - 72 holes 264 Brian Gay (2009); 18 holes 61 David Frost (1994),Troy Merritt (2015)

Course winners taking part Davis Love (five times), Stewart Cink (twice), Aaron Baddeley, Boo Weekley (twice), Brian Gay, Jim Furyk (twice), Brandt Snedeker, Carl Pettersson, Graeme McDowell, Matt Kuchar, Branden Grace, Satoshi Kodaira

When to bet By midday Thursday

When to watch Live on Sky Sports Golf from 12.15pm Thursday

Time difference South Carolina is five hours behind the UK and Ireland

Last week - The Masters 1 T Woods (20-1), T2 D Johnson (12-1), X Schauffele (40-1), B Koepka (25-1), T5 J Day (30-1), W Simpson (100-1), T Finau (40-1), F Molinari (22-1), T9 J Rahm (18-1), P Cantlay (70-1), R Fowler (20-1)

Course overview The Harbour Town Links is a classic Pete Dye-designed track, which was created in 1969 and revised in 2000, and has a history of producing great champions. Arnold Palmer, Hale Irwin, Johnny Miller, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Nick Faldo, Bernhard Langer, Greg Norman, Payne Stewart and Nick Price have all triumphed on this tricky, seaside course.

Despite its lack of yardage, the Links is a difficult assignment, with 49 bunkers and 12 water hazards. There are only three par fives (the 502-yard second, the 540-yard fifth and the 588-yard 15th) and they are the easiest holes on the course. The 332-yard par-four ninth is another pick-up hole, but players will only score well with straight hitting to tight targets and good scrambling around the smallest greens on the circuit.

Trees and strategically placed bunkers demand precision hitting and the 472-yard 18th is one of the toughest finishing holes in the business. The fourth and eighth holes are historically the most difficult of all.

The story of last year Si-Woo Kim had the title at his mercy, but a badly misbehaving putter meant three bogeys in his final six holes and a playoff defeat to Satoshi Kodaira.

Weather forecast Clear with light to moderate breezes for three of the competition days, but Friday is set to be awful, with thunderstorms and strong winds due to batter the venue.

Type of player suited to the challenge Straight hitting from the tee to thin fairways and then on to the tiny greens is essential for success at Harbour Town. It is a shotmakers' paradise – many of the best ball-strikers who have ever lived have held silverware aloft there.

Key attribute Accuracy

Follow us on Twitter

Like us on Facebook