Webb Simpson wins an RBC Heritage unlike any other

Webb Simpson sets tournament record at Harbour Town.

The PGA Tour has been coming to Hilton Head Island off South Carolina’s Atlantic Coast for the RBC Heritage since 1969. Never in those prior 50 years had there been a week like this one.

With the wind calm and the course soft, scoring was plentiful at Harbour Town. The low scores made for a crowded and talented leaderboard. And the man who emerged from the crowd as the champion was Webb Simpson, a father of five who gets to celebrate Father’s Day in style.

Simpson, a native of neighboring North Carolina, earned his seventh PGA Tour title with a masterful display of putting and ball striking. He birdied five of his last seven holes on Sunday, his 72-hole score of 22-under breaking the tournament record by two shots.

Abraham Ancer, the Mexican native seeking to bring a title home to his native country for the first time since 1978, finished a shot behind at 21-under. Daniel Berger and Tyrrell Hatton were a further shot back at 20-under; Berger won last week at the Charles Schwab Challenge, while Hatton won the last event before the PGA Tour went on hiatus in March, the Arnold Palmer Invitational.

But for most of the round—which included a nearly three-hour-long weather delay—it was a toss-up as to who would don the famous tartan jacket at the end of the day. Simpson, Ancer, Berger, Hatton, as well as Joaquin Niemann, Brooks Koepka, Dylan Fritelli, Justin Thomas, and Ryan Palmer, were some of the golfers who held at least a share of the lead at some point.

A score of 16-under would’ve been enough to win 19 of the last 21 years at the RBC Heritage; this year, it didn’t even get you in the top-10. The previous tournament record for most scores of 63 or lower for an entire week was four; six players shot 63 in Saturday’s third round alone. The field was a combined 223-under on that day, nearly 50 strokes better than any other round in tournament history.

Simpson got to 20-under on the long par-5 15th, his towering 5-wood from 272 yards clearing the trees and ending up 41 feet from the cup. He had an easy two-putt birdie from there, then holed a 15-footer for birdie at 16 and an 18-foot birdie putt at the 17th to get two shots clear of the field. Ancer moved within one with a birdie on 17 but came up short on the picturesque 18th, with the iconic lighthouse in the distance as the sun set in the early evening at Harbour Town. Simpson won, and he had one man on his mind when the tournament finished.

A special Father’s Day for Simpson

His father, Sam, was the one who introduced him to the game. Sam Simpson died in November 2017 at the age of 74 after a battle with Parkinson’s, and ever since, his son, with five children of his own, has worn yellow—his dad’s favorite color—on Sundays. It’s the second career victory for Simpson on Father’s Day after he won the U.S. Open in 2012.

“Definitely really special,” he said afterward. “U.S. Open on Father’s Day, I’ll never forget calling my dad after on the way to the press conference. And when he picked up the phone he just was laughing. That’s kind of what he did when he was happy, he would just laugh. And so I’m going to miss that laugh today for sure. But I thought a lot about him. This morning I thought about him, and when I was on the golf course I thought about him.”

Simpson’s major triumph eight years ago helped move him up to fifth in the world rankings, a spot he’ll reach again after this win. But it was a long, hard road in between. Simpson started using the belly putter method in 2004 and utilized it for his entire professional career. When the USGA announced a ban on anchored putting in 2013, however, he had to change. It took several years for him to adjust. Through 2011-2014, Simpson ranked no worse than 53rd on tour in strokes gained: putting. He fell to 174th in 2015 and 177th in 2016. He went without a victory for more than four years.

In 2020, though, Simpson is back up to 26th in putting. He was eighth two years ago when he ended his long winless drought with a wire-to-wire victory at the Players Championship. Watching everyone go low on Sunday, he knew he had to rely on his new putting method to stay in the hunt.

“It’s both staying in your own lane, worrying about yourself, but also you got to know what’s going on. I think, had I not looked at the leaderboards I would’ve thought 20 (under) was enough,” he said.

“But I’m looking there on 12, I looked at the leaderboards, and then the next leaderboard…I was just amazed tons of guys were shooting low scores and making birdies. So that made me, not change a whole lot, but just attack a little bit more and make sure that all my putts were getting to the hole. I left a couple putts short on the front-nine, but I made sure I didn’t do that on the last seven holes.”

Simpson missed only one putt inside seven feet all week. In his five-under 65 on Friday, a round overshadowed by news of Nick Watney’s positive test for COVID-19, he made more than 186 feet worth of putts, a career-high for any round and the most at Harbour Town in the ShotLink era.

His hot putter won him the jacket. Now he gets to relax with Mercy, James, Willow, Wyndham, and Eden and enjoy a well-earned Father’s Day celebration.