Rickie Fowler pulls off unique feat at RBC Heritage as rival completely misses ball in chaotic event

This week’s RBC Heritage is one of the most unique events of the golfing season.

The Signature Event at Harbour Town Golf Links challenges players in a different way to almost every other week on tour.

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The Hilton Head course has undergone a six-month renovation ahead of the 2026 tournament and is providing a stern test for the best in the world yet again.

Known for its extremely tight fairways, trees blocking approach shots and tiny greens, we’ve already seen a stream of highlights from the first day’s play.

Rickie Fowler produced one such moment in his opening round of 65 which leaves him in a tie of fourth early on.

He found himself right up against one of Harbour Town’s many trees after his drive on the par-5 15th hole.

After weighing up his options, the six-time PGA Tour winner decided the best course of action was to completely change his swing.

He turned to a left-handed stance, turned his club back-to-front and hit his shot out of the sandy area back-to-front.

He managed to move his ball nearly 100 yards up the fairway and saved his par after a brilliant approach shot.

Other players weren’t so lucky, just ask Chris Gotterup.

Gotterup shot an opening 70 to find himself down in T44 and much of his troubles came at the difficult 15th too.

Like Fowler, Gotterup also pushed his drive left and found his ball nestled among the roots of a tree.

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As he tried to clip his ball forward, he completely missed it, only hitting fresh air.

He then had to punch it out sideways and his tribulations all added up to a double bogey seven.

Gotterup saw the funny side, posting on social media ‘hopefully someone has video of my whiff on hole 15 today’ before adding the ‘Homer Simpson Bush’ GIF when the PGA Tour clipped up his mistake.

Back at the top of the leaderboard, Fowler is level with 2023 RBC Heritage champion Matt Fitzpatrick and trailing Swedish star Ludvig Aberg by two shots after the first day.

“Always excited to come to this place,” said Fowler. 

“Going back, having my first start here a long time ago, it’s a fun golf course to play.

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“It’s always a special week, but also want to be in good form because I feel like I can play this golf course well. Nice to get off to a good start today.”

Meanwhile, world number one Scottie Scheffler carded a 68 despite sending his opening tee shot out of bounds.

“It was looking like it was going to hit those trees and I guess it flew right through them and then hit a path and went out-of-bounds,” Scheffler said.

“Thumbs up for the start. It was a good bogey.”

He added: “I feel like I did some good stuff out there. 

“Conditions were tough late in the day, I did a lot of good things. Would have liked to have had a better start, but outside of that, I felt like I executed pretty well.”

talkSPORT 2 has live coverage of The RBC Heritage at Harbour Town Golf Links in South Carolina throughout the weekend.