Why Have 10 PGA Tour Winners Been Added To The RBC Heritage Field?

The RBC Heritage marks the fourth Signature Event of the 2026 PGA Tour season and 82 players are ready to compete for the title at the instantly-recognizable Harbour Town Golf Links.

Defending champion Justin Thomas and World No.1 Scottie Scheffler headline a stacked list of entrants in North Carolina, which also includes 10 players who might not have qualified otherwise.

To understand why this group of PGA Tour pros have been added to the field, we have to wind the clock back about six months or so.

With the 2025 FedEx Cup Fall well underway, it was announced The Sentry - formerly known as the Tournament of Champions and which ordinarily kicks off the historic US circuit's season - had been cancelled due to "ongoing draught conditions" on the Hawaiian island of Maui where Kapalua Resort is located.

The knock-on effect saw The Sony Open (regular event) become the first tournament of the 2026 season in January and the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in February took over responsibility as the maiden Signature Event.

Since then, two more Signature Events - the Genesis Invitational and Arnold Palmer Invitational - have taken place with the field mostly made up of the top 50 players from the 2025 FedExCup Points List through the Tour Championship as well as the Aon Swing 5, Aon Next 10 and a few leading players from the current FedEx Cup points list.

Much of the field at this week's RBC Heritage has been put together via the same method, but there's one key difference - and that's where the aforementioned group of 10 pros come in.

When the PGA Tour announced The Sentry (which is usually a Signature Event) would be cancelled, it also noted that anyone who had won a PGA Tour event in 2025 but was not in the FedEx Cup top-50 by the Tour Championship would be granted entry into the RBC Heritage instead.

Part of the PGA Tour's statement at the time read: "The Sentry field was to include the top 50 players from the previous year’s FedExCup standings, plus those players who won a PGA Tour event in 2025.

"While those who finished inside the top 50 in the FedExCup standings are exempt for every Signature Event in 2026, tournament winners outside the top 50 who would have played The Sentry will now have access to an additional Signature Event in 2026: the RBC Heritage in April."

Therefore, the following players will be hoping to make the most of their adjusted opportunity over the coming days: Michael Brennan, Steven Fisk, Garrick Higgo, Joe Highsmith, Min Woo Lee, William Mouw, Aldrich Potgieter, Adam Schenk, Sami Valimaki and Karl Vilips.

They will be joined by Wyndham Clark, Tony Finau, Billy Horschel and Marco Penge - each of whom have earned sponsor's exemptions.

RBC Heritage tee times have been announced for the first two days and defending champion Thomas has been paired with one of the betting favorites, Ludvig Aberg.

Meanwhile, Scheffler has been paired with Matt Fitzpatrick for rounds one and two with Tommy Fleetwood and Sam Burns plus Xander Schauffele alongside Russell Henley teeing off shortly before in the $20 million event.