Daniel Berger, You Have Our Attention at the RBC Heritage

DB Strait Vibin’ has slowly but surely worked his way back into the PGA TOUR’s elite. Sure, he’s yet to win since returning from an injury that kept him sidelined for 18 months, but he keeps putting his name on the first page of leaderboards.

Across 10 starts so far this season, Berger has missed two cuts but hasn’t finished worse than T-30 in the other eight. Pretty damn good. He came close to winning the WM Phoenix Open back in February—he finished in a tie for second—and is fresh off a T-21 performance at Augusta National. Last week’s Masters was just his second major championship start since missing the cut at the 2022 U.S. Open—the same week he disappeared from golf until the 2024 American Express.

If he wants to get back to his winning ways and enter the conversation to don red, white, and blue in September at Bethpage Black, this week feels like a great spot to do it.

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Berger hasn’t played in the RBC Heritage since 2022, but Harbour Town is a course that agrees with his eye. He’s five-for-five making it to the weekend and has finished T-21 or better in his last three trips: T-3 (2020), T-13 (2021), and T-21 (2022).

Pete Dye’s classic layout emphasizes playing from the fairway and finding those small greens in regulation. Despite not being the longest off the tee—Berger ranks 81st in driving distance this season (301.5)—he lives in the fairway. He’s 10th on TOUR in driving accuracy at 67.86%. Plus, he’s 21st in distance from the fairway, meaning when he misses, he misses small.

That’ll play around this place.

But thanks to the size of these putting surfaces, it's inevitable that he’ll miss some greens. Luckily, Berger’s short game is polished. He’s ranked 21st in Strokes Gained: Around the Green and 28th in scrambling. That's sure to take a little pressure off the iron game.

The one factor I hold over everything at this event is how a player performs on other Pete Dye golf courses. Berger passes that test, too.

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He has three straight top-20 finishes at THE PLAYERS and has finished inside the top 30 in three of his last four trips to The American Express. Certain players thrive on Dye’s layouts, and Berger fits that bill.

The 32-year-old is already back up to No. 40 in the Official World Golf Ranking and sits in the 19th spot in the United States Ryder Cup Rankings. If he were to win Sunday, Keegan Bradley would have to take notice.

Berger will have to fend off most of the best players in the world—Rory McIlroy isn’t in the field for obvious reasons—but DB's game is up for the challenge.

I’m excited to see if Berger can get back into the winner’s circle come Sunday afternoon.