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After the second round of most PGA Tour events, the big question is always the same: Who made the cut? The RBC Heritage 2026 flips that expectation. Set right after the intensity of The Masters, this Signature Event has a different format that quietly reshapes the entire weekend experience.

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If you’re expecting the usual cut-line drama at the RBC Heritage, think again.

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Does the RBC Heritage 2026 have a cut?

The 2026 RBC Heritage features no cut, a format designed with a limited field and a larger prize purse to guarantee the participation of the tour’s elite players for the entire weekend.

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Only the Genesis Invitational, the Arnold Palmer Invitational, and the Memorial Tournament have a cut after 36 holes. This means that all 82 professionals from the field, including the World No. 1 Scottie Scheffler, will head into the weekend play.

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The tournament, held from April 16-19 at Harbour Town Golf Links, is a standard 72-hole stroke play event in which the winner is the player with the lowest score, unless a playoff is required to break a tie.

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Playoff format at the RBC Heritage 2026

The 2026 RBC Heritage follows a sudden-death playoff format. Golfers who finish the four regulation rounds with the same score enter the playoff round. Here, golfers tied for the lead compete until one emerges as the winner by achieving the lowest score per hole.

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In 2025, Justin Thomas won the event with a dramatic playoff finish. He defeated Andrew Novak on the first extra hole with a 20-foot birdie putt. It was Thomas’s first win in over three years. The same thing happened in 2023, too. Matt Fitzpatrick and Jordan Spieth entered an intense playoff, which lasted for three holes. Finally, Fitzpatrick defeated Spieth with a birdie on the 18th hole.

The RBC Heritage 2026 field

The 2026 Masters winner, Rory McIlroy, is skipping this year’s RBC Heritage. He has done that many times. But even without him, the field is very competitive. With its status and a $20 million prize pool, the RBC Heritage 2026 has attracted many elite players.

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Justin Thomas will play the event as the defending champion. He won last year by defeating Novak. Apart from him, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, Cameron Young, and Ludvig Aberg will play in the event. All of them are coming off a great run at Augusta National. Although they missed the green jacket at the season’s first major, they will look to continue the momentum and win big at the 2026 RBC Heritage.

Besides Rory McIlroy, a few other notable names will be missing from the field. They are Justin Rose, Hideki Matsuyama, Adam Scott, and Jake Knapp.

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Written by

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Kailash Bhimji Vaviya

876 Articles

Kailash Vaviya is a Golf Journalist at EssentiallySports, covering both the PGA Tour and LIV Golf. His reporting spans major championship contention, player performance, and the ongoing tensions between the two circuits, from the financial pressures LIV players face to the tour politics shaping where careers go. He has followed golf closely since his college years, and that long-running familiarity informs how he covers the game, placing week-to-week results within the bigger structural stories around them. Before joining EssentiallySports, Kailash wrote for Comic Book Resources (CBR) and Forbes, where he developed a research-driven approach to sports and media reporting. He brings that same attention to accuracy and structure to his golf work, with particular depth on the business and political side of the professional game alongside the competitive storylines that define each tournament week.

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Edited by

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Abhimanyu Gupta

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