I’ve been golfing for a number of years but began taking the sport more seriously last year. As a result I’ve gotten more interested in professional golf as well. I had the chance to attend my very first PGA tournament when our friends Dave and Donna Blamey invited us to accompany them to the Heritage Classic at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island. The Heritage began in 1969; the first winner was Arnold Palmer who took home a $20,000 grand prize. This year’s winner will receive over a million dollars. The field for this event is a bit smaller because it takes place after The Masters and some of the big guns like Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson skip this smaller tournament. But the Heritage boasts its share of luminaries including Sergio Garcia, Jim Furyk, John Daly, K.J. Choi, Stewart Sink, Davis Love, Mike Weir and Greenville natives Lucas Glover and Bill Haas.

Charles Fraser, the developer of Sea Pines Resort is considered the father of The Heritage Classic. It was Fraser’s idea to bring a professional golf tournament to his resort. Golf has a rich tradition in coastal Carolina. According to the U.S. Golf Association, the first club of golfers in the United States was formed in 1786 in Charleston. Fraser named his tournament The Heritage to reflect the historical basis of the game on the coast. He hired the game’s biggest star, Jack Nicklaus and architect Pete Dye to design Harbour Town Golf Links, which featured narrow fairways and small greens, very unusual at the time. The near immediate success of the tournament helped Fraser sell lots in Sea Pines and quickly established the Heritage as a major event on the PGA tour.

When you drive into Sea Pines you immediately know that this is an exclusive event. Only ticket holders or property owners/renters are allowed into the resort during the tournament. Let there be no mistake this is a white bread, upper crust crowd. Few people of color are seen among the spectators. People watching is a delight, you can see young girls in sun dresses, stiletto heels and jewelry standing beside people in golf attire and spikes. You can immediately identify the folks who are there to watch the golf and those who are there to see and be seen. Comfort is key for golf fans while comfort takes a back seat to style for the younger set. I loved seeing little kids in their golf togs, one little guy in plaid shorts and a collared shirt, had his sun glasses on backwards perched on the back of his ball cap just like the big guys.

The cool part about the Heritage is the small town atmosphere on the island, provides an opportunity to actually rub shoulders with the stars. While shopping at Publix after Friday’s round, our group ran smack into Jim Furyk in the dairy section. Just before going into the store we had a discussion in the car about the identity of Furyk’s caddy previous to his current sideman Fluff. Donna took her query directly to the man himself; Fruyk very graciously supplied the information. He said he was shopping for pizza supplies for his kids and was as warm and nice as he could be. I missed my chance to have a one-on-one with him but did stand next to him for a moment just to bask in the leader’s glory.

The Harbour Town course and for that matter the entire island is clipped and trimmed to perfection. Nary a blade of grass or seed pod is out of place. Walking past the huge yachts anchored in the harbor is like being an extra on a movie set. Friday was sunny and gorgeous with a high of 80 degrees. The weather in fact was perfect all weekend, sunny with a nice breeze that by Sunday turned into a fairly brisk wind at times. On the final day of the tournament we set up camp just outside Clubhouse 2 near the #15 green. The green at #15 was narrow and bordered on both sides by bunkers which proved challenging for many of the golfers in the field. Our timing was perfect and we got to our places before the first team got through so we managed to see nearly the entire field over a 5 hour period. The main partying place on Saturday and Sunday for the younger set was outside the clubhouse between #1 tee and #10 fairway. By Sunday afternoon it was difficult to navigate through all the inappropriately attired folks who were clearly there to party and were oblivious to the golfing competition.

Our man Jim Furyk maintained his lead through the final day and after a one hole playoff with Brian Davis ended up winning the tournament to our great pleasure. We will finish out our stay at Port Royal Plantation with several rounds of golf at some of the lovely courses around the island.