Island Packet Verizon Heritage 2008 Coverage | Harbour Town, Sea Pines Resort, Hilton Head Island, SC

James McMahon
jmcmahon@golfersguide.com

From the moment Arnold Palmer ended a 14-month victory drought at the first-ever Verizon Heritage, Hilton Head Island and its signature PGA Tour event have been intertwined. Now 40 years later, both Hilton Head and the Heritage are all grown up, resembling only slightly what they were four decades ago.

Sure, the event has had more names than Prince (or the artist formerly known as) but no matter the name, the logo or title sponsor, the Heritage was, is and hopefully forever will be the identity of this region.

Tournament director Steve Wilmot has been around for 22 of the previous 39 Heritages, and if you want stories, he’s got them. For the past 20 years, Arnie Burdick has helped hundreds of local, regional and national journalists tell the event’s stories as the tournament information director. Together, these two Heritage veterans have 42 years sweat equity and know all too well how deep the ties bind between the Heritage and southern Beaufort County.

“Obviously we’re a different kind of community than, say, a Jacksonville or a Charlotte, but yet we’ve been able to sustain this tournament through the years,” Wilmot said. “The community here has always supported us. I wouldn’t want to imagine Hilton Head without the Heritage.”

As the game of golf has grown in popularity and globalization, so too has the spotlight it provides the region and the state every April. Once shown for only a couple hours each Saturday and Sunday, the Heritage (like most other PGA Tour events) now basks in the glow of more than 12 hours of television coverage from Thursday to Sunday, enjoys even more coverage on XM Satellite Radio and benefits from the explosion of Internet coverage the PGA Tour enjoys.

“The PGA Tour is a global product,” Burdick said. “Hilton Head and even the entire state has benefited from that. There are so many different ways now for the average fan to keep up with the golf tournament.”

Nowhere has the increased exposure manifested itself more than in the purse golfers are playing for today on the PGA Tour. Indeed, if you want to talk change, look no further than the pocket variety players earn today versus years gone by. When Palmer claimed that 1969 Heritage title, the total purse was $100,000, and his personal take was a tidy $20,000, or roughly the same amount a golfer will earn for finishing somewhere in the mid-30s in this year’s event.

For the 16th straight year, the Heritage purse has increased, this time to a staggering $5.5 million, $990,000 of which will go to the winner. To be sure, this ain’t your daddy’s Heritage, and the PGA Tour’s demand that purses continue to rise has put increased pressure on Wilmot and his staff, especially considering the current economy.

“We’re already working on 2009 sponsorships,” Wilmot said of the work involved in securing the financial support an event like the Heritage requires.

As the purses they pursue grow and the attention they get while doing it expands, both Wilmot and Burdick agree there has been a change among golfers as well. Once the most popular stop following the round, the clubhouse grill has been replaced by the fitness trailer. Likewise, the candy bars and soft drinks waiting for players on tee boxes have been traded for bottled water and energy bars.

“It starts with Tiger, but today’s players are much more serious, they take better care of themselves,” Burdick said. “When I get (to the tournament) at 6 a.m. the trailer is full because guys are hitting the machines before they even hit balls.”

Those players, both past and present have provided Wilmot with some of his fondest Heritage memories during his two decades-plus on Hilton Head, and it doesn’t take long for names like Davis Love III and Payne Stewart to come up.

“I remember going out with Payne a couple of nights and what a great person he was,” Wilmot said. “My first tournament here was also Davis’ first tournament. He’s become a good friend of mine, and I feel like we’ve kind of grown up in this business together.

“He has, of course, made a little more money than I have.”

While the past four decades have brought undeniable change, there are certain constants that have helped maintain the Heritage as one of the most popular events on tour. Unlike other tournaments that have bounced around venues more than John Daly has marriages, the Heritage has always been hitched to the famed Harbour Town Golf Links. The Pete Dye-Jack Nicklaus collaboration has always been unique to the PGA Tour, and Wilmot acknowledges the Sea Pines layout has helped make the Heritage one of the most unique and respected tournaments on the slate.

“It’s not like a lot of golf courses out there on tour, it really is a true shot-maker’s course,” Wilmot said. “It’s great to hear players talk about how much they enjoy playing the golf course.”

Like its home in Sea Pines, the Heritage has long enjoyed its post-Masters spot on the PGA Tour schedule. While other events situated either the week before or the week after one of golf’s four majors, the Heritage has managed strong fields, especially among international players and has often enjoyed strong television ratings with interest in the tour sparked by play at Augusta the previous week.

“Roughly 25 percent of our field is made up of top international players,” Burdick said. “You can really see the talent that comes to this tournament and our fans are treated to some of the better golf on tour.”
In fact, it’s been a 40-year treat that continues to get tastier every year, and with any luck at all, will continue to remain on Hilton Head’s spring menu for another 40 years to come.