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

They were everywhere -- on lapels, sleeves, hats and shirts.

We learned from Ernie Els, the top-ranked player in the field, that the puzzle piece stands for autism awareness, and the desperate need to fit more pieces of the autism puzzle together.

Els used our stage to tell the world about his autistic son, Ben. He stepped to our microphones, and was filmed with his family on our empty beaches, pleading for understanding.

But as I roamed the Harbour Town Golf Links all week, it was obvious that the Heritage is a box full of puzzle pieces, each contributing in its own way to our community's fabric.

I heard a blind child sing, and tell us that everyone has a gift. Brooke Pernice said her gift is singing, and she urged everyone within her booming voice to find their own gift and act on it.

I sat with Val Skinner, a former LPGA star, on the Harbour Town Clubhouse steps with two island women who shared their passion for fighting breast cancer. Libby Cherrington and Mildred Wood told how their families have suffered from the disease, and how they are supporting a fundraising golf tournament this September that will bring Nancy Lopez and Beth Daniel to Haig Point on Daufuskie Island.

They used the Heritage as the time to promote a push by the Val Skinner Foundation and LPGA Pros in the Fight to Eradicate Breast Cancer (LIFE) to push educational and awareness programs to new highs. They even want to get more genetic sciences into the schools.

I met a doctor from Greenwood playing in his 16th Heritage pro-am Wednesday who is a senior clinical geneticist at the Greenwood Genetic Center. Who knew South Carolina even had such a thing? I discovered that the Jim Self family of Greenwood -- the same family that has influenced Hilton Head Island from its first golf course to land development to donating land for the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina -- is a key reason the center exists, helping find answers to vexing mental disorders.

I met two "Wounded Warriors" who walked the course Tuesday with the Caddy for a Cure program. Andy Butterworth and Bryan Belcher use the money and awareness they raise with the help of golf pros like Sean O'Hair, Frank Lickliter II, Justin Leonard and Boo Weekley to help wounded veterans navigate the complex system to get all the help they deserve.

I saw Jeannette Cram -- "The Cookie Lady" -- selling homemade cookies to help her volunteer Treat The Troops organization get 500 dozen cookies a month mailed to troops overseas.

She was invited to set up outside the 19th Hole concession stand operated by the Sunset Rotary Club, which uses most of its proceeds to fight Alzheimer's. Many of the people steaming past her booth chipped in $15 to "sponsor" boxes of cookies. Many donors also wrote letters to go with the cookies. And Treat the Troops got lots of coverage, with interviews by Sports Illustrated and www.pgatour.com.

On Friday, they ran out of cookies. Cram and her helpers, called "Crumbs," were up till 3 a.m. Saturday baking fresh cookies.

I saw Boo Weekley sign a golf cart to benefit the American Heart Association in one of his first acts as 2008 Heritage champion.

I watched D.J. Gregory of Savannah, who struggles mightily to walk because he was born with cerebral palsy, make it around all 72 holes. It's part of his incredible quest to walk every hole of the entire PGA Tour this year to prove that the human spirit can triumph over impossible obstacles.

The blue pins shaped like puzzle pieces made a powerful image. But they're really part of a bigger puzzle. They show how the crazy game of golf is used in countless ways that don't show up on the leaderboard.