By JAMES McMAHON
jmcmahon@golfersguide.com
The Verizon Heritage might not hold a lofty spot on the PGA Tour hierarchy of tournaments, but its list of past champions that have slipped on a Tartan Jacket amid a serenade of boat horns along Calibogue Sound is a veritable who’s who of professional golf worthy of any signature event.
The roll call of Heritage champions is one that any PGA Tour event, or major golf tournament for that matter, would be proud to call its own. Honestly, consider the list — Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Davis Love III, Payne Stewart, Nick Faldo and Hal Irwin.
In 1969, the Heritage reignited the career of the legendary Palmer, who claimed the inaugural event, and in the four decades since has been blessed not only with stellar fields, but with champions that have honored the game, and more importantly, played a key role in making the tournament such a special stop on the PGA Tour.
“It’s unbelievable,” said tournament director Steve Wilmot. “The best players win at Harbour Town. It’s a shot-makers golf course and it’s not about being long but being accurate. That is a big reason why so many great players play so well here.”
That same reasoning would also explain why the same great players have played so well so many times at Harbour Town. The list of golfers with multiple Heritage victories would make some tournament directors blush, and just the mention of it is enough to make Wilmot smile.
By a mile, Love is the most accomplished on Pete Dye’s Sea Pines design, having won five times in a span of 21 years, but he has some impressive company. Two-time U.S. Open champion Hale Irwin owns three Tartan Jackets. Major champions Johnny Miller, Tom Watson, Fuzzy Zoeller, Payne Stewart and Hubert Green and Ryder Cup veteran Stewart Cink all have won two Heritage titles. Last year, Boo Weekley joined that impressive list of multiple winners, winning his second consecutive Tartan Jacket and joining Love and Stewart as the event’s only repeat defenders.
“Some players just really feel at home here on Hilton Head,” Wilmot said. “It’s played at a good time of year after The Masters where players can just come here, relax and play golf.”
While the galleries of Harbour Town have belonged to Love the past two decades or so, the engaging and refreshing Weekley has certainly crafted a significant following of his own. A relative unknown when he won the first of his back to back titles in 2007, outlasting Ernie Els in a memorable Monday finish, Weekley’s connection with Hilton Head golf fans has elevated him to near folk hero status. While Boo lacks the pedigree and hardware of some of the Heritage’s best known champions, no golfer this side of Love has been more cheered, or “Booed” if you will, in such a short period of time.
“Maybe it’s the way I play and the way I interact with them inside and outside of the ropes, but I really feel a connection with the galleries here,” Weekley said. “I don’t know, I’m from the South and this is the south, maybe that’s it.”
More likely it’s that people connect with Weekley because they believe him to be the genuine article — a caring family man who enjoys fishing for bass with his son as much as he does reeling in birdies with his fellow professionals. He’s as honest as the day is long, even though that sometimes gets him in trouble. And perhaps most refreshing is the fact that Weekley honestly has fun playing the game.
Judging by his Happy Gilmore impression during a singles match victory over Oliver Wilson at the Ryder Cup last year, Boo has little interest in playing the prepackaged, politically-correct role of professional golfer. Judging by his popularity, golf fans have even less interest in seeing him do it.
It’s these traits and more that led Forbes.com to recently wonder aloud whether Weekley was the one professional golfer that could save the PGA Tour amid an economic firestorm that threatens its base for the first time since the onset of the Tiger Woods era in the 1990s. With the squeeze on sponsors to find the money to support tournaments such as the Heritage and the pressure on golf fans to find the money to attend them, golfers now more than ever must connect with the folks outside the ropes as much as they entertain them inside the ropes.
“It’s a blessing to be able to play this game regardless what the money is,” Weekley said. “It’s about playing the game and enjoying it.”
Putting his time where his mouth is, Weekley has been a true ambassador for the Heritage as a two-time champion. Following his 2007 victory, the affable pro returned the following December to participate in the tournament’s Sponsors Day. This past March, Weekley attended Media Day at Harbour Town, just two days removed from competing in the World Match Play Championship across the country in Arizona.
“He really is a breath of fresh air,” Wilmot said. “He’s just a really down to earth guy who loves what he is doing and it shows on the golf course. Our galleries and our sponsors seem to connect with that.”
No longer a Hilton Head secret after his terrific Ryder Cup performance, Weekley returns to Harbour Town this week looking to do something that no other professional golfer has done before — claim a third consecutive Heritage title. Another stellar field stands in Weekley’s history-making way, but behind him will stand an entire gallery that is simply itching to get its “Boo” on.
“It would be a real honor to win three in a row, but I know the other players aren’t just going to lie down and let me do it,” Weekley said.
“There’s no doubt I’m going to have to play well to do it.”
If he does pull off the three-peat, there will be no denying Weekley’s lofty status in Heritage history, and considering those that already occupy space there, that’s really saying something.