By JUSTIN JARRETT
jjarrett@islandpacket.com
jjarrett@beaufortgazette.com
With its tree-lined fairways and tiny greens, not to mention the wind that blows off the Calibogue Sound and swirls through the seemingly endless rows of hulking oaks and towering pines, Harbour Town Golf Links tests more than a golfer's skill with a club in his hands.
So perhaps it is no coincidence that the list of champions here is so illustrious, including the names of legends such as Palmer, Nicklaus, Watson, Faldo, Norman and Love, nor is it by accident that the leaderboard after Thursday's first round of the Verizon Heritage is littered with players who have major championships to their credit.
Although the stakes are not as high, and despite the fact the course is not the sort where majors typically are played, it requires many of the same qualities needed to win the big ones.
"It's definitely demanding," said 2008 Masters champion Trevor Immelman, who sits in third after a 5-under-par 66. "There have always been great winners, always been great ball-strikers who win this tournament. It's one of those real solid golf courses that you know what you're going to get. You know there's no tricks to it, and you have to just suck it up and hit good shots all day."
Playing his first tournament without the "reigning Masters champion" tag in front of his name, Immelman torched Harbour Town through the middle of his round, making seven birdies in a span of 12 holes. But like it often does, Harbour Town humbled him on his last hole of the day, the par-4 ninth, where his tee shot slipped behind a tree, forcing him to hit a sweeping draw from 80 yards out, not exactly your run-of-the-mill approach shot.
He made bogey to slip to 5 under, which left him two shots behind leader Alex Cejka and a shot back of Lee Janzen, another player who showed his grit with a pair of U.S. Open wins in the 1990s.
Janzen hasn't won since his second U.S. Open triumph in 1998, and his exempt status on the PGA Tour is a bit tenuous -- he is low enough in the pecking order that he doesn't always get to play the events he wants -- but he showed Thursday he can still play, and with two majors to his name, his mental fortitude can't be questioned. As Immelman said of new Masters champ Angel Cabrera, "there's nobody in the history of the game who's been a slouch winning two majors."
Lurking just a couple more shots back are a trio of major winners -- Jose Maria Olazabal, Todd Hamilton and perennial Heritage contender Ernie Els -- and all three have morning tee times today, so don't be surprised if they make a move up the leaderboard.
"You have to hit it straight off the tee," Olazabal said. "There's a lot of tight fairways and very small greens. If you're not going to strike the ball well, you're not going to score."
And even if you're puring it, the line between birdie and busting the bark off an oak or a pine is often as fine as the Lowcountry's sandy soil.
Under perfect conditions, just about anyone on tour can win here, as Harbour Town's relatively short layout levels the field for the shorter hitters. But when the wind blows through the pines like it did Thursday, particularly in the afternoon, it takes a special kind of player to survive.
"You've got to be mentally strong," Immelman said, "because you've got to be able to stand up and keep making your swings."
In that way, it requires a certain level of confidence, the kind only the best possess.
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