Eyes of golf world turn to Hilton Head Island

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. (WTOC) - It was a gorgeous day for practice rounds the RBC Heritage.

As professional golf made its annual traditional turn from Augusta to Hilton Head Island, many golf fans arriving at a sun-drenched Harbour Town Golf Links on Tuesday said things finally as starting to feel normal here.

But there is nothing normal about a sellout on Heritage Tuesday.

Fans streamed into and around Harbour Town all day, making up the largest Tuesday crown on memory at the Heritage - after two years of crowd restrictions - no spectator in 2020 an just 5,000 fans per day last year.

And local fans returning to Harbour Town were glad to see their hometown event rebounding, perhaps back beyond where it once was.

“Oh, it was very exciting walking in when I saw the crowd. And when they told me they had sold all the tickets every day I thought it was great. I think people are just excited to get back out, get into the tournament, get into the spirit of everything going on. It’s fantastic,” Bluffton resident Tom Cox said.

“It’s fabulous. After being cooped up in our homes, not being able to be out and about, or if we were, it was with masks. It’s wonderful to be out and to feel like things are back to normal. We have this beautiful weather on top of it, so what a great opportunity,” Hilton Head resident Trudy Ives said.

RBC has quite a few of the spots in Wednesday’s pro-am, meaning the title sponsor will be entertaining guests on the course at Harbour Town for the first time in three years, because they were not able to travel from Canada to Hilton Head since 2019.

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