A cannon. A match. Jack Nicklaus with an old golf stick in his hand. What could go wrong?

It was a cold and windy day on Hilton Head Island when the big bang happened.

Jack Nicklaus had the honors at the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island at the first opening ceremony of a PGA Tour event we now know as the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.

It was Thanksgiving week, 1969, and the few thousand island residents were thankful that the course Nicklaus designed with Pete Dye was finished just in the nick of time for Arnold Palmer's win to put Sea Pines on the map.

The instant heritage of a brand new golf tournament — that will open for the 50th time at 10 a.m. Monday — involved a cannon.

And a match.

And a guinea pig better known as the Golden Bear.

"Jack had climbed to the pinnacle of golfdom by 1969, but he had never synchronized his golf swing with a blast from a Revolutionary War-era cannon," wrote a man who was there, the late John Gettys Smith.

As golf writer and historian Charles Price, who helped Sea Pines founder Charles E. Fraser gin up all this heritage, explains the situation:

"It is the custom at this event for the defending champion to play himself into office as 'the Captain of the Gentlemen Golfers' by hitting a ball to the sound of cannon shot in front of the members and anyone else who cares to watch, in the manner of that same officer at the Royal and Ancient at St. Andrews."

The gentleman is handed a hickory-shafted club, just like 1786, and told to stand by the cannon.

Because there was no defending Heritage champion, the honor fell to Nicklaus since it was his golf course.

John Gettys Smith, who was then head of public relations for Sea Pines and chairman of that first Heritage tournament, wrote that the first opening parade began on the 18th green and marched to the practice range "at the still-being-completed cluibhouse."

He said "hammers punctuated the sound of bagpipes as the little columns of flagbearers, officials and committee people marched toward they were not sure what."

And then the script started falling apart.

Smith told the story in Islander magazine in 1980, and it is reprinted as follows in the new book by his wife and daughter, "Paradise: Memories of Hilton Head in the Early Days" by Nelle and Ora Elliott Smith:

"Jack was in the midst of his backswing when the cannon fired somewhat prematurely.

"Jack instantly proved himself an all-round athlete.

"He did something akin to a high jump-broad jump-sprint from the tee.

"When the smoke from the gunpowder cleared and the clustered spectators reopened their eyes and uncovered their ears, only the still-in-place golf ball and hastily discarded club remained where once the mighty golfer had so recently been.

"The little gallery loved it! Great laughter and a round of applause encouraged Jack to resume his stance. With his characteristic grin and twinkle, he hesitantly reassumed the ready position.

"Then came the roll of the drum from the pipers' band, the backswing and a perfectly coordinated blast and shot. The master had reassumed his image and the ball flew somewhere in the direction of the beach.

"A cheer went up, champagne corks popped and the official hostesses, wives of Heritage officials, passed out complimentary wine to the spectators."

Cheers to 50 years.

This story was originally published April 8, 2018 at 8:03 PM with the headline "A cannon. A match. Jack Nicklaus with an old golf stick in his hand. What could go wrong?."