RBC Heritage’s Russell Henley and his link to the healing hands of Hilton Head
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The RBC Heritage on Hilton Head
From the PGA Tour event’s history on Hilton Head Island to how to get tickets now, here’s everything you need to know about this week’s event.
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Russell Henley of Georgia has an indelible link to Hilton Head Island much more important than the gamblers’ prediction that he is the safest bet to win this weekend’s RBC Heritage presented by Boeing.
Andy Molitor wrote Tuesday in Bleacher Nation that Henley’s ability with approach shots perfectly matches a common bond among those who have won the Heritage in its first 57 editions at the Harbour Town Golf Links in Sea Pines.
“A player who led Augusta in approach play coming into a course where approach is the single biggest differentiator is an obvious target,” Molitor wrote about Henley’s T-3 performance at the Masters last week.
But that’s not Henley only tie to the Lowcountry.
He and Teil Duncan Henley were married in Charleston. He proposed to her on a bridge in Mount Pleasant, and they lived in the Holy City until moving to her hometown of Columbus, Georgia.
He’s a world-class golfer (No. 6 in the world coming into the Heritage) and she’s a world-class artist. You can become one of her 139,000 followers on Instagram (@teilart; teilart.com) or check out an article in the current issue of Garden & Gun magazine to see her talents.
A number of Teil’s bright, colorful paintings seem inspired by our beaches. You can see those images and read about her journey in art and in life in her coffee table book, “The Color Teil.”
Henley also endeared himself to the Lowcountry as the keynote speaker in the 30th Christian Heritage Breakfast Tuesday morning, sponsored by the SouthCoastal Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
He told about Tiel’s influence on his life, and his faith. And some of the things he and another speaker told the large crowd at the Sonesta Resort work well for both golf and faith. And life.
Hilton Head Island High School sophomore and reigning state Class 4-A individual girls’ golf champion Harper Heden said faith involves a lot more than mere knowledge. Kind of like golf.
“You can know everything about golf and not play well,” she said.
Peace in the Masters
Henley said he had perfect peace as a contender on the back nine at Augusta National on Sunday afternoon because he knew he would be “totally OK if this doesn’t work out.”
He has learned that even the greatest accomplishment in the lifelong dream of golfing success “can’t ultimately fill me up.”
He has learned to enjoy it, be thankful for it and “focus your mind on the positives.”
He said, “If you’re anxious, be grateful.” And he said guard what you allow yourself to think about.
“Fill your mind with the right stuff,” he said. “Focus on what is true. Focus on what is commendable.”
You do that in life by looking out for others, not yourself. For Russell and Teil Henley, that comes by accommodating each other in their careers and focusing on their three young children.
“Look for opportunities to love others,” Henley said. “Focus on others. It’s the hardest thing to do, but the best thing to do.”
He saw that in his father — and that is his truest link to the Lowcountry.
The Hilton Head connection
Dr. Chapin Henley was an obstetrician and an institution in Macon, where he delivered more than 5,000 babies.
But it was after he retired that his most lasting influence began.
That started on Hilton Head, where his son is now vying for a piece of the staggering $20 million Heritage purse. On the island, there is a world of human need far outside the PGA Tour ropes.
Bear in mind that the tournament itself, through the nonprofit Heritage Classic Foundation that stages it each year, has since 1987 distributed $62 million to charities and scholarships.
And last year, the PGA Tour named Hilton Head’s Deep Well Project its national Charity of the Year. The organization was awarded a $30,000 grant.
The award focused on Deep Well’s Livable Housing program, in which more than 40 volunteers repaired 135 houses last year to keep people in their homes.
Also cited was its Emergency Rent/Mortgage program that helps islanders after an unexpected loss of income or an unexpected expense, leaving them at risk of homelessness.
“In the first five months of 2025, Deep Well received and vetted 280 Rent/Mortgage assistance applications, and funded 68% of those requests at a cost of just under $220,000,” Deep Well reports. “By stabilizing these neighbors experiencing an emergency situation — about 670 people — we’ve kept families safe, stable and working.”
And it was that side of the island — not the glitzy golf — that brought Russell Henley’s father to Hilton Head, and changed his world.
Dr. Henley heard about our Dr. Jack McConnell and the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic he and an army of driven volunteers and retired health care workers established in this posh community in 1993 to see that everyone who lives or works here can have high-quality health care, regardless of ability to pay.
And the late Dr. Henley, like the late Dr. McConnell, was a driven man with the passion to move mountains. The Macon Volunteer Clinic he founded in 2003 has grown and expanded; its website says that in 2024 it had 8,283 total patient encounters and provided $800,000 worth of prescriptions to those in need.
So it is here that the father of world’s sixth greatest golfer saw an approach to life that is so much more important than the approach to a green from 190 yards into a fickle wind.
“Our vision,” VIM preaches, “is to have eyes to see those who are rendered invisible and excluded, open arms and hearts to reach out and include them, healing hands to touch their live with love, and in the process, heal ourselves.”
David Lauderdale may be reached at lauderdalecolumn@gmail.com.
