Are you really Willie at RBC Heritage?

Is that really Sir Willie?

The human mascot for the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing doesn’t look like himself this year, but he won’t say if he is himself.

This is the guy waltzing around the Harbour Town Golf Links in a long plaid jacket, black vest and a hat from an Amish thrift store.

Last year, we had our first new Willie. Boy, what a jolt to our swerving sensibilities here on Cirrhosis Shores, I mean Hilton Head Island. He suddenly was so much younger that we called him Wee Willie.

That Willie wouldn’t admit a thing, but he did painfully allow that he had shaved away some years.

Now this year, just as suddenly, Sir Willie needs a shave.

That was the first sign that he may not have been faithful to us — that maybe Willie is not really a wee Scottish character from 1778 but a wily, woolen drifter out for a quick fling in our imaginary world.

But how do you ask a man who thinks he’s Sir Willie Innes, and who won’t admit otherwise, whether he’s a “new Willie”?

“I’m from The Island Packet,” says I, in my best “60 Minutes” voice as I approached him on his rounds. I even hinted that I just might lunge for his frilly little collar if he didn’t come clean.

“You’re from the Packet?,” chirps Willie. “I love the Packet.”

You don’t have to be on the Wikileaks group text to realize he’s changing the subject.

Then he asks some ladies nearby if they would like one of his emery board nail files — in Scottish plaid.

This turns out to be a hot 1778 pickup line, because it’s doing rather well for Sir Willie. If he is really Willie.

I suppose it’s more old fashioned than his Puritan shoes to expect Willie to be true to us until death do us part. Lord knows, Sir Willie should not be a career track. Are you listening, children?

And, we must admit, a lot of the 21st-century people at the Heritage don’t look the same from year to year.

But I think we’re a little more honest about it.

When we can’t recognize each other, we simply resort to the official Heritage greeting that slides out as one word: “So glad to see ya!What can ah get ya to drink?”

This story was originally published April 13, 2017 at 12:45 PM with the headline "Are you really Willie at RBC Heritage?."