‘Packed like sardines’: Loyal fans excited to be back at 2022 RBC Heritage after COVID-19
Some people celebrated Easter Sunday by sitting in church pews. Others sat in folding chairs watching the final plays of RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.
The tournament, which has been played on Hilton Head since 1969, attracted an estimated 120,000 spectators for its 54th installment after two years of limitations and restrictions because of the pandemic. Loyal fans were “packed like sardines” for a “big party” on the Heritage Lawn Saturday, according to Pennsylvania native Margot Platts.
Platts and her husband, Don, have been vacationing to Hilton Head since 1980. It was golf that initially attracted them to what is now their annual vacation spot, they said.
“We went on vacation and decided we were going to learn to play golf,” Margot Platts said. “We took a whole week’s worth of golf lessons at this country club up in Pennsylvania, and the guy said to us, ‘Well, if you want to play golf, the place to go on vacation is Hilton Head.’”
After five years of visiting in a row, they decided to buy property on the island.
‘We just like to stand out’
Eight-year-old Finley Houlihan was surprised by his parents with tickets to RBC Heritage for spring break. Finley, a third-grader from Virginia, has collected signatures from as many golfers as he can while on Hilton Head. His favorite, he said, was from Erik Van Rooyen.
“I asked politely,” Finley said. “Van Rooyen was nicest to everybody. He didn’t have his glove on him. When he went to practice because I asked for his glove ... he gave it to me.”
Troy Hensley is a professional golf caddie at Sage Valley Golf Club in Graniteville. He and his wife, Robin, have been coming to Hilton Head from Warrenville in Aiken County for the tournament in coordinated outfits since 2015.
“We just like to stand out,” Robin Hensley said. “He definitely likes to be flashy. I’m somewhat flashy.”
Their matching red tartan pants and his wife’s earrings, Troy Hensley explained, are all about “the tradition.” His best memory from the tournament was when Kevin Kisner, a four-time PGA Tour winner, walked by to sign autographs.
“I walked up and I just looked over at him, and I said ‘Sage caddie,’ and he came over and signed everything I wanted and then took off,” Troy Hensley said. “He didn’t sign anybody else’s. That was pretty crazy.”
Don Owens lives in Bluffton and has been attending the annual golf tournament since the early 1970s when he worked with the Junior Chamber, a civic organization which used to have a concessions stand by the 18th green. In those days, the JCs would rotate working the tournament and watching it. When he and his wife, Jenny, got married in the 1980s, he said, they would come to the tournament every year.
“It was a lot different back then too, not nearly as many people,” Owens said. “They didn’t bus people in. You could park down here. It was nice. We parked by the 17th, 18th hole.”
For them, the best part of the event, other than watching the players, is socializing, and they’re “always on the lookout for someone you know,” Owens said.
Heritage is practically the only time they are able to see friends because “life is going on,” Jenny Owens said.
After COVID-19 restrictions and having fewer people at the tournament, the two are excited to get back into the swing of things. They’ll continue coming back, she said, “as long as I can walk.”
“Or he pushes my wheelchair,” Jenny Ownes said. “Maybe I’ll get an electric one.”
This story was originally published April 17, 2022 at 1:32 PM.
