When the Professional Golfers Association makes its annual stop on Hilton Head Island April 9 through 15 this year, it generally should find that only the name of the tournament has changed.
Now known as The WorldCom Classic -- The Heritage of Golf, the tourney will continue to feature the same challenging Pete Dye course at the Harbour Town Golf Links, the same coveted tartan jacket that goes to the champion and the same outstanding field of professional golfers. That field will include five former winners who have announced their intentions to compete in 2001 against defending champion Stewart Cink.
Formerly known as the MCI Classic -- The Heritage of Golf, the tournament will sport its new name this year to reflect the corporate merger between WorldCom and MCI.
Veteran fans of the tournament are well aware of the change -- all of the signage on the course was changed to reflect WorldCom's sponsorship after completion of last year's second round. Half of the name does remain.
"Times are changing with mergers, and from the tournament side we kept 'The Heritage of Golf' in there," said Steve Wilmot, tournament director. "MCI and now WorldCom have supported the tournament for years, and it was only a matter of time before it was renamed to reflect the name of our title sponsor."
Golfers will find the course to be in a new quality after a multi-million dollar restoration by Dye, whose original design was in conjunction with Jack Nicklaus. However, it remains a Scottish-like links layout -- tight, favoring accuracy over power, with postage-stamp greens that leave little room for error. To be successful, a player must use every club in his bag, which is a true test of a champion.
Harbour Town's set of par-3s consistently has ranked among the finest in the world, and its par-4 18th hole is one of the most feared in golf.
Most recently slipping on the tartan jacket that goes to the WorldCom winner was Cink, a former Georgia Tech All-American who was making his Harbour Town debut. He fired a 6-under-par 65 on the final day of the 2000 Classic to come from four shots back at the start of his round. He would win the 32nd Heritage by two shots with an overall score of 14-under par, 270.
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Tiger Woods' attendance at the 1999 tournament produced the first sellout in the Heritage's 32-year history.
Photo by Scott Bryant/Savannah Morning News
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Cink sank birdies on three of the last four holes to match the tournament record for the lowest final round by a winner.
Five former winners at Harbour Town -- Davis Love III, Loren Roberts, Glen Day, Bob Tway and David Edwards -- already had announced their intentions to challenge Cink at the 33rd annual Classic, as have such star golfers as Ernie Els, Mark Calcavecchia and Rocco Mediate.
Those champions and the rest of the Classic field will seek pieces of a $3.5 million purse, up $500,000 from last year, with $630,000 going to the winner.
Hilton Head and the surrounding area benefit mightily from the annual PGA tour stop -- last year, the Heritage Classic Foundation broke its own philanthropic record by donating $850,691 to area and state charities. The former record for giving came a year earlier, at $742,327. The foundation has given away nearly $7 million since 1987, when MCI (now WorldCom) became affiliated with the event as title sponsor.
The island's Coastal Discovery Museum, seeking to rebuild a home on the historic Honey Horn Plantation, received $50,000, the largest of 46 checks totaling $492,000 that were presented by the foundation this past December at its annual charity dinner.
Awards of $25,000 each were given to the Boys & Girls Club of Hilton Head, the MUSC College of Nursing in Charleston, the NAACP Housing Initiative, the Technical College of the Low Country and the University of South Carolina toward the building of a new campus in the Lowcountry.
In addition to the donations made in December, another $112,944 went to the charities that manned the tournament's concession booths, $106,500 was distributed to Beaufort County residents for college scholarships, and $139,247 was handed out during the year to a variety of area groups to assist them in their own fund-raising projects. Also, the PGA Tour's World Golf Village was granted a stipend for ongoing improvements.
As of late February, a limited number of badges for the 2001 WorldCom classic were on sale at three Island locations: Tournament Headquarters in Sea Pines Center as well as the Hilton Head Island Chamber of Commerce's main office and the Hilton Head Island's Chamber of Commerce Welcome Center at the north end of the Island.
Grounds badges ($110) are good for admission to the course for the entire week, while clubhouse badges ($150) entitle the holder entrance to the Heritage Pavilion as well as the clubhouse. Practice round badges ($35), good for Monday through Wednesday, permit fans to view all pro practice rounds and two pro-am tournaments as well as the PGA Tour's Celebrity Skins Challenge. For further information, call 1-800-234-1107 or (843) 671-2448.
