Boo Weekley reflects on contrasting victories in back-to-back years at RBC Heritage

The first time I stepped foot on Harbour Town Golf Links, I fell in love with the place. I think it’s because it reminds me so much of the golf course I grew up on in Milton, Florida – Tanglewood Golf Club.

The thing about both courses is they have a lot of tight fairways and small greens, and you gotta hit it to a certain distance to be able to get the next shot because of the tree limbs overhanging the fairways.

Maybe that’s why the first two tournaments I played at Harbour Town, I won.

In 2007, I was coming off my final season on what was then known as the Nationwide Tour (now the Korn Ferry Tour). I had played a full PGA TOUR season in 2002 but didn’t keep my card, so I went back to the Nationwide Tour from 2003 to 2006. Two second-place and two third-place finishes in 2006 got me to seventh on the money list, and back to the PGA TOUR I went for 2007.

With the RBC Heritage tournament an invitational, I didn’t get to play in 2002, but I was eligible when I returned to the TOUR. That’s right: The first time I ever stepped foot on the property was when I arrived for the 2007 tournament.

Of my two Hilton Head wins, the first one is probably more memorable basically because of what had happened a few weeks earlier in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. I had a chance to win the Cognizant Classic in The Palm Beaches in regulation, but I three-putted the 72nd hole — missing a 4-footer that would have won me the title. I then lost in a four-man playoff the next morning. As soon as I tapped in for bogey Sunday night, my son, who was not quite 6, came running onto the green saying, “You won, you won.” I had to explain to him that I didn’t. After I signed my scorecard, I picked him up again and met with the media. All I could say, and I wanted my son to hear it, was that I choked, and that’s what makes golf great — that sometimes you do choke, and it’s frustrating that you don’t hit every shot perfectly.

I think about that part of golf a lot and, well, the thing about Harbour Town is that you don’t have to hit the ball perfectly every time. You just have to know where to leave your ball. Golf is a game of misses. In golf, you can miss it just a little bit and still get away with it — and that’s what I did during my first win at Harbour Town. I played well enough to win the Honda and didn’t, so I figured let’s see what I can do in Hilton Head.

But that 2007 tournament was so unusual because of how the wind blew. A windstorm came through Sunday afternoon, and the officials had to halt play until Monday. Once I got to the course for the restart the next morning, there wasn’t much of a spectator gallery, only scattered people here and there. That’s when I noticed my buddies from the Nationwide Tour, a few of the staff members, and the guys from the Tour’s operations truck – "Goose" (Jeff Thomas), Pat Nichols and Tommie Sheridan. The Tour had played in Valdosta the day before, so because they were nearby and it was their day off, my buddies drove over to Hilton Head to watch.

That meant a lot to me.

Once we restarted the round, what they saw me do was chip in on 17 for par. After I flubbed a chip on my first try, I walked up to my ball. I was aggravated, so on my second chip, I only wanted to get it on the green and make a putt for bogey. Instead, I chipped in. Then on 18, I hit my second shot approach into the par-4 finishing hole, and I thought it was going to be pin-high. Instead, it rolled off the back of the green. Then I made things worse with a chip that hit on the downside of the green and rolled off on the other side of the green. I was afraid it was going to go into the hazard. I was definitely facing bogey again. But I got over there and saw I had a perfect lie.

I told my caddie, Joe Pyland, that if I could just land the ball right there over the top of a leaf that was on the green, with the way the wind was blowing, my ball would curl up there. Well, I landed the ball right where I wanted to, with the leaf as a guide, and my ball went into the hole. I had the clubhouse lead.

Ernie Els was playing behind me, and I knew he needed a birdie to tie me on 18. I went back out and stood behind the green after I signed my card, and I watched him finish. He hit a really good chip, and it made my heart beat a little faster. It fluttered a little bit. Yes, sir. But Ernie’s shot didn’t go in.

It really was unreal to win the way I did, chipping in twice. That was the first tartan jacket I won, and, of course, I returned the next year as the defending champion. I think most people know Heritage week starts Monday with a cannon shot, with the previous year’s winner hitting a ceremonial tee shot into Calibogue Sound.

To be able to do it is just awesome. Now I knew the tournament fired those cannons, but until I was on the tee right next to them, I didn’t realize how loud they were. When you’re standing right there, it’s loud, and it’s so loud that it scared me when I hit the ball — and I knew the boom was coming.

What I most remember about my second win was my mom was with me all week. She wanted to see me defend my title and see Harbour Town. I had all these good vibes coming in, and a lot of it had to do with what happened in 2007. I had my old (yardage) book, and I knew what I wanted to do off this tee and that tee, and I was now familiar with how the wind comes in off the water and that I needed to keep the ball under the trees so the wind doesn’t affect the ball. All that.

And, again, I love Harbour Town because so many of the shots, the bumps and runs around the green, are what I grew up hitting in Florida.

My second win was much more relaxing than my first — although I didn’t know it for the longest time.

I went into the final round with a three-shot lead over Anthony Kim, and I made the turn to the back nine five shots ahead of Anthony. Aaron Baddeley, who started the day five behind me, had only narrowed my lead to four strokes. Now, I’m not a big leaderboard-looker-atter. That’s not my cup of tea because all it does is add more stress to what I’m thinking. While I knew I was near the top of the leaderboard, maybe even ahead, I was worried because I made a bogey at 13 and another at 16, with two birdies in between. So, I was in really good shape even if I didn’t know that.

After I again missed the green with my approach on No. 18 on Sunday, I chipped up to 5 feet. I’m thinking, I had to make the putt to avoid going into a playoff if someone had come from behind. That’s when I went into my routine. I’m lining up my putt, reading it and going through everything like I usually do. I looked at Joe and said: “Whatcha see here? Left lip?”

He looks at me, walks behind me and says: “What are you doing?”

“That’s not what I asked you," I said. "What do you see here?”

He realized I thought I had to make the putt to win, and Joe says, “You dumbass, you got a three-shot lead. Just putt it.”

Oh!

I put my ball down, removed my marker and putted, and I missed. I made bogey and still comfortably beat Anthony and Aaron.

It was hard for me to believe I had repeated at Harbour Town. I felt like I was behind the whole week because I was missing so many putts. I took 31 putts in the first round but putted pretty good after that. But those 31 putts made me feel like I wasn’t putting well.

I won three times on the PGA TOUR, and at all three tournaments they gave me a tartan jacket, with two from the Heritage and one from Colonial (Charles Schwab Challenge). I have no idea where any of those jackets are. I have a big barn on my property in Jay, Florida, and I think they’re in there; the trophies, too, although I think my second Heritage trophy might be at my mom’s house.

I guess I need to work on putting those things together for display.

What makes me happy is there were two weeks almost two decades ago when I put my game on display for the fans in Hilton Head Island. That’s enough for me.