TOUR rookie’s success at Hilton Head includes his marriage proposal

Players on the PGA TOUR have enjoyed playing the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head, South Carolina, for a variety of reasons.

The challenging, but fun golf course designed by Pete Dye and consultant Jack Nicklaus. The laid-back atmosphere, which is particularly inviting for those making the two-and-a-half-hour drive from Augusta after playing in the Masters the previous week during a normal TOUR season. Seafood, swimming and all those family-friendly activities, too.

TOUR rookie Matt NeSmith had another reason for wanting to play in the RBC Heritage this season. Just over two years ago, in the shadow of the iconic red-and-white lighthouse at Harbour Town Golf Links, he proposed to Abigail Pait on the 18th green.

She said, yes, of course, and the two were married on Nov. 1, 2019, during a break from his fourth and fifth tournaments as a card-carrying PGA TOUR member. Competing at the RBC Heritage this year – or any year, for that matter – would have been “awesome,” NeSmith says.

“We'd be reminiscing about the whole day.”

NeSmith was playing his best golf of the season when the coronavirus pandemic called an abrupt halt to play on the PGA TOUR, with this week’s previously scheduled RBC Heritage among the canceled tournaments. He’d made the cut in eight of his previous nine starts, posting top-15 finishes in three of those tournaments, and was ranked No. 64 in the FedExCup standings.

It’s disappointing that he and his wife aren’t at Hilton Head this week, but the memories of that day and the start of their lives together offer warm feelings. He and Pait had met while both were students at the University of South Carolina. He played golf while she was on the equestrian team.

Turns out, the two had a mutual friend in Will Starke, who was NeSmith’s roommate and teammate. Pait used to come over to the dorm and have breakfast with Starke each Friday.

“I was sitting on the couch and she came over and said hello and we kind of talked a little bit,” NeSmith recalls. “I was very shy, always shy with pretty girls.”

The two ran into each other later that day. Well, not exactly. Pait was behind the wheel of her car, and she spotted NeSmith walking on campus.

“She's very outgoing and I was a little bit shy and awkward to say at least, probably,” he recalls. “And she honked at me with all her friends in the car. She's like, oh, there's this nice guy that I just met in Will Starke's dorm. ...

“I was like, oh, good Lord, and just kind of kept walking. So, she’s like, oh, I guess he's just shy.”

The romance blossomed, though, and endured after NeSmith graduated and turned pro. He played two seasons on the Mackenzie Tour-PGA TOUR Canada before heading to the Korn Ferry Tour for the 2018-19 season. A win at the Albertsons Boise Open presented by Kraft Nabisco earned him a TOUR card.

NeSmith and Pait fell in love with Hilton Head while he was still an amateur. During his college days, he was regularly on the leaderboard at the Players Amateur played at Berkeley Hall in nearby Bluffton. He won the event in 2015, firing a final-round 65 that enabled him to overtake Chase Koepka, who had started the final round with a five-stroke lead.

NeSmith – and later, Pait – became close to his host family, the Andreolettis.

“This family has three kids -- the youngest one's now eight .. and I've known the youngest one since she was a baby,” NeSmith says. “... We'd go down there three or four times a year and spend some time with them.”

One of those times was the weekend of March 11, 2018. NeSmith had decided to propose. He had bought the engagement ring several months earlier and although he says he’s not the most creative guy in the world, he concocted a plan.

“She had voiced that she wanted to go down for her birthday and just kind of hang out and be down there and have a good time,” he says. “So it just made sense.”

First, NeSmith got a tee time at Harbour Town and invited Pait along. She enjoys riding in the cart with him when he goes out to play, which enables NeSmith to get some work in and “we can have some good quality time together,” he says.

A friend was hiding in the bushes about 100 yards from the 18th green to take photographs when the couple arrived. He didn’t have a telescopic lens to capture the moment when NeSmith got down on one knee but that didn’t put a damper on the proposal.

The champagne flowed at Bluffton when the couple returned to the Andreoletti home that afternoon, and they had another celebration after returning home to Aiken, South Carolina.

The two were married 18 months later at an Augusta church where three other generations of his family have also said their vows, the first wedding held back in 1899. But Harbour Town and that scenic par 4 closing hole that meanders down the shore of the Cailbogue Sound always will hold a spot in their hearts, even if they need to wait another year.

“I thought it'd be special for the both of us,” he says with a smile. “It was just a right time, right place kind of thing.”