Things We Like: The Heritage Edition

If you’ve been around the island for any length of time at all, chances are good you’ve got a Heritage story or two. Here are a few of our favorites:

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?

Once, at the Heritage, I couldn’t answer my phone, which had been vibrating nonstop for an hour in my pocket. I finally arrived at a spot where I could see my missed calls, and they were all from my daughter back in Connecticut. I was so irritated that I called her back and said, “Don’t you realize we’re at the tournament? Honestly, why are you calling so much?” To which she replied “ I thought you would like to know that we’re expecting your first grandchild!” That was six years ago, and every time we get to that spot I remember her call. Three grandchildren later, we’re still attending the Heritage.

BOBBY CLAMPETT WAS A GUNSLINGER

Stumbling around the Heritage one sunny afternoon in the mid-1980s I latched on to a young, skinny beanpole of a golfer named Bobby Clampett. He had Art Garfunkel hair and looked like a pencil with one of those fluffy feather things on the eraser end. He had a goofy smile and a devil-may-care attitude and seemed to be having the time of his life. He’d whack the golf ball with a sweet, unstudied swing and then lope down the fairway, with myself and a friend trailing giggling behind. Clampett’s now on the senior tour, and I am too.

CASH CAB

During Heritage weekend many years ago, my roommate and I noticed that our usual weekend bars were being overrun by prohibitively large crowds of golf fans. So, pulling out of the Triangle, we noticed a flock of college-aged guys searching in vain for a cab. We rolled down the window, asked where they were going and — since they were stranded — whether they’d be willing to part with $15 for us to take them there. They slurred a drunken note of consent and climbed in. We repeated this twice more that night, walking away with a sweet $40 for barely a half hour’s work. Should have done it next year too.

Tim Donnelly