Verizon Heritage

April 12 - 15, 2007
Harbour Town Golf Links
Hilton Head, South Carolina
Par: 71/ Yardage: 6,973
Purse: $5.4 million with $972,000 going to the winner
Defending Champion: Aaron Baddeley

List of Champions & Scores

Results & Scores 2006 Verizon Heritage

Box Score of 2006 Verizon Heritage

Tournament facts:

Tournament information:

The first Verizon Heritage Classic was played to great fanfare in 1969 even though it was a "turkey" of an event. Originally it was just going to be an regular tournament on Hilton Head Island, giving away $45,000. But Charles Price, founding editor of Golf Magazine, talked to a few people including Charles Fraser who owned the new course Harbour Town and suggested that instead of a small tournament he should apply for PGA sanction. They scrambled around and raised the purse to $100,000, then got a date for the tournament which was Thanksgiving weekend. Jack Nicklaus, who was helping Pete Dye on the course played and brought some friends including Arnold Palmer who went out and one the first MCI Classic. They say that thanks to Palmer winning it put the tournament on the map and help create a nice tradition for a tournament in its first year.

The Verizon Heritage Classic was played over Thanksgiving weekend in its first four years. It was moved in 1974 to September and then the next year to March. Since 1983 its been played the week after the Masters.

Course information:

For a more comprehensive look at the course, look at this Course Overview done by PGA Tour.com

The Buzz:

With Zach Johnson winning the Masters, the fans at the Verizon Heritage will have a treat as he will be the first Masters champion to tee it up since Vijay Singh did it in 2000. Johnson who played great on the final nine at Augusta will be looking to be the first player since Bernhard Langer did it in 1985 to win the Masters and Heritage back to back. Things have drastically changed since Langer won the Masters in 1985, back then it was going to the winners dinner on Sunday night, drive the next day to Hilton Head and then tee it up. Now a Masters champion has a lot more obligation and requests to take care of. On Monday Johnson flew on a private jet to be on the David Letterman show, plus he had a ton of other media interviews that he had to do. One example, in 1985 ESPN wasn't that big of a deal but now it is and Johnson did a sitdown interview with them. The same with the Golf Channel, it wasn't around in '85 for Langer but Johnson had to do a big interview with them. And once he flew back to Augusta after doing the Letterman show, it was time to drive the family bus to Hilton Head, were tons of requests were streaming in. With so many media outlets now it's a tough choice for a player like Johnson to have to decide which ones he does and which one's he doesn't. So I wouldn't give him much of a chance of making the cut this week let alone winning.

Harbour Town and this event have always been a special place for major championship winners as 28 of the 37 winners have also won a major championship. But that trend looks to be changing as six of the last ten Heritage champions are without a major title including the last three Stewart Cink, Peter Lonard and Aaron Baddeley. In looking at this year's field of the 20 majors champion winners it's hard to get excited about Mark Brooks, Steve Elkington and Lee Janzen. Of some of the big names, Ernie Els has always done well in the past in this event but with him missing the cut at the Masters you have to wonder if he has any chance at all. Also, how about five time champion Davis Love III, he always plays well here but with his run a very poor putting you can't rely on him anymore. Realistically of the 20, only two Geoff Ogilvy and Jim Furyk could be considered good choices.

Here are some things to look for this week:

Photo: © Rusty Jarrett/WireImage Looking down the 18th fairway at the Harbour Town links.

• Key stat for the winner:
  Harbour Town is one of the best courses in America, it's a totally different experience in which ball placement is upmost over power. Hitting it hard and far doesn't work at this venue so look for a precision player to win.
  So what will it take to win this week's Verizon Heritage Classic?
• What makes the course tough is the greens, at 4,300 square feet they are some of the smallest greens on the PGA Tour. Over the last eight years they have been difficult to hit, of all the tournaments the U.S. Open is the only one that ranks harder to hit than the greens of Hilton Head.
• Over the years putting and hitting greens have been key to winning at Harbour Town. It you look at the list of Heritage champions all of them are good putters, especially from the ten to twenty feet range.
• With greens as small as those Hilton Head scrambling is a very important element in being able to win. Just look at the recent winners to see how important this stat is, Aaron Baddeley was 7th in his win last year, Davis Love III was 3rd in his 2003 win, Justin Leonard was 7th in his 2002 win, Jose Coceres was 5th in 2001 and Nick Price was 3rd in 1997.
• Heritage always seems to have dramatic finishes. In the last seven of the eight Heritage's, four of them have had playoffs two have had a one stroke margin of victory while the other was two.
• One other very important factor will come into effect this year, Mother Nature. Now the Masters may of had seven sunny days with a very cold weekend. The opposite comes into play this week as temperatures will climb up in the low 80s but thunderstorms will play havoc with the tournament over the weekend. Also the winds will be around over the weekend.
• Previous
• For the Verizon Heritage picks, next page