At The Heritage, It's About More Than Golf

The Verizon Heritage is only partly about golf.

Oh, there's a golf tournament going on, complete with professional golfers and scoreboards and polite golf applause.

It takes place in the middle of what feels like the official Hilton Head Spring Informal. It's full of sundresses and seersucker, cocktails and making plans for cocktails.

This one started slowly on Thursday with a nice crowd but not particularly lively. By Friday afternoon, however, the three-day weekends had kicked into gear, a big gallery was following Sergio Garcia, Stewart Cink and Camilo Villegas and a bigger crowd still was milling about, freshening their suntans and comparing notes on dinner reservations and whose boat had the coldest beer.

It doesn't hurt that the weather is better than beachfront property here. The sky can't get any bluer, the temperature stays within a degree or two of perfect and there's just enough breeze to keep the sweat away.

There's a big-time player -- Jim Furyk -- on top of the leader board and plenty of good names stacked up behind him, suggesting the weekend could be loaded with more than party planning.

There is, after all, a golf tournament going on here.