{"id":15485,"date":"2026-06-04T21:09:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:09:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15485\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T21:09:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T21:09:11","slug":"hilton-head-island-sc-rbc-heritage-begins-with-opening-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/15485\/","title":{"rendered":"Hilton Head Island, SC: RBC Heritage begins with opening ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>58th annual RBC Heritage officially begins with iconic opening ceremony<\/p>\n<p>Event highlighted by parade of bagpipers and ceremonial tee shot at Harbour Town Golf Links<\/p>\n<p><a aria-label=\"Dave Williams profile page\" class=\"css-15eikfp\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wjcl.com\/news-team\/d9e811e8-186e-44aa-bef8-896a299625b8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/d9e811e8-186e-44aa-bef8-896a299625b8_1686717058.jpg\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Dave Williams\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/a>HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">It\u2019s time to get your plaid on at the Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">The RBC Heritage officially kicked things off Tuesday afternoon with the iconic opening ceremony on the 18th green.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">There is no other sight like it on the PGA Tour: the parade of Citadel Bagpipers leading the parade of tournament officials and other dignitaries, signaling the official beginning of the RBC Heritage.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">But that is not the only tradition that makes the opening ceremony stand out.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">Defending champion Justin Thomas fired the ceremonial tee shot into the Calibogue Sound along with cannon fire.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"5\">\u201cIt was cool,&#8221; said Thomas. &#8220;You know, same thing I&#8217;m sure everybody says, it was very loud and it scared me pretty bad. But I was pretty pleased with my shot. I had no idea what it was going to be like \u2014 both swinging in that jacket and hitting a, a persimmon club like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">And for Thomas, coming back to Harbour Town has special memories for him after his thrilling win on the first playoff hole last year.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"7\">&#8220;I  remember last year, the fans, you guys really kind of pushed me through, may it somehow feel like a home event, which is pretty cool and pretty unique,&#8221; said Thomas.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">In addition to being cool and unique, the opening ceremony means it\u2019s go time at Harbour Town.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">\u201cIt sets the tone for the week,&#8221; said Steve Wilmot, tournament director for the RBC Heritage. &#8220;The weather&#8217;s been great. We have great competition this week. JT has been wonderful, but it also sends a message to this community as to what this tournament means for this community.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">So, another RBC Heritage opening ceremony is in the books. That now means it&#8217;s time to get on with the action. There will be a Pro-Am out here Wednesday, and then it will all begin with tournament action Thursday with Round 1 at Harbour Town. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"58th annual RBC Heritage officially begins with iconic opening ceremony Event highlighted by parade of bagpipers and ceremonial&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1270],"tags":[6542,6541,6543,6550,55,44,2875,2651,2880,1516,6544,6546,144,2874,6545,1352,2877,6549,6547,1016,6548,6551,1748],"class_list":["post-15485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rbc-heritage","tag-bagpipers","tag-calibogue-sound","tag-ceremonial-tee-shot","tag-citadel-bagpipers","tag-community","tag-golf","tag-harbour-town","tag-harbour-town-golf-links","tag-hilton-head-island","tag-justin-thomas","tag-opening-ceremony","tag-parade","tag-pga-tour","tag-professional-golf","tag-rbc","tag-rbc-heritage","tag-steve-wilmot","tag-thing","tag-thomas","tag-time","tag-tournament-official","tag-tuesday-afternoon","tag-week"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}