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HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. — The RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing annually signifies that spring has sprung in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

But this year, the 53rd annual tournament played at Harbour Town Golf Links — the classic Pete Dye-designed layout — took on even more significance.

The 2020 tournament was turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. It was first canceled, but then brought back and played in the third week in June, but with no fans in attendance due to coronavirus concerns.

The pandemic is still a problem throughout the country, but vaccines and pubic awareness seem to be helping as things are getting back to normal. And that was the case this past week with fans enjoying some beautiful weather as they gathered at the Sea Pines Resort to watch many of the best golfers in the world compete.

Steve Wilmot has been the tournament director since 1997 and has been through the ups and downs that his position entails — including running a tournament without a sponsor for a year. But that pales in comparison to what he had to deal with last year with the initial cancellation and then running a tournament with no fans in attendance.

He said the RBC Heritage usually draws around 25,000 fans on tournament days and up to 30,000 on weekends. Although COVID-19 restrictions limited attendance to about 25 percent of capacity, he is happy that things are turning in a positive direction.

“We knew it was going to be tough, and our ticket pricing is a little bit different this year,” Wilmot said in a interview with the Savannah Morning News on Saturday. “The costs of conducting a tournament are still there, whether we have 30,000 or 1,000 fans. Things like security, those costs remain the same no matter how many people are attending.”

Wilmot said one of the toughest parts of running the 2020 tournament without fans was that the RBC Heritage had to stop its charitable contributions, which reach millions of dollars, because of the attendance situation, But with support from sponsors such as Royal Bank of Canada, Boeing and with some help from the PGA, the show went on.

“Collectively as a community, and with support from our sponsors, the PGA and the state we said, ‘Heck yeah, let’s go,’ so we did it,” Wilmot said.

Then they had to plan for the next tournament in nine months, instead of the usual 12.

“It’s been an awesome week,” Wilmot said. “And we’re also in survival mode, trying to get to 2022. The community has been so supportive from the people from Sea Pines being so flexible to the tremendous leadership from the town of Hilton Head and from the state capitol in Columbia.

“The buzz has been great. We have more volunteers than we’ve ever had, and I’m very proud of them and the fact that we’re conducting the tournament with health and safety as our No. 1 concern,” Wilmot said.

“We’ve repurposed some volunteers to make sure people are wearing masks.”

Dressed for the occasion

Scott Richardson was enjoying the scene at Harbour Town on Saturday dressed perfectly for the occasion in a tartan kilt with a red vest topped by a flat cap. He was accompanied by his wife Margaret, also dressed to the nines.

Richardson is a Savannah Country Day graduate who serves as the Heritage Classic Foundation Scholar Committee Chairman. So he and his wife were able to see the action in June when Webb Simpson went low to win the tartan jacket.

Scott Richardson, with his wife Margaret, at the RBC Heritage at Harbour Town on Saturday. (Dennis Knight / Savannahnow.com)

“This is huge for the community,” Richardson said of having limited fans back in attendance for this year’s event. “This is more than a golf tournament for us. We have about 1,200 volunteers out of a small town of about 40,000 people. It has a small-town feel, and we love that. We’ve been bottled up (because of the pandemic), and I (think) everyone is excited to be back out here.”

Greg Brannan of Pooler, Georgia, was one of those fans happy to be back at Harbour Town. He had a prime spot next to the 10th tee.

“I just love to come out here and see how far these pros hit it and how precise they are,” said Brannan, a regular at the RBC Heritage. “They are at a whole other level. There are fewer fans out here this year because they’re limiting it. It’s usually packed. The course is in such great shape. They have it set up nice. I walked five holes and it’s beautiful out there. It’s been an enjoyable day.”

With all the behind the scenes work Wilmot has to do, he was glad to see golf take center stage again this week.

“Mother nature has been so nice with the weather this week, and we deserve it,” Wilmont said. “And look at the leaderboard today, when you have a Stewart Cink and a Collin Morikawa up at the top. … I’m energized about it.”

Dennis Knight covers sports for the Savannah Morning News. Contact him at [email protected] Twitter: @DennisKnightSMN

(TNS) — Seven Beaufort County schools are getting new science and technology programs in 2022-23 thanks to a nearly $13 million federal grant, district officials announced.

The district was chosen by the U.S. Department of Education to receive $12.8 million Magnet Schools Assistance Program grant, which will be distributed over the next five years.

Students from across the county will be able to apply to attend these schools through the district's school choice system to participate in the magnet programs, Chief Instructional Services Officer Mary Stratos said Thursday.

The Whale Branch cluster — Whale Branch Elementary, Whale Branch Middle and Whale Branch Early College High — will have a technology magnet theme, with specialized cybersecurity, computer science, and network engineering academies, according to a district press release.

The Beaufort cluster — Mossy Oaks Elementary, Lady's Island Middle, Beaufort Middle and Beaufort High — will have a medical magnet theme, with specialized pre-med and biomedical science academies.

Stratos said that the magnet programs will be represented through "arts integration."

She used the Beaufort school cluster as an example. "If we're doing reading in an (English language arts) class, maybe we're pulling something on bionics or cardiovascular and heart," she said.

That arts integration will be available at all school levels in both clusters, and then students will have the option to take magnet-specific courses that work very closely with career and technical education, starting in middle school. Those classes will feed into the high school programs, she said.

Schools will also work with community partners, including the Beaufort Chamber of Commerce and Beaufort Memorial Hospital, to provide this curriculum.

More than 20 community partners signed on during the grant application process, and the district is still growing its partnership program, Stratos said.

The DOE describes the grant program as targeted to prevent the isolation of minority students, and to strengthen students' grasps on "tangible and marketable vocational skills."

The first step of the grant application process, which began in May 2020, was an economic survey of the area to see what job opportunities were available for programs that interested students.

"The underlying theme is, what are we doing for our children after graduation?" Stratos said. "We are responsible to provide that opportunity for children. Our relationship doesn't stop when you cross that stage."

In the coming days, the district will begin hiring a project director and curriculum support personnel, and will hire experienced teachers for the new courses in the second phase of its year-long planning phase.

The district can't use grant funds for capital improvements or for upgrades to school buildings, Stratos said.

The district will partner with Project Lead the Way and the Southern Regional Education Board to create some of the magnet programs' courses, while other lessons will be created by the school district with the intent to sustain and replicate the program past the lifespan of the grant, Stratos said.

"I am very proud and thankful to everyone at BCSD who worked on this grant proposal and made this award a reality," Superintendent Frank Rodriguez said in a press release. "I can't wait to see the impact these magnet programs are going to have on our students' academic pursuits, and ultimately their futures."

(c)2021 The Island Packet (Hilton Head, S.C.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

A Hampton County, South Carolina woman who said she was served eggshells in her to-go order at a Columbia Waffle House is suing the restaurant chain for personal injury.

Leslie Brown, of Estill, S.C., filed the suit against Waffle House Inc. in Richland County on Monday. The lawsuit did not specify how much money she is asking for in damages.

According to the lawsuit, Brown ordered an All-Star meal to go from the Waffle House at 8208 Two Notch Road in Columbia, S.C. on July 5, 2020 (during the COVID-19 pandemic when restaurants were hurting badly).

The meal “contained a foreign substance unfit for human consumption, specifically eggshell fragments,” which made the meal “unreasonably dangerous,” the lawsuit said.

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“When Leslie arrived home that day and began to eat her meal purchased from (Waffle House), she bit into this eggshell substance and, through no fault of her own, consumed and digested eggshell fragments,” the lawsuit said.

After she ate, Brown “suffered a choking episode, lacerated gums, bleeding gums, sore throat, bruised throat, headaches, vomiting, nausea, and other ill effects,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit did not say how much of the meal she ate or the amount of eggshells she consumed.

Leslie Brown is suing Waffle House for negligence and strict liability.

“A restaurant owner or operator should never serve its customers a food item that has eggshell fragments in it,” the lawsuit said.

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Brown claims she endured “medical expenses, physical pain, suffering, mental anguish, emotional distress, apprehension, fear/ anxiety, discomfort and inconvenience” from the eggshell episode.

The lawsuit mentions that Waffle House is a large restaurant chain with more than 2,100 Waffle House locations in 25 states and “serves 2 percent of all eggs in the U.S.”

The lawsuit doesn’t mention that a host of medical and health experts actually recommend eating eggshells. A new study suggested that eggshells could repair bone damage.

Hilton Head Island, S.C. attorney Patrick W. Carr is representing Brown in the lawsuit.

Earlier this year, a Richland County, South Carolina woman who said she was served a drink “containing bugs” at a Columbia Wendy’s restaurant sued the corporation for $74,000.

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Mandy Matney is the news director at FITSNews. She’s an award-winning journalist from Kansas who has worked for newspapers in Missouri, Illinois, and South Carolina before making the switch to FITS. She currently lives on Hilton Head Island where she enjoys beach life. Want to contact Mandy? Send your story ideas, comments, suggestions and tips to [email protected].

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Tennessee is among the top teams in the running for one of the nation's top linebackers. Four-star Class of 2022 linebacker Jaylen Sneed of Hilton Head Island (S.C.) High School announced his top five college choices Sunday night in a post on his Twitter account, revealing that the Vols are among the handful of major programs he's strongly considering.

Notre Dame, Oklahoma, Oregon and Texas A&M joined Tennessee on the list of front-runners for the 6-foot-2, 210-pound Sneed. He tweeted a video Sunday night featuring the logos of all five schools on his short list of favorites and added that his recruitment is "still 100% open."

He has received scholarship offers from more than 35 schools, including all five schools that are currently standing out to him. Alabama, Auburn, Florida, Florida State, Kentucky, Michigan, North Carolina, N.C. State, South Carolina, Texas, USC, Virginia, Virginia Tech and West Virginia are among the other teams that have extended offers to him.

Sneed is ranked the No. 73 overall prospect and No. 6 outside linebacker in the 2022 class, according to the industry-generated 247Sports Composite. He's also a top-100 prospect nationally in 247Sports' rankings.

All five predictions on the 247Sports Crystal Ball point to Notre Dame as the team to beat for him. All five picks were made in March, when Sneed traveled to Notre Dame's campus for the first time.

Sneed also went to Tennessee on March 20 for a self-guided tour of the campus before he participated in a camp in the Atlanta area the following day. After the visit, he spoke highly of his first look at the Vols and made it clear that he planned to visit them again sometime after the ongoing dead period for recruiting.

“It was great — very big campus,” Sneed told GoVols247 at the time. “I got to look around the athletic stuff, outside of it. I expected everything I saw, but seeing the indoor (facility) from the outside was definitely amazing. I can’t wait to get in it and see it from the inside.”

Sneed said he decided to go to Tennessee in March “because I haven’t seen a lot of schools before, so I wanted to go see Tennessee, and because the coaching staff has really been talking to me a lot” since first-year coach Josh Heupel’s hiring in late January. Sneed said at the time that he had been talking with the Vols about “twice a week.”

“I really wanted to get up there and just look around and see what they have,” he said in March.

He said he had an idea of what to expect at Tennessee because “I did a virtual tour with them” before his trip to Knoxville, and Hilton Head Island coach BJ Payne "has also been there before, so he kind of knew the way around."

Sneed said at the time that he was interested in the Vols for at least a couple of reasons.

“Playing in the SEC and the new coaching staff are definitely appealing to me,” he said in March. “Just a good opportunity, and (I like) what I’ve gotten to know about them so far.”

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. , May 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The consolidation of membership among the top-10 Medicare Advantage (MA) industry leaders has other MA insurer's pursuing a competitive edge via niche technology partners, says Patrick Phillips , CEO of Cavulus, a leading provider of technology in the sector.

MA enrollment is increasing annually, but according to industry data, there's still substantial opportunity for growth. Only 43% of the nearly 63 million eligible people are enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan. Industry analysis shows "the top ten companies in this segment collectively provide coverage for nearly 78% of the market."

According to Phillips, start-ups and smaller regional, provider-owned and university-affiliated insurers can differentiate themselves and propel growth through a more responsive approach to the market. "Because these insurers are nimbler, they can often provide better member experience through a more personalized approach," he said.

"In order to facilitate speed and responsiveness, Phillips explains "we're now seeing our industry turn away from global enterprise IT providers to Medicare Advantage-specific technologies like Cavulus."

Former Cleveland Clinic CIO Ed Marx has identified this trend pointing out that healthcare companies that once had enterprise capabilities because they believed it made good economical and workflow sense, now "in this age of disruption, age of digital, are (moving) back to best of breed. You have to be willing and be agile enough to accept the fact that these enterprise partners don't have all the answers."

Ed McCallister , SVP and CIO at UPMC oversaw the decision to build, buy, or extend existing enterprise-wide capabilities in 2016, but ultimately selected Cavulus. "We carefully consider the addition of external partners, but it made sense to have a best-in-class solution that focused exclusively on Medicare Advantage, which is a fast growing segment of our industry. We wanted to serve this line of business with a dedicated, mature, and purpose-built platform that supported the majority of our needs out-of-the-box."

ABOUT CAVULUS - Cavulus is a technology driven specialist in Medicare Advantage insurance solutions. The Cavulus Cloud-based Medicare Advantage Platform (Cavulus MAP™) unifies marketing, sales and enrollment operations, and is utilized by many of America's top insurers, including several BlueCross/ BlueShield companies, UPMC Health Plan, Johns Hopkins , Lumeris and United Healthcare. For details visit: www.cavulus.com .

Media Inquiries: 800-760-6915 Email: [email protected]

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SOURCE Cavulus