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Golf Stories
A story about Walter Hagen
It comes from Chick Harbart, a one-time Ryder Cup player:Harbart, as a young man, played in an exhibition match with the middle aged Hagen."We came to the 18th, both needing birdies for 71 and both facing nine-foot putts. I wanted to beat him so bad I could taste it. I got down on my stomach and lined up the putt. And I lined it up from both sides and looked it over like it was life or death. The I stepped up and - pop - made the putt.I walked over to the side as much as to say: "well, it's your turn.". Hagen then went through EVERY motion I had gone through. Exactly. Then he stepped up - left handed - and back-handed the ball into the cup. I'll never forget it as long as I live " ! *** *** ***Mr. Bobby Jones playing Hamlet.???
We all know that the world is a stage and all men and women merely players, but the spectacle of Bobby Jones playing Hamlet is one that would strike amazement into the hearts of the most imaginative. Bobby Jones, however, did actually play Hamlet in quite another sense on the occasion of his first attempt at the British Amateur Championship at Hoylake, Liverpool. On that occasion, the American Champion was unexpectedly beaten by A.J. Graham, but before that he had a narrow escape from elimination by Mr. E.A. Hamlet, an artisan player from Wrexham, who was two up with four to play against Jones. But Mr. Hamlet blew up with the advent of an excited crowd who gathered round the match at the last few holes. An old lady, who seeing the excitement of the crowd, inquired of one of them, as to who Mr. Jones was playing. She became quite indignant when she was told that he was playing Hamlet. She exclaimed that: " a polite question deserved a civil answer", before storing off in the crowd.A true story about a golf movie reel.
A couple of years ago I was 'mooching' ( that is an Irish word for looking) in an old furniture shop and saw a circular tin box in the corner of the shop. All that indicated its contents was 'golf film'. So I bought it. I knew not what its contents were. So I sought old family relations who might by chance have a 16mm. movie projector. My grand uncle was my savior. Within a couple of days, I had found the answer. I was the proud owner of a 60 minute 16 mm. movie reel of the 1967 British Open Championship. Jack Nicklaus was the defending champion and Henry Longhurst was the commentator. One could nearly taste the 'Claret' in Old Henry's distinctive voice. I had procured one of the great Open Championships on film. The next step was to decide what to do with it. Remember that this was some years ago and the wonders of modern technology were not as they are to-day. With great difficulty and cost , I got the film reel transferred to VHS video tape. As luck would have it, The R & A have decided to put Royal Liverpool or Hoylake back on the Open Championship rota. So anyone who wants to see how the golf course looked 34 years ago can share this with me. To order the video: m@irishgolfbooks.com
324 dimples to treble your drive !!
Just how far would a golf ball fly without it's dimples ?
Shouldn't a perfectly smooth golf ball offer less air resistance and friction than the ball with it's hundreds of dimples - and travel further ? In actual driving tests, made with balls of identical manufacture, it was found that a perfectly smooth ball went just 90 yards 'on the fly' .The same type of ball, complete with dimples, averaged 230 yards. So what first prompted manufacturers to 'dimple' the golf ball? To get this answer, we have to go back into golf history. Soon after the first smooth, round, gutta-percha ball was manufactured in 1848, it was found that the flight of this ball was very erratic. Also it did not take long for the players of that era to discover that an old, used ball would fly farther than a gleaming new ball. This fact soon became attributed to the nicks and scratches which had resulted from play. Immediately, ingenious means were developed for making the surface to produce a roughness of various patterns. The resulting truer performance and greater distance caused a tremendous improvement in golfing standards. This gutta-percha ball replaced, what is believed to be the first manufactured ball used in golf.. the 'feathery'. From what we know of this type of ball, it was constructed by stuffing a stitched piece of leather with a top hat full of chicken feathers. When the leather was full, the edges were then sewn together. This feather ball, much larger in size than the modern ball, was introduced around the 15th century and used for 400 years.True Irish Story.
In amateur golf in Ireland, one of the most sought after titles in club golf is the Barton Cup... a team event of five four balls from each of Ireland's 348 golf clubs. In the Barton Cup of 2001, the team from Vartry Lakes Golf Club, only four years in existence, reached the final and in fact won the event... a dream come true. But this story is about one of golf's unsung heroes.... the amateur caddy... We shall call him John (not his real name) but John was caddying for one of his mates on the team and wanted to do his very best for his nervous golfer. John checked everything, including 14 clubs, towel, sweets, extra golf balls, all marked and all the other 101 things needed for his golfer in the final. His boss, having played a shot to the 7th green, turned to John and asked for some water : The reply was: " Would you like sparkling or plain" ? A true blue.
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