Gar's Golf Sojourn
Gar's personal post in the quest to beat "old man Par".
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First Golf Ball without a Handicap
The first golf ball without a handicap is what Spalding claimed on the sleeve box when they introduced the Tour Edition ball. According to an NY Times article published in February 1986, ” Spalding, has spent the last five years and $5 million producing a cover material it calls Zinthane. It put it on a new ball, the Tour Edition, aimed at better players. It is being priced at $32 a dozen, highest on the market (balls usually sell for between $9.95 a dozen and $28), but Spalding says the ball outperforms balata while resisting cutting.” Here were the main “talking points” of the value proposition for buying the highest…
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The Ben Hogan brand
My introduction to the name “Ben Hogan” came by the way of someone telling me I should get the book Five Lessons. At the time, I was fairly new to golf, a couple of years at the most, and most of my golfing experience had been on par 3s and short executive golf courses. However, by the early 70s, I had became a big fan of the man for what he had overcame as much as what he had accomplished in golf. And, by the early 80s, had Hogan clubs throughout my bag, so it was only natural for me to start playing the Hogan ball and wearing a Hogan…
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Scorecard Collection
Although my introduction to golf was in the spring of 1964, it was not until being station in England in the late 60s did I developed an appreciation for how the “grand old game” is played. Up until then, my “golf swing” had derived from the hand and eye coordination developed as a switch hitting baseball player and reading a couple of Hogan’s books including the classic Five Lessons. “How hard can it be, the ball is sitting still, RIGHT?”, had always been the mindset. After a couple of rounds on a course outside Bury St. Edmunds, I had the answer! There is a big difference in “playing golf” and…
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Bag Tags
I truly don’t remember when I started buying bag tags, sometime around 71 or 72, but I do remember why. As I have stated in other post, at that time I was taking lessons under L B Floyd, and became a disciple of “not falling in love with one course but developing a traveling game that would hold up on any track”. So, as it was, a group of us would set out on a “Pro from Dover” (MASH fans) road trip with the intention of playing “X” number of course in “X” number of days. Therefore, early on, we decided to purchase bag tags the first time we visited…
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Scorecard pencils
We all do it every time we play golf , at least prior to COVID 19. It may be already on the cart or perhaps we grab one at the counter when we check in. Whatever the case, the pencil with the course stamped on it, is something I can never remember not using while playing golf. Ever thought about what happens to it at the end of the round; more likely than not, it’s left on the cart. I guess since I always walked when I played back in the day, mine ended up in the bottom of one of the pockets in my golf bag. When I started…
