The PGA Golf Championship begins tomorrow at Baltusrol Golf Club in Springfield, N.J. Golf Digest has its usual excellent coverage here, including this nifty interactive map.
By the way, this interesting Golf Digest article on the 1965 PGA Tournament — which was won by the late Houstonian Dave Marr — includes a funny anecdote about Ben Hogan that Dave passed along to me years ago over lunch at Houston’s Lochinvar Golf Club. Dave loved telling this story and did so humorously, so my written rendition of it cannot do Dave’s oral version justice. But the story went something like this:
Hogan and the players with whom he was playing his practice rounds that week showed up for their Wednesday practice round and were promptly informed that there had been a misunderstanding on their tee time. As a result, Hogan’s group could not tee off for two hours because there were so many groups already waiting in line ahead of his group. Hogan was not pleased.
So, Hogan strolled over to the edge of the first tee and began intensely studying the practice swings of each of the club pros in the foursome who were warming up to tee off at that time. Hogan’s scrutiny clearly made each of the pros uncomfortable — not only was Hogan a legend among his peers, but every one of them knew about Hogan’s discriminating (and sometimes bluntly derisive) opinion of his rivals’ golf swings.
Under Hogan’s stern glare, the first club pro finally gathered the courage to tee up his ball and swing, which produced an ugly flinch and a sky ball that went less than 100 yards. The second pro hurriedly teed his ball up and then swung, producing a severe duck hook into the trees. Next, the third pro stepped up the tee and promptly topped his ball just past the ladies tee. Finally, the fourth pro teed his ball up, but as he attempted to take a practice swing, he could not even make himself take the club back under Hogan’s penetrating stare. So, rather than attempting to tee off, the fourth pro picked up his ball and walked over to Hogan:“Look, Mr. Hogan, if you don’t tee off in front of us, I’m afraid that I won’t be able to swing the club today. Also, our group is so traumatized by what we just did here in front of you that we’ll play so slow that everyone teeing off behind us probably won’t finish their rounds today before dark. So, would you mind cutting in front of us right now and teeing off?”
Hogan graciously accepted the offer and his group proceeded to tee off immediately.
By the way, Marr is legendary (at least among Texans) for his characterization of a syphon used during the early days of the PGA Tour to steal gasoline to fuel travel between tournaments as “an Oklahoma credit card.” ;^)