WHAT GOLF SAYINGS REALLY SAY...

Andy North: U.S. Open Champion
1978 and 1985

In 1985, I was listening to a broadcast by ABC Sports prior to the U.S. Open to be played at the tough  Oakland Hills (Michigan), the one that Ben Hogan had once called "A Monster".

Bobby Locke: British Open Champion
1949, 1950, 1952 & 1957

In the broadcast, the commentators were, as usual, "predicting" who had a chance to win. One of them said that his choice would be Brad Faxon, who was one of the best putters ever, noting that Oakland Hills is well known for its slick and undulating surfaces. He continued, "you know, drive is for show and putt is for dough". Jim McKay quickly observed. "I understand, but Faxon needs to get on the green in regulation more often, otherwise he won't have a chance". Faxon tied for 57th place, supporting McKay's notion that putting is not everything in the game. If I recall correctly, Andy North, the winner, was 1st in greens in regulation in the tournament, and he was up there in fairways hit as well.

Walter Hagen. Majors: U.S. Open 1914, 1919; 
British Open 1922, 1924, 1928, 1929; PGA 
Championship 1921, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927

So, like many of you, the first two golf sayings I ever heard, were: "Drive for Show, Putt for Dough" (Bobby Locke) and, "Don't forget to smell the roses" (Walter Hagen).

Lets start by noting that this last saying is actually incomplete. The whole phrase by Hagen is: "Don't hurry, don't worry. You are here but for a short time, so don't forget to smell the roses along the way",, which, is the way he lived his life.

Hearing the incomplete phrase, plus many golfers of his era actually seeing him and describing him walk off the fairway to smell a flower or to speak to the gallery, contributed to the universal misinterpretation that Hagen was speaking about enjoying a round of golf to the fullest, while he was actually saying, "ENJOY LIFE TO THE MAX. SEE EVERYTHING. MEET EVERYONE. LEARN ALL YOU CAN. APPRECIATE EVERYTHING. GOLF IS SOMETHING YOU DO, NOT WHO YOU ARE". If you read a little golf history, you'll see that he did just that. Personally, I, and all of us who have became golf professionals, whether we play on tour or not, owe Hagen a lot:. He is known to have elevated the profession of golf to be a "professional" who was appreciated.

Hagen won 11 major championships: 2-U.S. Opens, 4-British Opens and 5-PGA Championships, this latter one, all at match play. His best finish in the Masters, which was first played in 1934, was an 11th place in 1936, at age 44. No telling how many Master he could have won, had The Masters started a decade or so earlier.

Harvey Penick with two of his
star pupils: Tom Kite and
Ben Crenshaw

Hagen was a match play magician. Although he was known for "getting up-and-down from the junk", he was actually an excellent driver of the golf ball, so much that, early in a match, many times, he drove the ball in the rough in purpose, just short of the trees or trouble, giving his opponent a false sense of security, but then he would hit his next shot on the green, or close by to save a par or a birdie. This demoralized those who thought he "was getting lucky", while it was all part of his plan.

Ben Hogan. major wins: U.S. Open 1948, 1950,
1951, 1953;  Championship 1946, 1948;British Open 1953.

On the other hand, Locke, too, by his own saying, summarized his career by his own words in that short saying. Locke, for sure, is known for his putting ability, but he was one of the best drivers of his time, even if not very long, he was very accurate. He was very good with his irons as well. But, he knew that getting on the fairway and the green, was only part of the "show", the other part was finishing the job with the putter. In short, his saying really meant, "YOU CAN DRIVE (AND HIT YOUR IRONS) FOR "SHOW", BUT TO ACTUALLY SCORE AND MAKE SOME CASH, YOU HAVE TO FINISH THE JOB WITH THE PUTTER".

As Harvey Penick said in one of his books when noting that writers felt Ben Hogan was still the best golfer in the late 60's even if he could no longer putt (Hogan only won twice after his "Hogan Slam" of 1953 because he began missing many short putts): "somehow these writers think that golf is two separate games, one from tee to green and one on the green, while the reality is that a one foot putt counts one stroke, just like a 300 yard drive". Have you ever heard someone say something like, "sometimes I can putt, but I didn't hit the ball well, and sometimes I can hit the ball well, but can't putt. I just cannot put everything together". Well, most touring pros "put everything together" more often than the rest of us (plus they can do everything better that the rest of us), that is why they are on TV every weekend!

Anyway, Bobby Locke won 74 times internationally and won the British Open 4 times. He holds the record for margin  of victory in the PGA Tour with his 16 shot win in the 1948 Chicago Open. Later that year, he was banned from the Tour because he did not show up for some exhibitions that he had signed for, however, Claude Harmon (the father of famous teacher, Butch Harmon), and 1948 Masters Champion, said, "He was simply too good and they had to ban him". At the time, there was great resentment from many American pros who felt that a foreigner (Locke was South African) should not come to the U.S. to take "their" money away.

Lee Trevino. Majors: U.S. Open 1968, 1971
British Open 1971, 1972; PGA Championship
1974 & 1984.

Locke last made the cut in a major in 1971, at the British Open at age 54 finishing 49th, slightly behind the "middle of the pack". Coincidentally, that British Open was won by happy going, Lee Trevino, who is known to have coined many "one liners" and sayings, one of which personifies exactly what Bobby Locke tried to say: saving pars doesn't really win, unless you also make some birdie along the way.

For the Record: Lee Trevino lived his life like Walter Hagen, and played both, like Hagen and Locke, having been one of the most accurate drivers of all time, a great iron game, with an exquisite short game. Lee won 89 times altogether: 29 times on the tour, 29 times in the senior tour, and 20 other wins, including 6 majors: 2-British Opens, 2-U.S. Opens and 2-PGA Championships.

Oh, yes, I almost forgot!!! Lee Trevino's saying? "THERE ARE TWO THINGS THAT DON'T LAST, DOGS CHASING CARS AND PROS PUTTING FOR PARS!" Trust me, he knows!

BIFURCATION NEEDED?

Bifurcation already exists! (after reading, please vote on the right! - all comments to USGA must be in by February 28, we will send ours, via PGA of America by the 25th)

Lets start by the fact that tour players play a different game than the rest of us. In every aspect. Period. Think of this: there are about 3,000 players in the world who actually make, or try to make a living at playing golf (men and women). Only the top 1,500 in men and the top 1,000 women are actually ranked. To make this a little more real to you: Tom Lehman, who won a major and the Tour Championship in the regular Tour, and won all honors in the senior tour last year, who is still a heck of a player, who would come to Elk City and score no worse that 64 on his first visit, is ranked 995 in the world at this writing! Do you know who Erik Flores is? I hadn't heard of him, until I saw his name in the world rankings as #952, 43 spots ahead of one of the best players I know of.

PGA Tour players, Nation Wide Tour players, Champions Tour, European Tour players, LPGA players, players of the various tours in the world, and even Symetra Tour players, play a different game than the rest of us. If you count all these players, there are about 3,000 tops. Most of them, you've never heard of, and many of whom will never make anyone's top 100 list, let alone top 10. If you consider that there are 63,000,000 golfers in the world, that is to say that only one in 21,000 golfers in the world actually makes a living at playing golf!

Yes, they play a different game!

So, to the USGA and Royal and Ancient Golf Club (the rules makers): get off your hands and do something to help promote the game that you want the rest of us in the golf business to promote!

Allow the weekend player who plays with his friends to anchor a long putter, allow the club champion that will never make it into the pro ranks to use a thinner face on his driver; allow the hacker to use balls that go farther and straighter, and limit some of these allowances to the Tour players and if you so choose so, the elite amateur players who qualify for the US Amateur or college golf. Think of this people of the blue coat society: of all the college players in the United States, even Division I schools, less than 1% ever make it to the Nation Wide Tour and less than one tenth of those, ever play one lone tournament in the PGA Tour!

In short, there is already a bifurcation by the way of talent and skills, by by the way of the way people approach the rules: most players do not really play by the Rules of Golf, beginning with those who play "strappers" (the term for gimmies in Oklahoma) and play the ball "up" either in the fairway or everywhere because they are incapable of hitting a good shot out of a bad lie.

In closing, if you, USGA & Royal and Ancient, change the rules, start with the golf ball -only for tour professionals- and thin face drivers, shafts, etc. On the other hand, if you allow the weekend golfers (that is 20,999 for every tour pro) to anchor their putter, to use the already "supercharged" balls, thin faces on his driver, his handicap won't actually change, but he will know that he is not cheating, he will enjoy the game and he, my friends in the high seats of the rulers of golf, will occasionally score his round of the year and be happy to invite other friends to take up the game!

The time is here.