It’s the birthday of George Washington, our first and greatest president. I’ve read dozens of books on the man and the Revolutionary Period and each time I come to admire him more. Here’s a photo from my visit to Mount Vernon this past summer.

By now, everyone who follows golf knows that Bill Haas has won the marathon Bob Hope Classic—an event that his father Jay won 22 years ago. That makes them just the eighth father son duo to win in professional golf. The others: (Old) Tom Morris Sr. and (Young) Tom Morris Jr. ; Willie Park, and Willie Park Jr. ; Joe Kirkwood Sr. and Joe Kirkwood Jr. ; Jack Burke Sr. and Jack Burke Jr.; Clayton Heafner and Vance Heafner;  Julius Boros and Guy Boros; Al Geiberger and Brent Geiberger.

Most of the names should be familiar to golf fans. Here’s a synopsis:

Old Tom won the Open Championship in 1861, 1862, 1864 and 1867. Young Tom won the Open Championship in 1868, 1869, 1870 and 1872, before dying tragically young at age 24.

Willie Park, Sr. won the Open Championship in 1860 (the first), 1863, 1866 and 1875. Willie Park, Jr. won in 1887 and 1889.

Joe Kirkwood was an Australian with 16 professional victories in the 1920s and 1930s. Joe Kirkwood, Jr. , won Milwaukee’s Blue Ribbon Open in 1951.

Clayton Heafner has seven PGA Tour victories spanning the 1930s, 40s and 50s. His son, Vance Heafner, won the 1981 Walt Disney World National Team Championship with playing partner Mike Holland.

Jack Burke, Jr. had 16 wins from 1950 to 1963, including the 1956 Masters and PGA Championship. Jack Burke, Sr. won the 1941 Senior PGA Championship.

Julius Boros has 24 professional wins, including the 1952 and 1963 US Open, and the 1968 PGA Championship. Son Guy Boros won the 1996 Greater Vancouver Open.

Al Geiberger, Mr. 59, had 29 wins including the 1966 PGA Championship. Brent Geiberger has won twice on tour.

To be sure, not all of these guys were PGA Tour winners. There was no PGA Tour for the Morrises or Parks. But they were all professional winners.

I just finished watching a History Channel show called “The Worst Jobs In History,” which takes a particular time period, and details some of the smelliest, most dangerous, unsanitary jobs of the day. This time, the episode detailed the early 19th century, with positions such as paint maker (all that lead is really unhealthy), steeplejack (repairing church steeples sans safety equipment) and ... golf ball maker.

The featherie of yore was composed of several pieces of leather, stitched together and stuffed with boiled chicken feathers. Aside from the finger numbing work of sewing tiny stitches on small strips of leather, the worst part of the job apparently was the smell of boiled feathers. The host demonstrated that a top hat full of feathers, once boiled, could be stuffed into the ball. Once the surface was dry, the ball then would be rolled by hand in (presumably) lead based paint.

The supply of the balls apparently never met demand.

I played a few shots with a featherie once, and thought it wasn’t that bad a ball, at least for chipping and wedge shots. I didn’t get to try a full swing, but I’m sure that it wouldn’t go very far.

Archaeologists have found a trove of Civil War artifacts on a golf course in Tennessee. That’s not as cool as finding a mammoth, but still neat.

Buckles, spoons, bullets, a cannon ball, a hotchkiss shell and other items were found in a single sand trap at the Franklin Country Club. More than 100 acres are left to be explored.

The Battle of Franklin, fought in 1864, was one of the bloodiest of the war. During the five hour battle, ill advised frontal assaults by the Confederates against Union entrenchments resulted in 6,252 dead, wounded and captured, including fifteen generals, six of whom were killed: Patrick Cleburne, John C. Carter, John Adams, Hiram B. Granbury, States Rights Gist, and Otho F. Strahl. Union losses totaled some 2,326.

The battle destroyed the Confederate Army in the West. The South also lost its best Divisional commander (and some argue, the best on either side), Patrick Cleburne. Cleburne, an Irish immigrant who had served in the British Army, had distinguished himself in some of the most hard fought battles in the Western theatre, including Shiloh, Richmond, Stones River, Chickamauga, Wauhatchie, and Missionary Ridge.

Arnold Palmer will receive the Congressional Gold Medal today from President Obama in a White House Ceremony.

The Congressional Gold Medal—not to be confused with the Presidential Medal of Freedom or the Congressional Medal of Honor —is bestowed by an act of both houses of Congress. It’s given as an act of appreciation for distinguished achievement and contributions. Each medal honors an individual, group, institution or event. The first thirty one went to war heroes. Frederick Rose, a British surgeon was the first non-US-military recipient. He was honored in 1858 for aiding American naval personnel aboard the USS Susquehannah who had contracted yellow fever. By my count, 139 medals have been struck.

The first recipient was General George Washington in 1776. Other recipients have included recipients as varied as Irving Berlin, Tony Blair, Winston Churchill, Roberto Clemente, Stephen Decatur, Walt Disney, Robert Frost, Billy Graham, Bob Hope, John Paul Jones, Martin Luther King, Jr., Louis L’Amour, Douglas MacArthur, Jesse Owens, John J Pershing, Ronald Reagan, Charles Schultz, Mother Theresa, Anthony Wayne, and John Wayne. Byron Nelson is the only other professional golfer to be honored.

A full list of Congressional Gold Medal recipients is here.

As I’ve said before, Arnold Palmer is one of my heroes, and I’m really happy for him. It’s a dream of mine to meet him.

September 24, 1904 marks the last time golf was a part of the Olympic games. Held in St. Louis, Missouri, the games were spread out over the course of several months to coincide with the World’s Fair. The golf competition was held September 17 to September 24. George Lyon, a Canadian defeated US player Henry Egan in the match play event for the gold medal.

The only other time that golf was included in the competition was in the Paris games of 1900.

With the Masters Victory of Argentine golfer Angel Cabrera, much discussion has turned to another superb golfer from that country, Roberto DeVicenzo, who has his own place in Masters history.

Now 85, Roberto DeVicenzo is one of the most successful golfers of all time. He won more than 230 tournaments worldwide in his career, including six PGA Tour events and the 1967 British Open (by way of comparison, Sam Snead won a total of 152 events worldwide).

But in the United States, DeVicenzo is perhaps best remembered for his scorecard miscue at the 1968 Masters.

In that tournament, DeVicenzo made a birdie on the par 4 seventeenth, but Tommy Aaron, his playing partner accidentally entered a 4 instead. DeVicenzo did not check the card before signing it, and under the rules of golf, the higher score had to be counted. If the correct score had been counted, DeVicenzo would have faced Bob Goaly in an 18 hole playoff the next day.

A meeting was held in Bobby Jones’ cabin, but in the end, there were no rules to fix the problem. If he had signed for a score lower than he earned, he would have been disqualified. By signing for one higher, he had to accept the score.

“I play golf all over the world for 30 years, and now all I can think of is what a stupid I am to be wrong in this wonderful tournament,” De Vicenzo said. “Never have I ever done such a thing.”

De Vicenzo was instrumental in the creation of the Champions Tour through his participation in the inaugural Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, where he paired with Juilius Boros against Tommy Bolt and Art Wall. He won the that tournament twice, and also won the inaugural US Senior Open in 1980. He won the PGA Senior Championship in 1974.

His best finish in the US Open was a tie for eighth in 1958. He won the Open Championship in 1967, and tied for fifth at the PGA Championship in 1954. With his Open Championship, he was the oldest man to win that event.

De Vicenzo was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1989, and was given the Bob Jones Award in 1970.

DeVicenzo was born April 14, 1923 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He turned professional in 1938 at age 15, and retired in 2006 after a 68 year career.

You can watch DeVicenzo’s swing below: