I’m working my way through a new book by Mark Frost called MATCH, THE: THE DAY THE GAME OF GOLF CHANGED FOREVER and ran across an amazing story about Byron Nelson. In the account, Eddie Lowery (Francis Ouimet’s caddy, now a rich businessman), had arranged for Byron Nelson and Ken Venturi to play a series of exhibition matches up and down the west coast:

In each exhibition they played against the host club’s head professional and reigning amateur champion in a best-ball match. At every stop, Byron made a point of inquiring who held the local scoring record, which usually belonged to one or the other of their opponents that day. Byron told Ken that wherever he went, no matter how well he was playing, he should never break that record as a show of respect to his host; that was the way gracious visitors were supposed to behave.

There’s a reason Byron Nelson was considered a gentleman by everyone he met.

Moe Norman is widely considered to be one of the best—if not THE best—ball strikers who ever lived. But to say that this genius was eccentric is to understate the case. He was painfully shy, and it’s speculated that he let other players win so he wouldn’t have to go through the trophy presentation. He slept in sand bunkers and kept his life savings in a bag. He would repeat himself constantly, and sometimes chattered like a squirrel.

It’s thought that he either was a high functioning autistic, or perhaps had suffered brain damage as a child.

Now, Barry Morrow, who wrote Rain Main has developed a script of Moe Norman’s life story. A director has been chosen and filming will start in the spring of 2008.

Shoal Creek Golf Club in Alabama will host the 2008 US Junior Amateur. It’s the first national championship for that course since the 1990 racial flap surrounding the PGA Championship there.

Shoal Creek Golf And Country Club opened as an invitation only golf club in 1976 and until 1990 had no minority members. While it had held many PGA, USGA and NCAA events, including the 1984 PGA Championship, and the 1986 U.S. Amateur Championship the club ran across a storm of protests as the 1990 PGA Championship approached.

The situation was not helped when founder Hal Thompson said: “This is our home, and we pick and choose who we want. We have the right to associate or not associate with whomever we choose.”

Finally, just nine days before the tournament, the club admitted its first African American member in Louis Willie, a successful local businessman. Willie passed away this past September.

The Shoal Creek incident had two important effects. First, the major golf organizations began to pay attention to the membership fo the clubs where they staged their events. Its probably safe to say that blatantly all-white clubs will no longer be welcome.

A second, and less well known effect, was that it sparked the creation of the well-known Robert Trent Jones golf trail in Alabama. Dismayed by the incident, and seeking to build some positive images of the state, David Bronner,  CEO of Retirement Systems of Alabama invested $100 million in the creation of the Trail. It’s now a gem in the golfing world, hosting the Champions Tour and two LPGA events.

The video footage of Alan Shepherd’s golf shot on the moon.

The Museum of Hoaxes has an article on the all-time great golf hustlers. Titanic Thompson and Amarillo Slim I have read about. But Bobby Riggs, the tennis ace?

Depending on who you ask, golf legend Sam Snead may have 82, 84, or as many as 90 Tour victories to his credit.

While the issue may seem trivial, it’s a question that becomes more pertinent as Tiger Woods steadily accumulates victories. Assuming that Eldrick gets five victories a year, he could be as close as five years to passing Snead’s totals.

And that’s where some of Snead’s friends and supporters come in. The claim that Snead, who died in 2002 at the age of 89, is being cheated of victories.

It certainly seems that way. For example, the Tour doesn’t count his three victories in the Green Briar Invitational and two in the Sam Snead Festival because the purses were too small. And yet, those tournaments were 72-hole events that featured top fields that included Ben Hogan, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. The Tour also discounts Snead’s 1939 Ontario Open and 1942 Cordoba Open because they were outside the United States; at the same time, however, the Tour counts the 1945 Montreal Open as part of Byron Nelson’s 11-tournament winning streak.

Either Snead gets credit for the Ontario, or Byron only won 10 straight. It seems to me that you can’t have it both ways.

More here.

A bit earlier today, I wrote a piece about Hubert Green, inspired both by his election to the hall of fame, and (in light of recent events at Virginia Tech), the death threats that he received and the chaos they caused at the 1977 US Open. But I thought that Curtis Strange also ought to get his due. So here it is.

Newly elected Golf Hall of Fame Member Curtis Strange was one of the best players on Tour in the 1980s, with 16 of his 17 victories coming during that time. Strange was the leading money winner in 1985 and 1987 and was the first to win a million dollars in official money during a season.

Strange won two majors: the 1988 and 1989 US Opens. He also played on five Ryder Cup teams (1983, 1985, 1987, 1989, and 1995) and captained the team in 2002. He now plays on the Champions Tour.

Strange is another of those players that I might put on the Underachievers’ list. While he did win back to back US Opens, and sixteen victories in ten years, it seemed as though he had a lot more in the bag. Still, a Hall of Fame Career pretty much speaks for itself.