• Featured Post,  Gar's Golf Sojourn,  Golf Memorabilia

    What’s the Yardage

    Historians have debated the origin of the game for a long time. Was it the Dutch playing a game with a stick and leather ball which the winner was whoever hit the ball with the fewest strokes into a target several hundred yards away? Or, was it the documented Scottish game gowf played since the 1400s? Whatever the case, I am willing to wager, it was only minutes after the first club was swung, the thought “How far?” followed. Knowing the distance has always been a key part of the game. Years ago, long before the GPS and laser rangefinders, the main way to know how far was stakes on…

  • Featured Post,  Golf Memorabilia

    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…

  • Featured Post,  Gar's Golf Sojourn,  Golf Memorabilia

    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…

  • Featured Post,  Gar's Golf Sojourn,  Golf Memorabilia

    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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    Product Playing Experience

    In the future, I will be providing feed back on the different golf products I personally use. I am NOT paid by any company, and in each review I will cover the following: how long I have been using it; how it stacked up against the competition; any buyers remorse; and would I recommend the product. The following are product in the queue to be reviewed.