[Peter Pallotta]

Whether you were a wee youngster out with your mom/dad/grandparent, or a teenager or young person just falling in love with the game, if you played any significant amount of golf back in the 60s and early 70s, I'd enjoy reading your memories and reflections on your experiences back then.

Any aspect you'd like to focus on is fine, but I'd be most interested in what you really remember about those hours on the course. What were the fairways like, and the greens? Were the older folks friendly and welcoming? Did it cost a lot? Were most golfers any better/worse than most golfers today? How much time might you spend on the course, and then off the course -- was there food and drink to be had? Did people dress funny? How far was your Best Drive Ever back then? Did you lose a lot of golf balls, and/or find them? A sawed-off set of irons for you, or a brand new set? Were birdies harder to come by? Which brand of irons or woods did you use, and/or do you remember being popular? And now, looking back, through the filters of time and personal narratives and the subsequent ups and downs of life, what stands out for you the most?

Peter

[Bill_McBride]

Ha ha!   One thing I remember is being concerned about the cost of golf balls, typically buying 65 cent Acushnet Specials.  I found a Titleist 100 and played a few holes with it, loved the soft feel.  So I asked my old pro, "do those balls cut easily?"   Classic retort:  "How would I know?"


There was nothing like the sound and feel of a persimmon driver whacking the ball.  I've never liked the sound of the metal drivers. 

[Peter Pallotta]

Bill - if we get to meet and play some golf together next summer, I will bring along a set of almost pristine Hogan persimmons for you to play with, 1-3-5 woods! (I will play with a slightly more forgiving set of Ping Eye woods...)
Peter

[Patrick_Mucci]

Peter,
 
Three brothers lived a block from my house, their dad and uncle were very good golfers.
 
We were all peers, with one brother a year older, another a year younger and the third brother my age.
 
We were a perfect foursome, highly competitive, but, we enjoyed each others company and had tons of fun.
 
Over the weekend I'll recall some stories.
 
One caveat.
 
It was in the 50's

[Steve_ Shaffer]

After being a driving range rat for a few years, I ventured on to a real golf course for the first time in the summer of 1961 with my ragtag bag and assorted golf clubs and old balls that my father gave me 2 years earlier. Needless to say, I was excited to play the famous Philadelphia muni- Juniata GC. As my friends and I approached the first tee, we saw this:



As you can see, courtesy of Joe Bausch's photo, it's still around only with much more grass than I remember, downhill and hard as concrete. Some of the "old guys" of the course who hung around the first tee  told us it really didn't matter what club we used so I took out my trusty 5iron and and hit a worm burner that rolled down the hill and wound in front of the green. Yes, the beginning of my golfing career began...

[Rich Goodale]

Peter

I would advise you to use the crack gca.com search engine first, given that the geezers such as we have answered this question many times before.

Rich

[Joel Pear]

I remember going to Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C. with my brother and a couple of friends from the neighborhood.  We would schlepp our clubs on two busses and walk up the hill to the course from Military Road.  The tees had absolutely zero grass and were as hard as could be.  We were teenagers, though and would head out there with a sleeve of Acushnet Club Specials and have a blast.


The other thing I remember was in 1965 at Lakewood CC in Rockville Md, there was a thing called the National Challenge Match.  It was 54 holes and featured "The Big Three" playing against each other in medal play, and the top 3 amateurs of the time, Dean Beman, Dale Morey, and Bill Campbell having their own 54 hole medal play match.  Each pro was paired with an am.


I went out the first day and followed Palmer and Dale Morey.  I was 14 years old loved golf, and had a blast.  Number one at Lakewood was a short par four, and after his drive, Palmer hit this amazing low wedge shot that hit the green, took one hop, and stopped 18 inches from the pin.  I was in awe.  He was the consummate showman. 


I got autographs that day from everyone except Bill Campbell because, quite honestly, I did not, at the time, know who he was.


Funny how you can remember things from 50 years ago!

[Bob Montle]

My dad let me pull his pull cart when i was 7 (1956)
He bought me a used and mixed set for my 9th birthday and let me play with him and my uncle on weekend mornings.
Random memories:
Loving my Sandy MacDonald Niblick.  I could hit it out of the deepest grass.

Throwing away all the ugly old fashioned balls that were in the golf bag.  Square dimples? Strange names? Floaters?  Too old fashioned for me.  Alas, all discarded.

Being first to the course, still in the dark, and drinking hot chocolate in the clubhouse while waiting for my Uncle to say, ok lets go start.

Loving the idea of stymies, which my uncle insisted we play.  Always match play, nickle a hole.  Expensive since my allowance was $1 per week!  If I was out of the hole but could stymie my uncle to make the skin a carryover then my Dad would give me a nickle.

By the age of 13 my favorite holes were already the risk reward holes.  Gamble on the drive for an easy par if you pull it off, or play it safe for the sure bogey but much more difficult par.

Loving the walking.  Only the rich or snobs paid for riding carts.

Loving match play. And the wagering with friends to add to your spending money.  My favorite was when a buddy wanted to play me for a DOLLAR if I would give him five strokes.  I offered to play him left handed if he gave ME five strokes.  We rented LH clubs and I shot 44, beating him 4 and 3!

I can't remember what the green fees were, but I remember that in 1963 my Dad bought a season's family pass for $350, good at any of six different local courses.  This was Western Michigan, and we had 22 courses within 15 miles of our house.

Once I hit a 7 iron almost 60 degrees right of my target. It bounced off the clubhouse roof and landed between the legs of a man teeing off on number one. He picked up the ball, whirled and threw it towards my green, and it went into the hole.  I claimed it was a hole-in-one but they wouldn't allow it.

[Pat Burke]

My dad was the head pro at Deal G$CC.
There were tall hedges that ran around the golf course property, all on the right hand side.
On number 2 and 12, we used to ball hawk along those hedges to find balls.
Red Tourneys, Blue Max's, Titleist, and the rare Hogan! 


There is a little rise in the fairway on number 1 at Deal.  I can still remember the first time
I hit a drive that carried that hill!  It was probably 150 yards to the top. Being able to carry that
hill was a rite of passage

[Thomas Dai]

Dunlop Warwick/65, Spalding Dot, Maxfli, Slazenger, Uniroyal, Staff, Penfold. Half-sets of clubs. Blades. Persimmon/laminated wood heads. Irons marked 1, 2 and 3. Flanged SW was max loft club. Leather golf bags. Flat caps. Knitted wool bobble hats. Pull trolleys with narrow spoked wheels. Leaky golf shoes/molded sweaty golf shoes. Thin plastic waterproofs. Multi-colour gloves. Leather, knitted or old socks headcovers. Greens cut once/twice per week by hand mower. Uncut rough. Fairways grazed by animals. Irrigation (if any) by hosepipe/bowser. Gang mowers towed by tractors. Heavyweight metal pins. Bunkers without rakes. Rubber tee mats. Shag bags. That'll do.


atb

[Greg Taylor]

Late 70s foe me, but anyway.


Those cheap plastic golf shoes or leather golf shoes that took weeks to break in and cut your heels up.


Dunlop 65's, "optic" golf balls. Finding a brand new Titliest or Top Flite XL.


The "whipping". Blades. Pringles jumpers. Farahs. Peter Storms. [size=78%]Being dropped off by parents at 8am with sarnies and 50p. [/size]



The Junior Medal on a Wednesday.


And, the only things that mattered were your score and handicap.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Peter,

A number of things stand out.

1.   The ability to "move" the ball.

2.    The poor quality of the ball.
        Wound, non solid balls and the
        Lack of quality control, resulted in
        Difficiencies in Compression and
        roundness

3.    Lack of quality control on loft and
       Lie

The impact on play was considerable.

[Steve Lang]

   Autograph Chick Harbert irons (3-5-7-9) & 1,2,& 3 Eye-O-Matic Woods and a favored Macgregor 4 wood... who wouldn't want to be like the Bomber?!!!


$0.50 cent rounds before 10 am at Ottawa Park, getting dropped off at Proshop, waiting hours, Dudley hotdog and soft ice cream at the 11th tee for another $0.50, playing across the course on way home avoiding the marshal, baseball or swimming in afternoon, cut a lawn for a week's costs...

[Steve Lang]

   early 1960's...  taking a shag bag to go practice with my dad

[Tim_Weiman]

Peter,


The thing I remember about golf in the 1960s as a kid is grumpy old men. I mean that quite seriously. Kids were treated like second class citizens who had no business being on the golf course.


Those guys were beautiful. They taught us how to move.


Years later when I finally made it as an adult to play golf in Ireland, more than once it was suggested I was un-American.


Those grumpy old men had taught me how to move on a golf course and my Irish friends to be really appreciated it.


Too bad. All the grumpy old men are gone and the game in America is worse for it.

[JMEvensky]

Nobody remembers True Blue golf balls or Titleists in "quilted" boxes? Corfam golf shoes? Munsingwear shirts?

[Lyndell Young]

Powerbilt persimmon woods that I always forgot to take the headcover off after a damp round that would be swollen the next day. I also remember when aluminum shafts came in,those were the days.

[Tom Fagerli]

What I remember is how far the long hitters hit it compared to the short hitters   We had guys that hit it forever with balata and the early surlyn balls, steel shafts and persimmon. It also helped that fairway irrigation was not prevalent. Fairways were longer as were the greens. I remember the uproar when Titleist increased the price of balls to $1.35 each- we routinely bought balls one at a time. No one had money for a dozen! In the early 70's all good players used Hogan or Wilson Staff irons. 
I lived in a place- Duluth MN- where junior golf was encouraged and the older men were our mentors and heroes. We had jobs at the golf course-unpaid- in exchange for free golf. Workers comp laws today prevent such. We lived at the muni. The lady running the snack bar made a fortune off of us! Everybody walked. There were no carts. I remember Corfam golf shoes. hogan SunJet bags. Wicked slices and diving duck hooks. Smiling golf balls. Cracked necks on real woods. Knowing how to re whip your woods.  Pinned iron and wood shafts. It was a hoot!

[Peter Pallotta]

Thanks, gents. I was looking forward to reading your stories. Please keep them coming. (Btw, and not that it applies here, just something I find interesting: I read once -- though I don't know if it is true -- that old time psychiatrists would always ask a new patient for their earliest childhood memory, the theory being that what adults remembered was not so much a memory of the past as a signifier of their present state of mind, e.g. the earliest memories a deeply unhappy adult were usually unhappy ones; but after working through their challenges/problems, that same adult might find, when asked later about an earliest childhood memory, that he/she remembered an entirely different -- and happier -- one.)

Tim - "Too bad. All the grumpy old men are gone and the game in America is worse for it". That's a great line, and a wonderful observation.

Patrick - I never realized that the equipment issues were so severe. It really makes Byron Nelson's scoring average in 1945 truly stunning - I think he averaged per 18 holes just a fraction over 68 in winning 18 times and 11 in a row. It took until the T Woods' era to better that.

[jeffwarne]

Tom,
rewhipping woods-I had forgotten about that.
I was doing that as late as 1991-$5 a rewhip-first one was a nightmare but got pretty good after that


Green victory grips
Sarazen reminder grips
never really used leather grips but they were around-distinct clank in the bag
bullseye putters-used my old bladed one this spring for a week and made everything
acushnet club special
spalding dots
red maxes


big sweeping hooks-trees on the right side were always in my way


putting on uncut greens in the dew-the greatest way to learn break ever
Cutting school with my parent's permission to see all three practice days of The Masters-1975, Jack, Johnny Miller Weiskoph
teeing off at 7 without checking in, then teeing off at 10 with whoever showed up
drinking cokes  in 95 degree weather and somehow surviving

[RSantangelo]

I remember playing a 9 hole course in commack Long Island where my dad would take me for a lesson and a morning...I think it was called commack hills...it was rock hard

In our foursome was a guy who was a chain smoker and swung with a lit cigarette in his mouth on basically any and every shot...even as a young kid, I could tell he had a terrible swing

I liked the game so I started shagging balls at garden city country club...back then, kids were the range machines...your job was to make sure the ball didn't hit you and put it in a leather bag...2 bucks a bag...sometimes there would be two golfers on the range at the same time....amazing that was a job for a kid but definitely kept you alert!  It was a definite upgrade to become a putter caddie

[Patrick_Mucci]

Peter,


The Pros had their clubs carefully calibrated and the balls they used went through additional quality control points.


I had a client make me a plastic tube milled to five one thousandths of an inch larger than a golf ball. (1.685)
And I had a compression machine.


Rarely did a ball, fresh out of the package, pass through the tube.
And when they did it was a Titleist or a Hogan.


Rarely did balls listed as 90 or 100 compression come close to those numbers, with 70-80 being the norm.

[J_ Crisham]

Toney Penna woods earned at the Beverly CC caddy banquet- boy were they sweet. The number 1 caddy received a full set of Penna woods, irons and a Mcgregor bag and Tourney golf balls- sadly I never made it to number 1 caddy:(

[Pete_Pittock]

Peter,   DOB 1945
Jr Member at Portland GC, mostly would play 1st 6 holes, then 8 after I could confident clear a lake and not lose a ball.
Following the pro tours when they were in town, local tour caddying. 
Playing with my dad and his friends in the summertime, being driven to NLE courses.
In college towing my golf bag behind my bicycle. Playing Rock Creek n DC, Gatlinburg and having no knowledge of architects.
Playing Moore Park in Sydney during R&R from Nam
Getting back in one piece and immediately heading south to play Pebble and Spyglass.
Finding the 'World Atlas of Golf led to
1975 - turning down opportunity to get on Masters' waiting list.
First trip with dad Harbour Town, Dunes, #2, Troon, Prestwick, Turnberry, St Andrews, N Berwick, Gullane,
helpful caddies, the small ball went forever.
 

[Pete Lavallee]

I started playing at age 19 in 1975, we had an 18 hole night lighted pitch and putt with holes ranging from 120 to 60 yards. They gave you 9 iron ball and putter, great way to get people into the game, sadly it closed two years ago. I moved up to the local muni the next year sneaking on the 4 th hole which was down the hill from the clubhouse. I paid the $200 all year membership the next year. We were a Ross course who had lost 9 holes to a new highway. They asked that the new holes be of "championship" caliber and that's what they built, we had two 460 yard par 4's, one steeply uphill for its second half and the other had a creek 230 yards off the tee. There were only a handful of golfers who could carry it; those holes were both changed to par 5's giving us a 6780 yard par 74 course. Back then we didn't know or care about architects, the Ross cache hadn't kicked in as yet, but we did notice that the old holes were all very interesting and could be played by all classes of golfers, the new ones were just a distance contest. Our course was unirrigated and rock hard in the summertime, we had two holes with water hazards 250 yards off the tee and we would all hit 3 wood to avoid rolling in. They have since installed fairway irrigation and I can't come close to those hazards with a driver! I too played Achushent Club Specials and splurged on balata Titleists for big events. We were a true working mans club and like Tim said the grumpy old men kept you moving along; thank you grumpy old men! They all had their own carts which they paid rent to store at the club, it was a tough walk fo the over 65 crowd! The best part of our club was the weekend Pro Am, we picked an A, B, C & D player, you all chipped in a buck and went out to shoot the best net score, a very fun and quick format, you could just pick up if you were out of the hole. The team captain was responsible for par ring the difficult holes and the 18 handicaps had to make hay on the easy holes. After two summers you knew 80 golfers on a first name basis. I had Hagen Ultradyne II irons and woods that were made from exotic hardwoods from the Amazon rainforest, a console SW, and a Tommy Armour Ironmaster putter. We had great fun fun and yes we drank lots of beer when we finished playing with probably a Linguica sandwich or two!

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