I was intrigued by
DMoriarty's post shared last week about skepticism of MacKenzie's tall tail:
I was traveling from San Francisco to New York with a man who is affectionately know as Billy Humphrey. He said, “What sort of hole do you think your 16th at Cypress Point is? I don’t think a hole is a golf hole that can be played with a putter.” “On the contrary,” I said, “I don’t think and ideal hole is ideal unless it can be played with a putter, but we won’t argue about that. What is your trouble?” He said, “Well, I was playing this hole against Herbert Fleischaker for two hundred dollars. [Herbert Fleischaker has a reputation of not being able to get a ball off the ground, but he is full of brains, is a very good approacher and putter, and often outwits a more powerful opponent.] It was my honour, and I put two shots in the ocean. Then old Herbert gets his putter, takes four putts to reach the green, wins the hole and two hundred dollars.” I am afraid I was not unduly sympathetic.
So, I spent a bit too much time this weekend writing a post about it on Wigs. Here's my general thesis:
First, there was no ice plant blocking the route back then:
Next, the "putters" had significantly more loft:
And with both of these facts, you can see that four 75-yard putts can put you safely on the green. Giving Fleischaker, who was skilled even if he couldn't get the ball in the air, a totally plausible chance at getting down in six to win the hole:
At this point I see no reason for the skepticism in the previous post. I think MacKenzie includes the anecdote exactly because he seems to have a soft spot for the ground game. In fact, he always discusses players who run the ball up along contours with admiration throughout the book, and I suspect his moral here is much more about that than it is about making a course beginner friendly.
Anyway, obviously the full post is on the blog, but this is the gist. It was fun doing a deep dive and trying to figure out who Billy Humphrey was. It's an interesting story, and with inflation, the bet was for about $4,000. Definitely an audacious strategy for a bet of that size.