Crenshaw, Strange & Wind (& McPhee)

[Dan Kelly]

My winter project has been to START reading all of the articles I’ve set aside, over the past generation, for “someday.”


That’s a lot of articles.


It will be next winter’s project, too, I can see now — with the Minnesota golf season about to commence.


Yesterday’s reading was from the June 10, 1985, edition of The New Yorker: an article titled “Austin and Augusta,” by the masterful Herbert Warren Wind. It’s ostensibly a report about The Masters of 1985 — won by Bernhard Langer, lost by Curtis Strange — but in fact, it’s mostly a profile of 1984’s winner, young Mr. Ben Crenshaw (and the Wind-coveted golf library at Crenshaw’s home).


I never knew Crenshaw was/must still be a bird watcher.


I really enjoyed his comments about what he’d learned during his travels.


Mr. Wind projected that, after his playing days, Crenshaw (who’d just begun dabbling in GCA) would concentrate on course design. He wrote: “I think that he will be a remarkably good golf-course architect — that he will build courses that are sound, original, and a great pleasure to play.” Taking nothing away from his partner/mentor (?), Mr. Coore, Mr. Wind’s prediction seems to have come true in spades.


The article made me nostalgic — not just because Ben and I are nearly the same age (and because, as a rising senior in high school, I followed him around Hazeltine National for two rounds at the 1970 U.S. Open, his first Major) and we will never be that young again, but also because we will never again see the likes of either Herbert Warren Wind or a New Yorker that would give Mr. Wind the space it took him to be Herbert Warren Wind.


At any rate, I recommend the article. It’s not OT here: http://archives.newyorker.com/?i=1985-06-10#folio=102

[Jeff_Brauer]

Dan,


I also attended the 70 Open, as a 15 year old.  My biggest memory, aside from all the Dave Hill talk was following Trevino.  At the time, he was endorsing cut proof Faultless brand golf balls, but the rumor was he didn't - gasp - actually play them.  Well, on one hole, I was in the LZ, and he hit it in the rough near me (surprisingly I was on the left hand side) and I was leaning over, as the label was facing down in deep rough, trying to read it.  Must have taken longer than I thought because I look up to hear Trevino, now right on top of me, say, "Back away son, my 7 iron in your forehead is the kind of souvenir you want from the US Open.....go buy a shirt or something."


As an aspiring golf course architect, I was struck by the number of sharp doglegs, even without the pros telling me it was bad every night on the local news.  Also, a lot of small trees, which have now matured.


Back on topic, Wind's article about the same time was one of the first I read.  Still have a Xerox copy of it, and just pulled it out a short while back.  I usually read golf architecture books while watching hockey on TV....not like it needs 100% attention, especially if you have rewind.

[Ira Fishman]

The great George Plimpton on golf writing:


SOME years ago I evolved what I called the Small Ball Theory to assess the quality of literature about sports. This stated that there seems to be a correlation between the standard of writing about a particular sport and the ball it utilizes -- that the smaller the ball, the more formidable the literature. There are superb books about golf, very good books about baseball, not many good books about football or soccer, very few good books about basketball and no good books at all about beach balls. I capped off the Small Ball Theory by citing Mark Twain's "Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," perhaps the most universally known of sports stories, in which bird shot (very small balls indeed!) is an important element in the plot.
[/size]I have found little to suggest that the theory does not still hold. The literature on golf -- by Bernard Darwin, Herbert Warren Wind, Dan Jenkins, Don Marquis, John Updike and P. G. Wodehouse, among others -- suggests that something about the vagaries of the game truly seems to suit the writer, especially the humorist. It was once suggested to me that the permanence of much of golf literature is due to the game itself -- in which the bad shot so surely in the future is conducive to the state of contained melancholy that so often produces first-rate writing (Dostoyevsky's, for instance. Conrad's. Hardy's). Even the professional golfer seems to write decently about what he does. Bobby Jones's "Golf Is My Game," which he wrote himself (a rarity indeed for a sports figure), is done with a skill comparable to his abilities with a golf stick.

[Dan Kelly]

Dan,


I also attended the 70 Open, as a 15 year old.  My biggest memory, aside from all the Dave Hill talk was following Trevino.  At the time, he was endorsing cut proof Faultless brand golf balls, but the rumor was he didn't - gasp - actually play them.  Well, on one hole, I was in the LZ, and he hit it in the rough near me (surprisingly I was on the left hand side) . . .

I distinctly remember seeing just two of Trevino's shots that week.


1. He tried to cut the dogleg on No. 2, hooked it and hit a tree.


2. He hit a bad hook on No. 6 and hit a tree.


I wonder if he was trying to learn how to hit a hook that week -- with so many of the old Hazeltine's holes being pretty sharp doglegs left. There were at least six of them: Nos. 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 15 (with a straight drive aimed right at the OB), and 18. That's seven doglegs left -- or eight, if you count the famous dogleg-left par-3 No. 16.

Back on topic, Wind's article about the same time was one of the first I read.  Still have a Xerox copy of it, and just pulled it out a short while back.  I usually read golf architecture books while watching hockey on TV....not like it needs 100% attention, especially if you have rewind.

Yeah, and especially if you're watching the Stars!

[Dan Kelly]

The great George Plimpton on golf writing:

Even the professional golfer seems to write decently about what he does. Bobby Jones's "Golf Is My Game," which he wrote himself (a rarity indeed for a sports figure), is done with a skill comparable to his abilities with a golf stick.

Ira --


Surely George Plimpton knew that Bobby Jones, a professional writer, was a lifelong amateur.


Perhaps copy editing's long, sad decline is even longer and sadder than I've heretofore realized!


Dan

[Colin Macqueen]

Gentlemen,


We are blessed that we can find solace in the writings of the venerable golf scribes after we have suffered the vicissitudes of the game itself!
A balm that heals the wounds to our pride and the damage to our psyche.


It does seem to me that golf has brought out the best of sports writers. Though I have read some very good sports writing with respect to boxing.


Who is (are) considered the best golf writers these days or is it a lost art?


Cheers Colin

[John_Cullum]

The great George Plimpton on golf writing:

Even the professional golfer seems to write decently about what he does. Bobby Jones's "Golf Is My Game," which he wrote himself (a rarity indeed for a sports figure), is done with a skill comparable to his abilities with a golf stick.

Ira --


Surely George Plimpton knew that Bobby Jones, a professional writer, was a lifelong amateur.


Perhaps copy editing's long, sad decline is even longer and sadder than I've heretofore realized!


Dan

When he got $250k for shooting some instructional videos he forfeited his status. He never competed after that except in the first Masters. I doubt he was asked to declare his status for the event.

[Dave McCollum]

Oh how I loved reading the New Yorker 30+ years ago.  HWW’s pieces in particular and I wasn’t even a golfer (also John McPhee).   Very temped by the cheap subscription rates to read this one and to renew a long lost pleasure, but hesitate because my time-wasting habits have been replaced by such things as reading this site.  Thanks for this temptation that will probably win out.

Plimpton's editor's excuse was probably that Jones turned pro to accept Hollywood's money after he retired from tourney golf.  Yeah, it was 30 years before his book was published, but... 

[Dan Kelly]

When he got $250k for shooting some instructional videos he forfeited his status.

Maybe so, John -- but he was not a "professional golfer"!


No matter. I think his ball-size theory hasn't yet been contradicted.


I'm just a little bit surprised that McPhee didn't take that crack about beach balls as a challenge.

[Ira Fishman]

Alas, the Internet and Cable TV have decimated the field of great writers about golf.  Mark Frost and Mike Bamberger are quite good, but they are exceptions, and I am hard pressed to think of others in the next generations. 


Ira

[Dave McCollum]

Good point about McPhee.  Are you old enough to have read his book (serialized in the New Yorker) about the guy making birch bark canoes?  I miss such great writing, too.   

[Jeff_Brauer]

I distinctly remember seeing just two of Trevino's shots that week.


1. He tried to cut the dogleg on No. 2, hooked it and hit a tree.


2. He hit a bad hook on No. 6 and hit a tree.


I wonder if he was trying to learn how to hit a hook that week -- with so many of the old Hazeltine's holes being pretty sharp doglegs left. There were at least six of them: Nos. 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 15 (with a straight drive aimed right at the OB), and 18. That's seven doglegs left -- or eight, if you count the famous dogleg-left par-3 No. 16.

Dan, I was 99% sure I was watching on hole 6, but didn't want to say because I wasn't 100% sure.  We were on the same hole at the same time 48 years ago......As to the Stars, just a few weeks ago, fans of both Stars and Wild thought tonight's game might mean something......but....turning off the computer to go watch now.

[John_Cullum]

When he got $250k for shooting some instructional videos he forfeited his status.

Maybe so, John -- but he was not a "professional golfer"!


No matter. I think his ball-size theory hasn't yet been contradicted.


I'm just a little bit surprised that McPhee didn't take that crack about beach balls as a challenge.

I will concede that he is considered an amateur by the golfing population of this universe. I am going to search for some writings on ping pong to test the theory.

[Tom_Doak]

Plimpton's list of great golf writers includes all the usual suspects and one I do not recognize - Don Marquis.  Is anyone familiar with his work?

[Edward Glidewell]

Plimpton's list of great golf writers includes all the usual suspects and one I do not recognize - Don Marquis.  Is anyone familiar with his work?

The only writer I know of named Don Marquis is a humorist from the early 20th century. I don't know if he ever wrote anything about golf, though.

[David_Tepper]

I would certainly add Lorne Rubenstein to the list of quality golf writers working today.

[Dan Kelly]

Good point about McPhee.  Are you old enough to have read his book (serialized in the New Yorker) about the guy making birch bark canoes?  I miss such great writing, too.

I read it as a book. It is one of my favorites.


Other than his geology books, which I wasn’t smart enough to “get” (maybe someday), I have enjoyed everything of McPhee’s that I have read.


Am just starting to listen to his narration of his new book, “Draft No. 4.” It is great to hear his voice.

[Dan Kelly]

Plimpton's list of great golf writers includes all the usual suspects and one I do not recognize - Don Marquis.  Is anyone familiar with his work?

Don Marquis was a newspaper columnist, early 29th century, for the New York Tribune. He is most famous for a pair of fictional creations known as Archy and Mehitabel.


From Wikipedia: “Marquis's best-known creation was Archy, a fictional cockroach (developed as a character during 1916) who had been a free-verse poet in a previous life, and who supposedly left poems on Marquis's typewriter by jumping on the keys. Archy usually typed only lower-case letters, without punctuation, because he could not operate the shift key. His verses were a type of social satire, and were used by Marquis in his newspaper columns titled "archy and mehitabel"; mehitabel was an alley cat, occasional companion of archy and the subject of some of archy's verses. The archy and mehitabel pieces were illustrated by cartoonist George Herriman, better known to posterity as the author of the newspaper comic ]Krazy Kat.Other characters developed by Marquis included Pete the Pup,Clarence the ghost, and an egomaniacal toad named Warty Bliggins.”

I don’t know about any golf writing. My Uncle Jack left behind a Don Marquis volume that I grabbed when his sons didn’t want it. I have not yet read it. Will look into it and see if there is some golf writing.

[Dan Kelly]

I distinctly remember seeing just two of Trevino's shots that week.


1. He tried to cut the dogleg on No. 2, hooked it and hit a tree.


2. He hit a bad hook on No. 6 and hit a tree.


I wonder if he was trying to learn how to hit a hook that week -- with so many of the old Hazeltine's holes being pretty sharp doglegs left. There were at least six of them: Nos. 1, 2, 6, 9, 10, 15 (with a straight drive aimed right at the OB), and 18. That's seven doglegs left -- or eight, if you count the famous dogleg-left par-3 No. 16.

Dan, I was 99% sure I was watching on hole 6, but didn't want to say because I wasn't 100% sure.  We were on the same hole at the same time 48 years ago.

Fantastic. I love that sort of thing.

[Dave McCollum]

Of the Wind piece, it brought back memories of a time when it was acceptable to take one’s time and write about a sporting event maybe weeks in the past, so long as it was captured perfectly.  Also of Wind’s self described writing style:  "It takes me 5,000 words to clear my throat."

[Ira Fishman]

Thank you for this thread. There is a wonderful collection of essays by Wind—Following Through—that I had not taken off the shelf for years, until now.


Ira

[Rich Goodale]

Wind was a very good writer, but he focused on the people (including himself) rather than the land.


If only McPhee could have been a golfer.....


r

[Dan Kelly]

If only McPhee could have been a golfer.....

r

Actually, he was (is?) a golfer (there is a John McPhee at Beacon Hill CC in Middletown, NJ, with a high single digit handicap, which could be he) and has written about the game.


You will find links (no pun intended!) to a couple of his golf pieces here: https://www.golfdigest.com/story/7-new-yorker-stories-about-gol


Another, here: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/07/01/the-orange-trapper


The first link will take you also to a couple of pieces by David Owen, a very versatile writer who has had many fine moments as a golf writer.

[Rich Goodale]

Thanks, Dan!


Rich

[Dan Kelly]

Plimpton's list of great golf writers includes all the usual suspects and one I do not recognize - Don Marquis.  Is anyone familiar with his work?

Don Marquis was a newspaper columnist, early 29th century, for the New York Tribune. He is most famous for a pair of fictional creations known as Archy and Mehitabel.


From Wikipedia: “Marquis's best-known creation was Archy, a fictional cockroach (developed as a character during 1916) who had been a free-verse poet in a previous life, and who supposedly left poems on Marquis's typewriter by jumping on the keys. Archy usually typed only lower-case letters, without punctuation, because he could not operate the shift key. His verses were a type of social satire, and were used by Marquis in his newspaper columns titled "archy and mehitabel"; mehitabel was an alley cat, occasional companion of archy and the subject of some of archy's verses. The archy and mehitabel pieces were illustrated by cartoonist George Herriman, better known to posterity as the author of the newspaper comic ]Krazy Kat.Other characters developed by Marquis included Pete the Pup,Clarence the ghost, and an egomaniacal toad named Warty Bliggins.”

I don’t know about any golf writing. My Uncle Jack left behind a Don Marquis volume that I grabbed when his sons didn’t want it. I have not yet read it. Will look into it and see if there is some golf writing.

Just perused the table of contents of "The Best of Don Marquis" and flipped through the pages at high speed -- and found nothing obviously about golf.


Nothing obviously funny, either!