Another Gem from the Mother of All House Cleanings

[V. Kmetz]

This was my first major... this was Zoeller's Monday playoff victory over Norman, when Zoeller waved the white towel on 18 when he thought Norman birdied (but instead had a holed a cross green chip for par)



Some all-over recollections from this week:
Calvin Peete. the straightest driver anyone has ever seen, had to be brought off the course Thursday or Friday for heat prostration; he was at his peak then and I was disappointed he wasn;t around for the week.


When not on the course, Jim Thorpe was often found in the old WF caddie yard, playing cards and smoking cigarettes with the older caddies (JW and the Allen brothers, who were still there up until 6 years ago).


My aunt in Tarrytown put up Andy Bean's caddie for the both that week and the week before at the Westchester Classic down the road...god help me I cannot remember his name, but the one night we all had dinner, he was filled with stories, which at that point in my life were like listening to Moses or something.


I went three days and my m.O. was to go with my father, then after an in initial walkabout, off in our own directions; I was only responsible to touch base with him at the 9th tee every 2 hours (no cell phones then).


All parking was one the East course and after some humid June rains, the place was a fucking quagmire...they had little sno fences around the greens and tees, but cars were rutted everywhere else -- on the side of hills, tires in the bunkers, it was like a Motocross at week's end.  We originally got our tickets through the Super (for whom my father did odd mechanical work) ...I think his name was Bob Alonzi; my father told me he was inconsolable as the East damage got worse and worse through the week.


My favorite memory from that time was that I discovered a great spot to watch play...directly behind the par 3 13th (213 yds)...flat on my stomach, watching the shots launch from ground level no more than 10 feet behind the player.  TV coverage wasn't wall to wall like it is today but when I watched ABC highlights/local news highlights I saw myself and something I hadn't noticed...that "John 3:16 guy" (with the Rainbow wig) who used to show up/crash all sports back then was standing over and astride me holding his sign.


One last thing...this program?  Now this is when a program was a PROGRAM; this thing is so chock full of info features, stats, stories, it's like a Golf Anthology...plus the charming local advertisements and now dated ads for things like cigarettes and the first personal computers ...neat stuff, for sure.

[Brian Potash]

That’s cool.  Thanks for sharing.


Brian

[Tom_Doak]

VK:  The program from 1974 had 3-inch contour maps of all the greens, IIRC.  Unfortunately, I did not save that one from my dad's house.  There were too many baseball scorecards I wanted to keep.

[V. Kmetz]

I'll have to try and hunt one of those down; I've been enjoying this 1984 edition so much. However the hole by hole descriptions and art renderings for the West are perhaps the least good thing about it.


Still its 280 pages, with like 12 features, Open history, WF history, player profiles, 1983 recap, pictures of the WF staff, a cartoon section and then these ads are so perfectly nostalgic...the first IBM PC (with Charlie Chaplin Tramp character),,,the first cell/car phones from NYNEX... Kent cigarettes... I almost can't believe I lived in those times.

[Pat Burke]

VK:  The program from 1974 had 3-inch contour maps of all the greens, IIRC.  Unfortunately, I did not save that one from my dad's house.  There were too many baseball scorecards I wanted to keep.

Not architecture but one of my favorite reads aaa kid was
Massacre at Winged Foot. Fun recap of 1974

[JMEvensky]

VK:  The program from 1974 had 3-inch contour maps of all the greens, IIRC.  Unfortunately, I did not save that one from my dad's house.  There were too many baseball scorecards I wanted to keep.

You're a man with his priorities in order--old baseball scorecards are always worth preserving.

[Ira Fishman]

VK:  The program from 1974 had 3-inch contour maps of all the greens, IIRC.  Unfortunately, I did not save that one from my dad's house.  There were too many baseball scorecards I wanted to keep.

You're a man with his priorities in order--old baseball scorecards are always worth preserving.

This reminds me of a very sad and cautionary tale of house cleaning. When I was a kid and ardent baseball fan, my step grandmother worked at the hotel where visiting teams would stay whenin town to play the Cubs. She would ask players to sign scraps of paper for me. It was a wonderful collection—Koufax and Mays among many others. For reasons that remain mysterious, when my younger brother with whom I shared a room left for college, my Mom undertook a purge that included the box of autographs. Mysterious because she was and is a huge fan herself. The autographs would not be worth a lot, but they sure would still have great value for me.


Ira

[Tom_Doak]

You're a man with his priorities in order--old baseball scorecards are always worth preserving.

With the box scores and play by play for every game since 1913 now available at baseball-reference.com , it's not like they get used very often.  That's an amazing resource.


However, not EVERYTHING can be found on the internet.  It's amazing how much history is deleted as we go on, and concerning who is doing that on our behalf.  Plus if Google doesn't think you should see it, then for all practical purposes, it doesn't exist.

[V. Kmetz]

VK:  The program from 1974 had 3-inch contour maps of all the greens, IIRC.  Unfortunately, I did not save that one from my dad's house.  There were too many baseball scorecards I wanted to keep.

Not architecture but one of my favorite reads aaa kid was
Massacre at Winged Foot. Fun recap of 1974

by Dick Schaap...one of the last of the old time reporters