Great Tales from Golf History

Golf history is full of great—and endlessly amusing—tales. Of course, many deal with the greats of the game, but there are also tales of lesser-known players every bit as colorful and amusing.

Golf has always seemed to attract characters, and its history books are filled with stories that deserve to be told again. Some are absolutely true. Others have undoubtedly been embellished through the years. And some fall somewhere in between.

But that’s part of the fun.

Today, let’s take a look at a few of the more entertaining stories that have graced golf history.

Tommy “Thunder” Bolt

The late, great Tommy Bolt—“Thunder Bolt,” as he was appropriately known—had what many would simply describe as a bad temper.

Tommy could get a little hot under the collar, to be sure. Yet he always seemed to find a way to make his purported anger somewhat humorous.

As the story goes, he was once playing a Tour event in Texas. After completing his round, a PGA Tour official informed him that he had been fined $50—a considerable amount of money at the time—for using foul language in the presence of the gallery. Tommy denied it and demanded proof. The official brought forward the woman who had reported him.

“On the fourth hole, after you missed that short putt, you used the F-word.”

Bolt turned to the official and handed him $100. The official looked puzzled.

“No, Tommy, it’s only $50.”

Bolt turned to the woman and said:

“F— you.”

Then he turned back to the official.

“Now we’re even.”

That was Tommy Bolt.

Leo Diegel and those elbows

There was a legendary Tour player back in the 1920s and ’30s named Leo Diegel. A great ball striker, Diegel struggled mightily with his putting.

So he came up with a rather unusual style. He addressed the ball bent over with his elbows sticking dramatically outward. The method became so closely associated with him that it became known as “Diegeling.” Odd-looking or not, it worked pretty well for him for many years.

Leo was also a good friend of the great Walter Hagen—more about Walter in a moment.

When Diegel died, Hagen was deeply upset by the loss of his old friend. As the story goes, when it came time for Leo’s funeral, Walter stopped by a few pubs to gather enough courage to attend.

Arriving late, another Hagen habit, the casket had been closed. Upon arriving at the casket, Walter looked down at his friend, knocked on the coffin three times and said:

“Hey, Leo. How in the hell did they ever get you in there with your elbows sticking out?”

Only Walter Hagen.

Walter Hagen and the Missing Trophy

While we’re on the subject of Walter Hagen, we could probably fill an entire book with stories about The Haig.

Walter had an expression by which he lived and played: “Don’t hurry. Don’t worry. And remember to smell the flowers along the way.”

His ball striking—particularly with the driver—could get notoriously wild at times. But Walter never seemed particularly upset by it. He would simply hit it, go find it, and hit it again.

He relied heavily on his magnificent short game and putting. Golf writers who watched him play regularly considered him among the finest putters of his era.

There must have been some truth to that. The man won 11 major championships.

Walter also enjoyed the social side of life and was known to indulge in a few adult beverages from time to time.

As it turns out, Hagen won the PGA Championship four consecutive years—1924 through 1927. The winner of the PGA Championship received possession of the Wanamaker Trophy, traditionally returning it at the following year’s championship.

For four years Walter had no problem. He kept winning it. Then came 1928. Hagen finally lost, and now the trophy had to be returned.

There was only one problem. Walter didn’t know where it was.

The story of what happened next has been told in several forms over the years. One version has Hagen leaving the Wanamaker Trophy in the back of a New York City cab after a night of considerable celebration. The cab driver, apparently not a golfer, had no idea what the trophy represented—or just how important the fellow who left it behind happened to be.

And, according to the tale, Walter was, shall we say, pretty intoxicated.

Whether every detail happened exactly as the story has been handed down is almost beside the point. That was Walter!

Ben Hogan: Quite a Different Character

On a more serious note, the great Ben Hogan was almost the complete antithesis of a Walter Hagen type.

Hogan was dour, intensely serious and, as many have said, sometimes rather off-putting. His powers of concentration, however, were legendary.

He rarely said a word to a playing companion or opponent during a competitive round. Most Hogan biographers have suggested that his laconic demeanor was simply his way of concentrating completely on the task at hand. Which brings us to the 1948 Masters.

Hogan was playing with Claude Harmon, patriarch of the famous Harmon golf family and longtime professional at Winged Foot. The two arrived at Augusta National’s famous 12th hole—the notorious par 3 played across Rae’s Creek.

Harmon hit his tee shot. It went in. A hole-in-one at the 12th hole of the Masters! The patrons went wild.

Then Hogan stepped up, hit his tee shot a few feet from the hole and calmly made the putt for a birdie two.

According to the story, Hogan and Harmon began walking toward the 13th tee. Hogan turned to Harmon and asked: “What did you make there?”

Harmon, understandably amazed, replied something to the effect of: “I made a one, Ben.”

Hogan wrote it down. And the two marched on.

Now, as with so many of these wonderful old golf stories, there is often some truth mixed with a little myth. This particular story has been repeated in various forms ever since.

The Hogan devotees—and there are many—will tell you it simply demonstrated Ben’s extraordinary power of concentration. He was so completely absorbed in his own game that the commotion surrounding Harmon’s ace barely registered.

Did it happen exactly that way? Who knows? But after all these years, the story is still being told. And it’s amusing enough to include here.