Matt Kuchar Displays Strong Grip on Vardon Trophy

THE VARDON TROPHY LOOKS like it’s a heavy rascal. But Matt Kuchar, shown above in a recent appearance on Golf Channel’s “Morning Drive” show, has a strong grip on the trophy and that ever-present Cheshire cat smile on his face. The Vardon Trophy is awarded to the PGA Tour player with the lowest adjusted scoring average, which happened to be Kuchar in 2010 with a mark of 69.43.

Harry Vardon, for whom the trophy was named, is famous on several counts. Vardon won the British Open a record six times and was twice victorious in the U.S. Open. Harry is also credited with the overlapping grip that’s favored by so many amateur and professional golfers. I thought of the famous Vardon grip as I took a close look at the trophy in the photo: two hands gripping a club and anchored to a slab of mahogany (or some other hardwood).

It’s early in the 2011 season, but Kuchar’s Vardon Trophy defense is off to a good start. He has three top 10s in his first three events, with a scoring average of 67.62. He is ranked 11th in FedEx Cup points and 13th in the Official World Golf Ranking.

And Kuchar is locked in a first-place tie with Phil Mickelson in the aw-shucks grin category.

−The Armchair Golfer

(Photo credit: Courtesy of Golf Channel)

Q&A: Errie Ball Turns 100

TALKING TO ERRIE BALL is like stepping into a time machine. Ball, who recently turned 100, was befriended by Bobby Jones at the 1930 British Open, the year Jones completed the Grand Slam. The Wales native came to America at Jones’s urging and took an assistant job at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta. Jones later invited him to play in the first Masters in 1934. Ball is the only surviving player from that inaugural tournament at Augusta National.

(Photo: The first Masters, left to right: G. Sargent, Errie Ball, Charlie Yates, Bobby Jones. / Chicagolandgolf.com)

Errie Ball has seen and/or played with all the greats of the last 80 years, from Harry Vardon to Bobby Jones to Ben Hogan. I talked to Errie three years ago when he was only 97. He is a treasure. Following is an excerpt from our conversation.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: What was it like playing in that first Masters?

ERRIE BALL: The first Masters, they were having a lot of trouble getting it off to a good start. It was like a friendly deal. I didn’t feel too scared or nervous at all in the first one because it was more relaxed. Bob Jones made it that way. There was a lot of liquor floating around. Of course, in those days, I didn’t drink anyway. But it was more relaxing. When I played it again in 1957 it was a different story. It was really big time.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Bobby Jones was very instrumental in your coming to America and in your golf career.

ERRIE BALL: He was. I played in the British Open the year he won at Hoylake in England. Hoylake is my family’s course where they played, and they played Hoylake and my father played there. I played quite a bit at Hoylake. I think I played two British Opens on Hoylake. But the last time was about 1936.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Did you ever meet Harry Vardon?

ERRIE BALL: No. I saw him in the distance and watched him. My father was a good friend of Harry Vardon. He had a beautiful swing. I know that.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Some of the more recent golf stories that have been written like The Greatest Game Ever Played are helping people understand what a great champion he was. Most people barely know of Bobby Jones but Vardon was quite something.

ERRIE BALL: He was. It’s an entirely different game today compared to those days. They played all kinds of shots. There weren’t any 150-yard markers at all and they had to just play by sight.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Back in those early days, like you said, the pros made their own clubs. I think I read Ted Ray only carried seven or eight sticks on the golf course. So it wasn’t at all like it is now.

ERRIE BALL: You could take a five iron and play all kinds of shots with it. Go down the shaft, play the little chip shots, or shots into the wind. You could play several shots with it. It was called a mashie in those days.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: I read you were the youngest person to compete in the British Open. In 1926, I read you were either 15 or 16 years old when you played in the British Open. Is that true?

ERRIE BALL: I’m not sure about that myself. The press wrote it up that I was the youngest, but I really actually don’t remember that. I know I played in it as a boy. I must have been about 16 or 17, something like that.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Was that in the ’26 Open or 1930?

ERRIE BALL: 1930. I played one time in the 20s in the Open, because Hoylake was fairly close to where I lived, where my family lived anyway, so we’d go over there and play.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: The first British Open you played in was 1930?

ERRIE BALL: That’s the one I remember the most. That’s the one Jones played in on the way to his Grand Slam.

ARMCHAIR GOLF: Are you still playing golf?

ERRIE BALL: I’ve had a couple of operations, double bypass, which has taken me off the golf course and I haven’t really played 18 holes in two years. But I’ve hit a lot of balls on the practice tee and still give a few lessons. I’m feeling a lot better now but I think I’ll probably start playing soon.

−The Armchair Golfer

From Parks to Molinaris: Golf’s Greatest Brothers

FRANCESCO AND EDOARDO MOLINARI will be the first brothers to compete on a Ryder Cup team since Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt represented Great Britain in the 1963 biennial matches. Francesco, 28, qualified on points, and Edoardo, 29, was a captain’s pick after a late-season run that included wins at the Barclays Scottish Open and last weekend’s Johnnie Walker Championship.

“I don’t think I have to tell you who his [Edoardo’s] partner will be in the fourballs or foursomes,” said Colin Montgomerie, the European team captain.

The Molinaris are just the latest brother act to make a splash in professional golf. They have three European Tour wins between them, which means they’ll need to rack up a lot more titles before they catch many of the following brother tandems.

(Image: 1961 PGA champion Jerry Barber was a short-game wizard.)

Lloyd and Ray Mangrum
Hailing from the pre- and post-World War II era, the Mangrums have the most wins, 41. Lloyd, the younger brother, was a great player, winning 36 titles, including the 1946 U.S. Open in a playoff against Vic Ghezzi and Byron Nelson. Nelson called Mangrum, a Hall of Famer, the best forgotten golfer. Ray won five times between 1936 and 1946.

Jay and Lionel Hebert
With five PGA Tour titles apiece, the Heberts didn’t come close to the Mangrums. But they did something only one other brother act (that I know of) has done: they both won majors. The younger brother, Lionel won the PGA Championship in 1957. Big brother Jay won the PGA in 1960. How cool is that? Jay, I’ve been told, had a picture-perfect golf swing.

Willie and Mungo Park
Willie Park Sr. won four Open Championships from 1860 to 1875. Mungo, his younger brother, won the Open in 1874. And Jr., Willie’s son, won it twice. Talk about keeping it in the family.

Harry and Tom Vardon
The great Harry Vardon, the namesake of the Vardon grip and Vardon Trophy awarded annually to the PGA Tour player with the lowest scoring average, won the Open Championship a record six times. His older brother Tom played in the Open Championship (but never won) and later went to America to take a job as a club professional.

Lanny and Bobby Wadkins
Lanny, the younger Wadkins, had a Hall of Fame career that included 30 wins, one major and several Ryder Cup appearances. Bobby won once on the European Tour and twice on the Japan Golf Tour, but never won in a long PGA Tour career, racking up six runner-up finishes. He’s won four times on the Champions Tour.

Jerry and Willie Barber
Jerry was a great putter who won seven times on tour, including the 1961 PGA Championship, during which he made 120 feet of putts on the last three holes to tie Don January. Then he beat January in a playoff. Jerry also played on two Ryder Cup teams. Willie, his less-famous brother, was a club professional and very good player who once joined yours truly for nine holes in the California desert.

Bernard and Geoffrey Hunt
Bernard had more than 30 professional wins and played on eight Ryder Cup teams. His brother Geoffrey joined him on the 1963 team, but they didn’t play together in any matches.

Camilo and Manuel Villegas
Camilo, of course, is the rising star who has three PGA Tour wins. Manuel is his baby brother who teed it up with Camilo at the St. Jude Classic and has played sporadically on the Nationwide Tour.

MORE BROTHERS

Following are the 12 brother combinations who have won on the PGA Tour. Four of the seven Turnesa brothers won on tour, as did three Smith brothers, of which Macdonald was the star. (The year of first official victory and career wins are in parentheses.)

Alex Smith (1906/2)-Macdonald Smith (1924/24)-Willie Smith (1899/1)
Tom Kerrigan (1920/4)-George Kerrigan (1922/2)
Al Espinosa (1924/8)-Abe Espinosa (1928/3)
Lloyd Mangrum (1940/36)-Ray Mangrum (1936/5)
Jim Turnesa (1951/2)-Joe Turnesa (1924/15)-Mike Turnesa (1931/6)-Phil Turnesa (1932/1)
Lionel Hebert (1957/5)-Jay Hebert (1957/5)
Dave Hill (1961/13)-Mike Hill (1970/3)
Don Massengale (1966/2)-Rik Massengale (1975/3)
Joe Inman (1976/1)-John Inman (1987/2)
Danny Edwards (1977/5)-David Edwards (1980/4)
Curt Byrum (1989/1)-Tom Byrum (1989/1)
Brad Bryant (1995/1)-Bart Bryant (2004/3)

−The Armchair Golfer

(Sources: PGA Tour Media Guide and Wikipedia)

From Tom Kidd to Tiger Woods: The Open at St. Andrews

The following is an excerpt from THE OPEN: Golf’s Oldest Major, a pictorial history of the championship that includes overview texts. To enter a free drawing for a copy of the hardcover book, email your name and address to armchairgolfer@gmail.com.

By Donald Steel
Special to ARMCHAIR GOLF

© 2009 R&A Championships Ltd. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

MOST GOLFERS’ IDEA OF HEAVEN is an Open at St. Andrews. For the players, there is certainly nothing to compare with victory over the Old Course—Jack Nicklaus maintains that “if you want to be remembered, you have to win at St. Andrews.”

There have been suggestions that every Open Championship should be held there so it is no surprise that it has housed more than any other venue. It is no surprise either that, of the three original courses used for The Open, it is the sole survivor. Recently, it has played host ever fifth year.

No course is more public than the Old in the sense that so much is visible of the start and finish from adjacent streets and buildings. The 18th green gives the feeling of being part of the town and, at the climax of an Open, is overlooked by thousands who have paid and a good few hundred who haven’t. Necks are strained from many a window. In the playing sense, it is the course of double fairways, double greens, pot bunkers, and the Road Hole—the most infamous in the world, a combination that golf course architects regard as the blueprint of their art for all students to follow and revere. Not that everyone has stood in awe.

Harry Vardon claimed that the Old is “a good course, but its bunkers are badly placed,” which may explain why none of his six Open victories took place there. George Duncan, on the other hand, remarked, “What I like about the Old Course, is that you play a very good shot and find yourself in a very bad place.” Tiger Woods’s reaction in 2000 was to avoid the bunkers altogether in all four rounds, a forerunner to victory by eight strokes that equaled St. Andrews’ biggest winning margin by J.H. Taylor exactly a hundred years earlier.

Taylor and Woods share with Jack Nicklaus, James Braid and Bob Martin the honour of winning two Opens over the Old Course but two other memories stand out. St. Andrews marked the first and last appearances of Arnold Palmer and the victory in 1964 of Tony Lema, with Palmer’s caddie on loan—one of the most remarkable of all.

Open Championships played at St. Andrews:
1873 / 1876 / 1879 / 1882 / 1885 / 1888 / 1891 / 1895 / 1900 / 1905 / 1910 / 1921 / 1927 / 1933 / 1939 / 1946 / 1955 / 1957 / 1960 / 1964 / 1970 / 1978 / 1984 / 1990 / 1995 / 2000 / 2005 / 2010