Photo: © USGA The famous "Apple-Tree Gang" from St. Andrews Golf Club in Yonkers, New York in 1888.

However, there is evidence that a golf club was played in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia before the “Gang” got going, and even more evidence showing that the first golf club incorporated as such in the United States was Shinnecock Hills. Incorporated is the operative word. Shinnecock members were not apparently aware of St. Andrews in Yonkers, and vice-versa (Shinnecock being far out on Long Island, over 100 miles from Yonkers), but in any case, incorporated their club in 1891. The Yonkers crowd didn’t get that “official” act until 1894. Which is also to say that the Shinnecock folks were into golf pretty close to the same time as the Yonkerites, who did somehow win the public relations or publicity or whatever game. Perhaps their proximity to New York City had something to do with their “fatherhood” of American golf.

A time-honored piece of golf swing fundamentals has been to keep the left arm straight in the backswing. Well, Harry Vardon didn’t, nor did a lot of other stars of his era. Sam Snead had a “soft” left arm, and we know how well Ed Furgol and Calvin Peete played with permanently crooked left arms, both the result of boyhood injuries that didn’t heal properly. Furgol won a U.S. Open, and Peete was the most successful African-American player in American golf before Tiger came along

And while we’re into swing technique, Dick Rugge, Senior Technical Director of the USGA has told us that upon deep statistical research the driving distance average among tour pros has not increased all that rapidly in the past ten years. There was a big surge upward with the introduction of the metal driver and the surlyn-covered ball in the 1970s that kept building, but it has leveled off in the past three years. The average increase since 2003 is only about a yard a year. Furthermore, the longest hitters are not the most proficient out there on tour. The top ten driving-distance pros from 1980 to 1985 ranked 64th on the money list; in the 2000-2005 time-frame they fell to 77th. Newer numbers are not available, but the guess is they would show the same sort of thing. As they say in other contexts, size isn’t everything.

Photo: © American Golfer Both Walter Hagen was the first professional allowed to use clubhouse facilities.

Walter Hagen has long been credited with being the man who opened the clubhouse doors to golf professionals, who in a upper-class structured golf society were treated as second- if not third-class citizens. Hagen was one of the first pros to use a clubhouse, but he didn’t march in front of the members with placards crying out for better treatment of his ilk. According to Herb Graffis, the pioneering American golf writer, publisher and historian, in his history of the PGA of America, the breakthrough came in 1914 when the U.S. Open was being played at the Midlothian CC, outside Chicago. Members wondered where the pros could hang their coats, having always used hooks on the walls in the back of pros shops. Too many pros for this event called for some other means. One member suggested a room in the clubhouse be made available to the pros. Other members quaked at the thought, being the pros were not considered gentlemen. Yet another member replied that the club’s own head pro, George Turnbull, was one of the finest gentlemen in the world. All agreed to that, and the barrier fell, at least at Midlothian, and a precedent was set. Hagen got the credit because he may have been the first pro to enter the clubhouse at Midlothian, or perhaps because he won the Open that year.

Lee Trevino and his toy snake.

Getting more current, many who recall the 1972 British Open, at Muirfield, like to say when Lee Trevino chipped in on the par-five 17th hole in the last round for a birdie that sank Tony Jacklin and brought him the title, he was just dogging it; like, he took a quick, give-up slash at the ball and got lucky. A certain amount of luck was involved, as it is with any hole-out, but the notion that Trevino wasn’t really trying is baloney. Trevino never gave up anywhere, any time. The next chance you get to see the footage of the shot, check out how much time he took to judge the shot, and get in position to play it. It was in keeping with his natural tempo, that of a fast player. That he kind of ran down the hill after hitting the ball, which gave the impression he was just taking a hack at it, was simply because the hill was so steep.

One more on Trevino. He did not consciously or even unconsciously try to spook Jack Nicklaus in the moment before their playoff for the 1971 U.S. Open, at Merion GC. For some reason there was a delay in the start of play, and Trevino, sitting on his bag and restless, got to rustling through his bag. He came up with a toy snake that somehow got in there. He held it up, and when Nicklaus saw it he asked what it was. That’s when and why Trevino tossed the toy over. Pure innocence was in play, although anyone who thinks such a minor little event could upset a guy like Nicklaus is not or was not living in the real world.

Byron Nelson and Harold "Jug" McSpaden.

One more myth, although it has never been thought of in that way. I am creating it, and discounting it at the same time. I speak of Byron Nelson’s famous streak of 11 straight victories, in 1945. One of them, the very first, in fact, the Miami International Four-Ball, was won with a partner, Harold “Jug” McSpaden. (The shape of his jaw inspired the nickname.) No one knows just how much McSpaden actually helped Byron while the two won the four matches that it took to win that tournament, but McSpaden was a very good player who in the 1930s and ’40 won 17 times on the tour, and finished second so often to Byron that the two became known as “The Gold Dust Wins.”

So, by my lights I have Byron’s streak at 10½. Which is still pretty good! But, just in case you aren’t buying this notion, and are angry at the very mention of it, I will note that Byron’s most significant feat in 1945 was winning 18 times on the year. That will never be broken! Not even Tiger will threaten that one.