Author: Head Nut

John Schwarb, Sports Illustrated

The Golf Heritage Society’s annual convention was recently in Indianapolis, with plenty of unique items to be found on trade show day.

INDIANAPOLIS — The trade show floor at the Golf Heritage Society’s annual convention is part collectible sale, part history lesson. Look one way for a table full of hickory clubs, each with a story. Look another way and see a trophy from a century ago.

The GHS, whose mission is to “promote an appreciation for the history and traditions of golf and to foster friendship among its enthusiasts worldwide” brought its annual convention to Indianapolis last week, with seminars, golf outings and a trade show any lover of golf history should check out. 

Indianapolis is my home, so I could easily visit. Here are some items that caught my eye.

Bobby Jones’ 1919 Canadian Open Medal

In 1919, a 17-year-old amateur sensation from Atlanta went to Hamilton, Ontario, for the Canadian Open. Bobby Jones finished in a tie for second with Jim Barnes, 16 shots behind J. Douglas Edgar (interestingly, also from Atlanta).

Of course, Jones won no prize money as an amateur, but he received this silver medal in what would be his only Canadian Open appearance. In 1969, he donated 32 national championship medals to the USGA for public display—but not this one. His daughter kept it for years, now it’s on the open market for $45,000.

Phil Mickelson’s Arizona State Golf Bag

A Ping stand bag by itself usually wouldn’t get golf collectors excited, but how about Phil Mickelson’s bag from Arizona State? He won NCAA titles in 1989, 1990 and 1992, though the owner of the bag can’t say for sure when this was used. Photo-matching is a popular technique now for collectors to best authenticate items, so that’s going to be the next job with this piece.

The bag comes with a set of Ping Eye 2s including a 1-iron. Doesn’t that sound like Phil?

Vintage Golf Ball Boxes

Vintage golf balls are plentiful among hardcore golf collectors, but the boxes—even empty ones—can be collectible too with their bright colors and interesting wording. Anyone got an extra Nimble Shilling lying around?

Presidential Golf Balls

Speaking of golf balls, many presidents and vice presidents played while in office and their officially sealed and individually boxed balls are crossover collectibles for golf and presidential history buffs. 

Player Money Clips

Older money clips belonging to prominent players are attainable without taking out a loan. This display case included a number of PGA Tour and then-Senior PGA Tour member clips as well as clips from major championships and regular tour events. 

Arnold Palmer Signed Pennzoil Motor Oil Label

One rule of golf memorabilia continues to ring true: Anything tied to Arnold Palmer is cool. Like his famously neat signature on a label from a can of Pennzoil, which the fellow Pennsylvanian endorsed for decades.

2007 PGA Championship Ticket

You’ve heard about the top-dollar items in golf collecting, like the $5 million Tiger Slam irons and a backup putter of his that sold for north of $300,000. And then another backup putter.

At the opposite of the value spectrum are tickets, but don’t sleep on those as the years go by. Why? Because the rise of digital means fewer physical tickets getting into the marketplace, which only helps older tickets.

A ticket like this one from the 2007 PGA Championship might not be very rare yet, but if you’re collecting tickets from Woods major victories, it’s a must-have and at a good price.

A golf nut’s paradise.

The Head Nut

#0001

Adam Schupak 

August 4, 2022

Vin Scully called me on Christmas.

Sure, I had sent him an email interview request hours earlier on Christmas Eve, but it never crossed my mind that he would phone me during the biggest day of the NBA season.

Hearing the sad news that Scully died Tuesday at age 94 made me think back (and dig up our interview transcript) to an occasion that to me said so much about the person he was. Scully may have been synonymous with baseball and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but he broadcast professional golf, too, first for CBS – including the Masters eight times from 1975-1982 – and then with NBC from 1983-1989, where he partnered in the 18^th-hole tower with Lee Trevino.

As much as I would have loved to listen to him speak for hours on baseball, it was his time in golf that I was asking him to reminisce about. I had forgotten about this until I did an email search, but the person who shared with me Scully’s contact information (and shall remain nameless) gave it to me on Aug. 13, or more than four months before Christmas. No phone number but an email address – I guess at this point I’m not revealing too much by saying his email started red@ – and a fax number. Who still had a fax? Apparently, Vin did! I never faxed him but now that I think of it, I wish I had just to say I did.

This was some quality procrastination from mid-August to late December, even for me, but sounds about right – have a direct line to the man, the myth, the legend Vin Scully and wait until most of the Catholic world was at a midnight mass service to bother writing him for an interview.

Players and fans stand for a moment of silence for the passing of Vin Scully before the Houston Astros played the Boston Red Sox at Minute Maid Park in Houston on August 3. (Thomas Shea-USA TODAY Sports)

Santa could not have given me a better gift than a call from Vin had jolly Saint Nick landed his sleigh on the roof of my downtown Orlando condo and dumped out a bag of toys. The year was 2013, and while the specifics are a bit vague, I think I had seen a movie earlier that day and was watching the NBA in the late afternoon before dinner with my parents when I answered the phone and heard his unmistakable voice.

I may have procrastinated on writing him, but I had prepped several questions and I scrambled to pull them up on my laptop and fumbled to find my digital recorder. Again, who calls a total stranger on Christmas and sits for a lengthy phone interview? Vin Scully, that’s who!

I’m not going to post the full transcript of the interview, but here are a few things he said about Trevino, a partner he considered a true friend, that stuck out:

“Most people think of Lee Trevino they think of a talkative, outgoing, happy-go-lucky type of guy. He’s like so many people, he’s misunderstood,” Scully said. “He’s an intelligent, sensitive human being. Very bright. We’d sit on the tower and talk about the world events. He had a delightful laugh that everybody loved, but he’s far more than that delightful jokester.

“I marveled at a few things about him. Lee told me one time that he never had a cavity. As someone who has what I call Irish teeth, he had beautiful teeth,” Scully continued. “His eyesight was remarkable. I don’t know what it would be if he read the charts but we would in the tower on a par 5, so it’s a long hole, and then we would be 20 yards away from the green, and he would watch somebody hit off the tee and he’d say he blocked the shot. He had the eyesight of Chuck Yeager. It was incredible.”

“Once in a while I had the pleasure of playing with him,” he told me. “I never asked him anything. At my best, I was a 12 handicap. I’m left-handed. So occasionally we’d be on the range and we’d be facing each other and I’d just marvel at him. He might say something like, ‘Vinny, you’re choking the club to death. Relax.’ Then I’d start hitting a few balls very well and he’d say, ‘OK, let’s go.’ We’d walk 100 yards to the tee and I’d go right back to being what I am, which is hopeless. It was a great privilege to watch him shape shots. Remarkable.”

I asked him to describe how Trevino prepped for a broadcast, and his response was telling about how he went about doing his job and what made him so great. “Technically, in any sport, I always assumed I was the reporter answering the question who, what, where and when but the how – that key word – that belonged to the analyst. I would talk about score, where they are today, the shot, the club, the distance and then get out of the way to allow Lee to give the analysis. I would sit at his feet almost like a child and listen to his explanation of why these things occurred.”

I could go on but this final anecdote he shared is arguably my favorite, because it combined golf and baseball and two athletes that captured the attention of the sporting public.

“There was a wonderful golf writer in England named Bernard Darwin,” Scully began. “He talked about a player that was out of sight in a tournament and then won. He referred to the fact that the golfer had come from the back of beyond. I thought that was such a remarkable phrasing. I used it with Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican left-hander, who really came from the back of beyond to become more than a hero. I felt that Lee was the same. He came from the back of beyond. He came from hitting golf balls with branches in the cemetery.”

At this point we had talked for 25 minutes and I had exhausted my questions and he had told one gem of a story after another. However, I didn’t really want to hang up. I had the great Vin on the line and I didn’t want this moment to end. I had a pretty good idea that this was going to be a one-and-done for me. But before I could start vamping, he said, “I hope that helps a little bit, Adam. I’ve got family here and I did want to do it before I got overwhelmed.”

I suddenly felt like the worst person in the world. It’s Christmas Day, Vin’s family is over and I’m keeping him from having a glass of eggnog with his wife and kids to do the most-non-deadline of non-deadline interviews you can imagine.

I wished him happy holidays, and that was the extent of my dealings with him, but it left a lasting impression that someone as famous as he would drop everything – even on Christmas Day – to do an interview for a sport he hadn’t covered in over 20 years.

To me, it spoke to Scully’s character and was just a small reason he was such a beloved figure in sports. I loved listening to him call a game before, but after our Christmas Day interview he had secured a permanent space in the upper tier of my sports broadcasting firmament. Vin Scully was pure class in my book, and I can’t help but think of him every year on Christmas Day.

We need more Vin Scully’s and fewer Greg Normans.

The Head Nut

#0001

Is this your idea of what’s best for the game?

Good for you, it’s not mine.

The Head Nut

#0001

Does this spell the end of golf as we know it? I do know that it will be the end of golf for me. I will refuse to play any golf course that has those things zipping around the course. There is a line I will not cross. – The Head Nut

A golf nut who types his swing keys on a note card?

Or…

His non-golfing wife who laminates the note card for him?

Or…

His golf buddy who takes a photo of the note card and then types the notes into his cell phone in case they might contain The Secret?

Yes, this really happened…

The first golf nut is Doug Kyle, Certified Golf Nut #4021

The second golf nut is Sal Panelli, Certified Golf Nut #4073

The Head Nut

#0001

Makes sense to me!

The Head Nut

#0001

Golf Nuts,

This is your chance to buy a piece of golf history. It’s the Jeff Ellis Golf Auction, and it’s live until September 17, 2022.

Here’s a Golf Digest story about the auction…

You won’t believe what this golf ball from 1840 could be selling for

And here’s the link to the auction site…

Jeff Ellis Golf Auctions – The Desert Mountain Collection

Enjoy the auction!

The Head Nut

#0001

Meet Gretchen Johnson

A young woman from Portland that fellow Golf Nut Al Jamieson (#1897) met years ago when she worked for Nike.  He was asked to host her at his club by a mutual friend.  She was first and foremost a runner who dated a golfer when attending NYU and thus took up golf.  Since then, she has made match play in four women’s U.S. Mid-Amateurs, played in the Women’s Four Ball, and won a few Oregon events. 

Along the way she has competed in speed golf.  A couple of years ago, she won an event in Chicago.  Shot 72 in 57 minutes!!

She not only plays well, she plays FAST!!

And fast is the only way to play.

The Head Nut

#0001

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ZIRE GOLF (@ziregolf)

Nah…

The Head Nut

#0001

This photo was taken by Certified Golf Nut Sal Panelli (#4073). He’s the shadowy character in the bottom-right of the photo. It seems that Sal was in a passionate and highly technical search for a new set of irons, so he did what any self-respecting golf nut would do. He went to his local big box store, commandeered a hitting bay sporting a launch monitor and simulator, proceeded to hit a variety of clubs for nearly two hours, and photographed the stats for each.

We wish #4073 good luck in his search and look forward to a full report on the results.

The Head Nut

#0001