Five years ago, as a new “Nut” I joined Bermuda Dunes Country Club. A benefit of membership is a reduced rate to play in the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic.
Technically you have to have a low of the year index of 18 or better. I say technically because it has become obvious that the right amount of cash can get you a playing spot. (That’s a whole other story.) Although my index was 18.1, I was allowed to sign on as an alternate. As the first alternate in the “C” field I just had to wait until someone didn’t show to play.
Well after three days of patiently waiting…no luck. I figure if the guys showed the first three days I may be out of luck. So I inform the starter that I can’t hang out all day Saturday hoping that someone doesn’t show, but I would be available on short notice to play.
A big part of the reason for not hanging out at the club was that I organize a customer appreciation party at my home. As I live on the 15th fairway at Bermuda Dunes it allows my clients access to viewing the “Hope” in a party atmosphere. I was expecting 125 guests. My wonderful wife, Mary, is always very helpful in hosting this event even through she knows very few of my clients.
Well Saturday morning, having just finished the last of the party preparations, I’m showering and in comes my wife with phone in hand. “It’s the pro shop and you are not playing in this #@!@#$ tournament and sticking me with your guests!” she says.
Well, of course, as a good “Nut”, I have to play. I am informed I’m on the tee in 25 minutes. Not a problem, I am out of there and leave my not very happy wife with the task of entertaining 125 strangers.
I am the “C” player in Woody Austin’s foursome. As we get talking I tell Woody the story of leaving my wife to entertain while I am here with him. On the 15th tee, I look down at my home and see a wave of 100+ people cheering for me.
Woody looks over and comments that I have a bigger gallery than him.
After teeing off, we walk briskly down the middle of the fairway (I hit my best drive of the day.) Woody makes a sharp left and proceeds toward the swarm of people at my home. He asks for my wife. Upon dragging her through the throng, he gives her a big hug and thanks her for allowing me to play with him that day.
Truly a class act. Made her day and a few points for me.
Sorry for the long set up, but it’s a day I won’t soon forget.
Joe Deisenroth
#2953
Dear #2953,
That is one of the most heart-warming Golf Nut stories I’ve read in a very long time. Long suffering wife gets hug from Woody Austin because she couldn’t keep you around the house to entertain 125 of YOUR business clients. LOL!
“In the 18-hole playoff the following day, pandemonium ruled. More than 20,000 American working men, and a few women, freed from their jobs in factories, shops and offices on Saturday, seethed over the soggy course at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass. Francis Ouimet awoke, had a light breakfast and then he walked across the street . . .”–Rhonda Glenn, writing for the U.S. Golf Association on the centennial of the historic 1913 U.S. Open
* * *
Of all the brilliant words written about America’s first golf hero, Francis Ouimet, these are the ones that capture the essence of why his story resonates more than 100 years later.
He walked across the street.
Inspiring as it still would have been had Ouimet won the 1913 U.S. Open at the National Golf Links of America – which is where things were headed till officials at The Country Club reversed themselves and agreed to host that year’s national championship – it likely would not have aged as beautifully as it has without the presence of a 1,550-square-foot, three-bedroom home at 246 Clyde Street in Brookline, Mass.
From his second-floor bedroom of this modest six-room home that looked out on Clyde Street, Francis Ouimet could see through trees and catch a glimpse of the 17th hole at The Country Club.
So enchanted was he with the magical golf course that Ouimet found a shortcut across a section of it to the Putterham School, a route that afforded him the opportunity to find golf balls.
The Country Club is where Ouimet caddied. It is where he played his first round of golf with a member named Thomas Hastings. And it is where in 1913, at the age of 20, he authored arguably the greatest American sports story by winning the U.S. Open.
Iconic, this man Ouimet. A treasure, his slice of history. Mystical, how all of it was set in motion with a simple walk across the street.
Such a thought used to consume Tommy Hynes on those walks with his dog past 246 Clyde Street. “If you ever wanted to sell, I’m your buyer,” Hynes would remind the owners, Jerome and Dedie Wieler.
A rather dynamic piece of Boston history himself, Hynes, who has a home further down on Clyde Street, said he “would chuckle and keep walking.”
But the Wielers – who weren’t golfers but appreciated the Ouimet story – knew Hynes was serious. They discovered in 2021 he was true to his word, too, because when they approached with an offer to sell, Tommy Hynes shook hands and made the transaction official in the time you could say, “Francis Ouimet and Eddie Lowery.”
Hynes, a legend in Boston commercial real estate circles, has brokered some of the most important and extravagant deals in Boston history. But this purchase of 246 Clyde Street is blanketed in pure benevolence.
“I didn’t want to see this home go away. It needs to be returned to golf,” said Hynes, who is cut from the same sort of cloth as his late uncle, John B. Hynes, Boston’s three-term Mayor in the 1950s who counted among his major accomplishments the modernization of the city and the birth of the Freedom Trail.
Now landmarks along the Freedom Trail go back further in time than 246 Clyde Street. Tommy Hynes, however, fosters the notion that it is good for the soul to treat history with reverence, that there is a time for new and a time to restore.
Francis Ouimet’s boyhood home fits into the latter category. “Maybe it’s a crazy idea, (but with the 2022 U.S. Open coming to The Country Club in three months), I think the time is right to bring this house back to its 1913 style,” said Hynes.
He doesn’t yet know what plans are for the house. “We’ll figure that out later. Right now, we’re deep into the restoration.”
He is not alone, either. Forty people believed in the project and joined Hynes’ LLC. “That began the journey,” he said. “We want this house to look like it did when Francis lived in it.”
To hold history as preciously as does Hynes is a big part of the equation. But equally important is to find a true craftsman who will take on the smallest of details, who won’t cut corners on a project like the mantle over the fireplace in the Ouimet living room.
Willer Krautz, for instance.
“He is patient, he is very, very good,” said Hynes, who hand-picked the Brazilian-born Krautz for this job. It requires painstaking care and Krautz has been pouring loving care into the mantle and the stairs leading to the second floor and attic. The scraping, the slow and methodical effort to get down to the original look . . . it is a work of art.
“There was stain, there was paint, there was linoleum,” said Krautz. “Maybe four or five layers. But it will look like what it did when he lived here.”
For the bedroom where Francis Ouimet practiced his putting and stared longingly out the window to watch golfers at TCC, the decision was made to strip down to the original floor, then have that wood sent to a shop where it will be refinished to what it looked like more than 100 years ago.
Oh, in a perfect world, Hynes and friends could restore the three-hole course in the backyard that Francis and his older brother, Wilfred, built. But that course long ago gave way to other homes. The neighborhood doesn’t look at all like it did in those years when Arthur and Mary Ellen lived in the house with the four children – Wilfred, Francis, Louise and Raymond. There is a time for change. But the quaint and cozy home at 246 Clyde Street looking very much as it did in 1913? Tommy Hynes believes there is a time to restore.
In addition to his brilliance as a golfer, Francis Ouimet was also undoubtedly one of America’s original golf nuts.And the efforts to restore his childhood home are the right and honorable thing to do.
The above potential changes could address the ridiculous distances elite golfers are hitting their drives without having a negative impact on distances recreational golfers are currently hitting their drives. This is a good thing as golf at the elite level has become a game of “bomb & gouge”…Bomb your drive anywhere, and gouge it out of the rough with a wedge, instead of “hit the fairway, hit the green” as the standard.
Marion Hollins is one of the greatest female golfers in American history, and she will be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame Class of 2022 alongside Tiger Woods.
But that is only a small part of her story. Here’s the rest of the Marion Hollins story…
Won the 1922 US Women’s Amateur, defeating the great Alexa Stirling in the final
First captain of the Curtis Cup in 1932
First American woman golf course architect
Founder and developer ofthe Women’s National Golf & Tennis Club, the first private club for women
Hired by Samuel Morse to be Pebble Beach’s Athletic Director and instrumental in the development of the Pebble Beach area as the golf mecca it is today.
The visionary behind Cypress Point Club and Pasatiempo, two of the most iconic courses in America
Speaking of Cypress Point, Marion was credited with the design of perhaps the most famous par 3 hole in the world: the 16th hole at Cypress Point
Introduced Alister MacKenzie to Bobby Jones, a meeting which ultimately resulted in Jones selecting MacKenzie to design and build Augusta National
Was selected by MacKenzie to do the on site final inspection of Augusta National in lieu of himself doing the honor. Such was MacKenzie’s respect for Hollins’ design acumen
On Wednesday, March 9, 2022, Marion Hollins will be honored with induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, a well-deserved honor that is long overdue.
Below are a few links for those who would like to learn more about Marion Hollins (Links and background information provided by Golf Nut Society member Jan Bel Jan (janbeljan.com) who held a senior position for Tom Fazio Golf Design for twenty years)…
Scott Nielsen (#4059) bought a used EZ Go cart and fully restored and customized it top to bottom. If you look closely behind the front right wheel you will see that he even restored and custom-painted the undercarriage. Same is true of the battery compartment found under his fully custom seats. The cart is every bit as squeaky clean throughout as you might see from someone who restored a ’55 Corvette. Ruling: 2,000 Points
Just received the memorable 2021 Plaque……I am humbled to have received this prestigious award, and will be grateful for it forever.
One quick note you won’t believe….I received the plaque today at the exact same time that Sam Ryder aced the 16th hole at the WM Phoenix Open and the gallery went crazy.
You could say….Two great things happened on the same time today.
Thank you my friend.
I will send you a photo after it is placed in my golf museum.
Golf Forever Please,
Dave ‘Iron Byron’ Wells
#2803
And here is the promised photo…
HN,
How about this new look at the entrance of the ‘Iron Byron’ Golf Museum.
Iron (#2803)
Thank you, Dave “Iron Byron” Wells. We are equally honored that your plaque is the first thing anyone sees when they enter your famous Golf Museum.
And, again, congratulations on winning the 2021 Golf Nut of the Year competition!
Let’s not kid ourselves. The 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale has nothing whatsoever to do with “growing golf” and someone in authority needs to hammer home that message.
It was no real surprise that the reaction to this correspondent claiming a line had been crossed there at the weekend as cans and bottles were thrown by fans in reaction to holes-in-one during the WM Phoenix Open was mixed.
“Go and iron your plus fours,” was the response from one person on the lively Scottish Golf Noticeboard and I have to admit that I totally expected something like that.
The same goes for this comment, posted by an American it would seem, on Twitter: “Keep your stale opinions on your stale island with your stale food and your stale approach to the game.”
At the same time, though, others agreed that the scenes following those aces by Sam Ryder and Carlos Ortiz during the PGA Tour event had been unacceptable and, of course, would have led to arrests if they’d occurred at a football or rugby match on this side of the Atlantic.
Like many others, I had no real problems with the hole called ‘The Coliseum’ until this year. It is, indeed, a one-off in the game and there’s no denying it is now a very impressive sight.
What happened at the weekend, though, was a sign that things can quickly get out of hand when alcohol is involved and that’s why it simply can’t be allowed to happen again.
It’s a disgrace that the tournament organisers have not come out and condemned such behaviour at a golf event and don’t give me that nonsense about “golf had a brief glimpse of a crowd and players having fun”.
“Refine rather than reject” was the suggestion from another person to comment on the hot topic and that just about hits the nail on the head.
Bottles and cans should be instantly banned at next year’s event and plastic cups be used instead for that consumption of alcohol, which is clearly part of why so many people want to be around that green in the first place.
Yes, of course, attending a golf tournament needs to be fun and I get that the on-course action itself is not necessarily enough to tick every box these days.
Hence why tented villages have more and more going on in them and not just in respect of food and drink options. The recent Slync.io Dubai Desert Classic on the DP World Tour, for example, was a real hive of activity at various points around the Majlis Course at Emirates Golf Club.
The Open, of course, is another perfect illustration of how golf events have evolved and the same goes for the Women’s Open and the Scottish Opens.
Yes, the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale can continue to be something different in the game and appeal to people who might not necessarily follow golf on a regular basis.
But it’s never going to grow golf and, make no mistake, will do more harm than good if Saturday and Sunday is a sign of what we can expect there going forward.
I’m with you, Martin. What we watched on Saturday and Sunday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was “The End of Golf” happening right before our eyes. And it was equally sad to see CBS join in the “fun”, so to speak. Not a single word decrying the alcohol-fueled melee after each hole-in-one. And where were the Phoenix Thunderbirds or the PGA Tour with a statement that this sort of behavior is not only way out of line but even dangerous and will not be tolerated in the future? Last, isn’t it ironic that this happened at an event sponsored by a waste management company? – The Head Nut
Early in the history of the Golf Nut Society, David Lee McMillin of Vincent, Alabama sent the following letter to The Head Nut…
Dear Head Nut,
I would be proud to become an “official” golf nut through the Golf Nut Society. As evidence of my sincerity, I’d like to relate a recent story. My wife, Sheila, delivered our first-born (Heather Nicole) on April 3rd of this year. The baby was two weeks overdue, so labor had to be induced. It worked out perfectly because the hospital had ESPN which my home doesn’t, and I was able to watch the Greater Greensboro Open during labor. The baby was delivered by a C-Section, but fortunately did not arrive until the coverage was over. As luck would have it, I was able to watch the Saturday and Sunday rounds while my wife recuperated in the hospital.
Sincerely,
David Lee McMillin
David became Nut #0328 and remains a proud member of the Golf Nut Society.
