The Twig - This Week in Golf History

On the occasion of his 80th birthday, we present this piece with two-time major winner and Hall of Fame inductee, David Graham, who talks Australia, America and lunch with Ben Hogan. And why he found our first question "offensive".

DOG's tale: David Graham on Australia, America and lunch with Ben Hogan David Graham is a two-time major winner, a World Golf Hall of Fame member and a long-term resident of Dallas. Matt Cleary once asked why he'd left Australia and Graham called the question "offensive"

As you watch the PGA Championship on television this weekend, have a read about TV legend Frank Chirkinian, who brought so many innovations to golf broadcasting that they put him in the Hall of Fame with a President, and called him The Ayatollah.
Cool yarn, first row of the comments.
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"He’s hit the ball off a wall of plants. He’s nipped them off the cart path, got up and down. On downhill lies in fluffy rough he’s flopped them close. He once got up and down from 150 yards with a low, punchy-sliced three-wood from dead under a tree. He was plugged in a bunker, sunk it. That lob-wedge in LIV. In a hail-storm in 2000 he..."
You get the picture. Here's Matt Cleary's paean to the one-man show-reel and thrill merchant, Phil Mickelson.

Phil The Thrill: A paean thereupon Phil Mickelson should reside in the pantheon of golf’s all-time greats alongside such legends as Hagen and Hogan, Nelson and Nicklaus. Yet being second-best to Tiger Woods has come at a cost

Revealed! Golf's origin story

Well, one of them. Because golf wasn’t invented. It didn’t come from a madman’s garage or slam into Earth like baby Superman in a comet from space. It evolved over centuries and became. This is how.
https://thetwig.substack.com/p/revealed-golfs-origin-story

For no other reason than it's John Daly's 60th birthday today - happy birthday, Wild Thing - we profile the great Lee Trevino, who turned up on the the PGA Tour the year of Daly's birth, 1966. Two years later, after being initially mistaken for a member of the Oak Hill greens staff, Trevino won the U.S Open. What a player.

"A stumpy little guy, tan as a tamale, pretty lippy for a nobody, a hustler stance and a short, choppy, public-course swing." Yet the great Lee Trevino kept on beating 'em They thought he was greens staff. Then he won the U.S Open. The miracle of the Merry Super Mex, Lee Trevino

So, for no other reason than it was Lee Westwood’s 53rd birthday the other day, and because it’s a pleasant mental exercise, and because everyone loves a list, we came up with the Top-10 Golfers To Never Win A Major, and invite you to disagree here.
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10. Steve Stricker
9. Al Espinosa
8. Bruce Devlin
7. Johnny Bulla
6. Rickie Fowler
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

The ultimate, definitive, talk-to-the-hand-for-no-argument-shall-be-entertained-here, Top-10 Greatest Golfers To Never Win A Major list ever Has not been written here. But we've still had a very good crack.

Old Tom Morris's inventions include: tee-boxes, flags on greens, cup liners in holes, horses to mow greens with a machine and, probably, etiquette. The game was around before the man but he is, indisputably, the Godfather of golf. More about his really quite interesting legacy here: https://thetwig.substack.com/p/grand-old-man-and-godfather-too-the

Old Tom Morris's firsts include routing fairways past bunkers, creating tee-boxes, putting flags on greens, putting cup liners in holes, using horses to mow greens and, probably, the invention of etiquette. The game was around before the man but he is, indisputably, the Godfather of golf
Super interesting stuff, first row of the Comments 👇

Top-10 best players to never win a major, as selected by author of A Short History of Golf, in the first row of Comments here: 👇🥈🥉🏌️
(Hint: Monty's not No.1)

The Twig - This Week in Golf History

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From the author of "A Short History of Golf" comes the ultimate, definitive, talk-to-the-hand-for-no-argument-shall-be-entered-into-here Top-10 Greatest Golfers To Never Win A Major list ever here. 🤯And no, Monty's not on top. Or second. Or third...
👉https://thetwig.substack.com/p/the-ultimate-definitive-talk-to-the

A column, from my book’s Foreword, by Greg Norman

Greg Norman on The Evolution of Golf In the Foreword of "A Short History of Golf", Greg Norman talks of golf's evolution and characters, a pep talk from Jack Nicklaus, and drinking beer with Arnold Palmer at Bay Hill