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President Woodrow Wilson, An Avid Golfer, Even Played In The Snow Using Black Golf Balls!

it’s Golf Day! Heralding the beginning of the more Golfer friendly part of the year, Golfers Day’s origin is shrouded in the myth and legend of this particular sport.

  • Golf was banned not only once but three times in Scotland between the years of 1457 and 1744. That’s because the government believed it interfered with military training.  In the early days of golf, players would golf publicly, such as on the streets or on business properties. This was seen as a nuisance. In addition, football (soccer) was also banned during this time.
  • The same people who banned golf were also the ones who created the sport. Scottish people invented golf in 1457. No one truly knows the earliest days of the sport. The most accepted theory is the game was created during the high Middle Ages.
  • Tiger Woods took an interest in golf at only six months old and his father started teaching him at two years old. He regularly practiced and made his first hole-in-one at only eight!
  • Phil Mickelson is right-handed but golfs with his left. Why is that? Another athlete who started playing the sport at a young age, Mickelson mirrored his dad’s golf swing. His dad was left-handed, therefore he swung with his left hand.
  • The First Round of Women’s Golf Was Played in 1811. Women’s golf took four hundred years after the sport was created! In 1867, the first women’s club was developed.
  • There’s a 12,500 to 1 Chance of Making a Hole-in-One
  • The chance of making two hole-in-ones in a single game is 1 in 67 million.
  • Golf Balls Were Originally Made of Feathers and Leather.
  • After feathers, golf Balls were made of wood.
  • Golf was one of the only sports played on the moon. Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. used a 6-iron to play golf on the moon!
  • Before golf tees, players would shape mounds of sand and place the golf ball on top. Tees were finally popularized in the 1920s.
  • The longest putt was a mind-blowing 375 feet.
  • The term “birdie” was coined accidentally by Ab Smith who hit a “bird of a shot” in 1889.
  • A score of three under par is called an “Albatross”.
  • A “condor” is term given to a hole-in-one on a par 5. It is almost as rare as two hole-in-ones in a single game of golf.
  • Long before Annika Sorenstam competed in the 2003 Bank of America Colonial, Babe Zaharias became the first – and only – female golfer to make the cut at a PGA TOUR event, shooting 76 and 81 during the first two rounds of the 1945 Los Angeles Open.
  • One of the world’s most popular actors, Samuel L. Jackson, is also an avid golfer. In fact, the star of flicks like “Pulp Fiction” and “Django Unchained,” has a contract clause to play golf twice a week whenever he films movies.
  • Dwight Eisenhower. John F. Kennedy. Barack Obama. These are just a few of the presidents associated with golf. But Woodrow Wilson is often overlooked. An avid golfer, he was so dedicated to the game that he even played in the snow – using black golf balls!
  •  If you choose to walk, rather than ride 18 holes, you will not only walk roughly four miles, but also burn 2,000 calories. To compare, golfers that ride carts burn about 1,300 calories.
  • Sam Snead is legendary for his 82 PGA TOUR victories, seven major championships, and longevity. But he is also the only male golfer to win on the LPGA Tour, capturing the 1962 Royal Poinciana Plaza Invitational by five shots.
  • Lightning has stricken Lee Trevino… Twice!
  • The ideal golf ball has between 380 and 460 dimples.
  • 23% of all golfers are women

Sources:

Days of the Year

Panther Run Golf Club

Deer Creek Golf Club

Golf Now

Kingsville Golf