YOUR STARTER for 10: what do Willie Anderson, Tommy Armour, James Braid, Dorothy Campbell Hurd Howe, Alister Mackenzie, Tom Morris senior, Tom Morris junior, Willie Park senior, Allan Robertson and Donald Ross have in common?
Apart from the fact that none of them is still with us, the answer, of course, is that they are the 10 Scottish members of the 121-strong World Golf Hall of Fame in St Augustine, Florida, 20 minutes down the road from the TPC course at Sawgrass an
d this week's Scot-free Players Championship. Recognised by no fewer than 26 of the game's seemingly endless list of administrative bodies, the hall will be 10 years old eight days from now.
And a fascinating place it is too. Amidst a plethora of memorabilia and artefacts is the Wilson Staff Dynapower six-iron which Apollo-14 astronaut Alan Shepherd used on February 5, 1971 to hit the first ever golf shot on the moon. And just round the corner is a replica of the old stone bridge that crosses the Swilcan Burn on the Old Course's 18th fairway. Apparently, the bridge was originally built so that packhorses could haul mussels across the burn. Did not know that.
My favourite item, however, is the short film of a July 30, 1904 match between Harry Vardon and James Braid – a dour so-and-so on the admittedly scant evidence of this cinematic epic – at the Murrayfield Golf Club in Edinburgh. Watched by a 3,000-strong crowd, the contest ended all square, but not before Braid had flummoxed Vardon with a crafty stymie on one green. Great stuff that made one wonder why the stymie was ever outlawed in match play. Blocking the opponent's path to the cup had a sound tactical role to play in the psychological warfare that is head-to-head golf. The look on Vardon's face was a picture.
The centrepiece of the current exhibits, however, is everything you'd ever want to know about Jack Nicklaus. From the re-creation of the Columbus pharmacy owned by his father, Charlie – "Nicklaus Drugs – Prescription Specialists" – all the way through his 18 major victories, his 46-year marriage to Barbara and the rapidly expanding Nicklaus clan (five kids and 19 grandchildren who refer to the world's greatest-ever golfer as 'Peepaw'), the whole thing is a delight.
It took four trucks to transport everything from the Nicklaus museum in Columbus to St Augustine. How much it is all worth can only be guessed at, but such were the concerns of the insurance company involved, those four long-haul vehicles were instructed to travel at least 15 minutes apart en route from Ohio to Florida.
Sadly, the same level of satisfaction to be found within the walls of the hall does not extend to the ridiculously arbitrary list of criteria used to determine who gains entry to the place and who does not. Anomalies are everywhere. Take the example of Neil Coles versus Peter Alliss, two Englishmen who were almost direct contemporaries. Coles picked up 25 tournament victories over the course of his long and distinguished career; Alliss won 23 times. Both played eight times for GB & Ireland in the Ryder Cup. Throw in Alliss's distinguished service to broadcasting and Coles' long-standing chairmanship of the European Tour and we are surely looking at a tie between the two. Yet Coles is in the hall and Alliss is not. Go figure.
And there's more, so much more. An even more egregious and nonsensical example is that of Tony Jacklin versus Sandy Lyle. Yes, Jacklin played in more Ryder Cups than did Lyle, but in every other way the Englishman's playing record is inferior to that of the Scot. Sandy won eight more European Tour events. Sandy won two more PGA Tour events. Both lifted two majors, but throw in Sandy's 1987 Players Championship victory (he remains the only European to win the so-called 'fifth major') and he breaks that tie too. Now guess which of the two is in the hall? Yes, Jacklin.
Most outrageous, however, is the fact that, in a building that purports to be the World Golf Hall of Fame, there is, unbelievably, an 'International' section. This is, of course, inexplicable, a fact that became clear last December when I attended a touching ceremony in Sydney, Australia, at which the 1960 Open champion, Kel Nagle, was inducted into the hall. After the official business of the evening was concluded, I asked the hall's chief executive, Jack Peter, why his organisation felt the need to distinguish between Americans and the rest of the planet's golfers. No answer was immediately forthcoming, although it does appear that this state of affairs is now being looked at.
Still, it would be wrong to allow misgivings over who is and is not in the hall to denigrate what is a thoroughly enjoyable experience for any golf fan.
And finally, if, like me, you have no idea who the aforementioned Dorothy Campbell etc etc was, allow me to enlighten you. Born in 1883 in North Berwick (not 'Edinburgh', as her plaque in the hall would have you believe), she was the first lady to win the British and US Ladies championships in the same year (1909). Between 1905 and 1912 she won 10 national championships in America, England, Scotland and Canada. She died in 1945. So now you know.
