By John Coyne James Douglas Edgar was an undertalented English golf pro who won the admiration of his famous peers: Tommy Armour, Harry Vardon and Bobby Jones, to name a few. This is the conclusion of a two-part series about how Edgar created the golf swing still being used a century after his death. (Read … Read more
By John Coyne Bestselling author John Coyne became a caddie at Midlothian Country Club near Chicago when he was 10 and oversaw the caddie yard as a teenager. Learn about his golf novels at JohnCoyneBooks.com. I HAD NEVER HEARD OF DOUG EDGAR and I have been following golf all my life. I’m not the only one … Read more
TED RAY OF GREAT BRITAIN was one of the greatest golfers of his era. Ray won the 1912 Open Championship and the 1920 U.S. Open. He also won more than 40 professional titles and was involved in the famous three-man playoff with amateur Francis Ouimet and the great Harry Vardon at the 1913 U.S. Open … Read more
Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Leslie Jones Collection. (Flickr Creative Commons) By John CoyneCopyright © John Coyne. Used with permission. GENE SARAZEN CREATED WHAT HE NEEDED to get the job done. He began with his name. Given the name Eugene Saraceni and thinking “Saraceni” sounded too much like a violin player, not a golfer, … Read more
Part two of two on golf legend Harry Vardon (1870-1937). Read Part 1. By John CoyneCopyright © John Coyne. Used with permission. WE KNOW HARRY VARDON BEST for his overlapping grip. Some accounts have it first being used by Johnny Laidlay, a champion Scottish amateur player. J. H. Taylor also used it before Vardon, but … Read more
Part one of two on golf legend Harry Vardon (1870-1937). By John Coyne Copyright © John Coyne. Used with permission. HENRY WILLIAM “HARRY” VARDON, who is credited with giving golf the modern swing and the Vardon grip, published a book in 1922 entitled The Gist of Golf. I came across a reissue recently, published in … Read more
A CENTURY AGO SIX-TIME BRITISH OPEN champion Harry Vardon may have said it best when he uttered, “Golf is master of us all.” I expect Martin Kaymer would agree with Vardon’s maxim, especially on this Monday. The two-time major champion began yesterday’s final round in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship with a six-shot lead. Kaymer’s … Read more
HARRY VARDON WON THE OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP a record six times. Only one other player has won a major golf championship six times. His name is Jack Nicklaus. There’s the famous Vardon grip. Trophies that bear Vardon’s name are awarded each year by the PGA Tour and European Tour. Harry the Great The influence of a … Read more
GOLF DIGEST PUBLISHED A GALLERY of old guys who barely missed glory. With the exception of six-time Open champion Harry Vardon, “13 Graying Golfers Who Nearly Won Majors” features players from the Sam Snead-Ben Hogan era to the present day. Perhaps not surprisingly, most of the near misses came at the Masters, the one major … Read more
Errie Ball, the last surviving player of the inaugural Masters, died today at the age of 103. Following is a Q&A I published three years ago when Ball turned 100. First Masters (left to right): G. Sargent, Errie Ball, Charlie Yates, Bobby Jones. TALKING TO ERRIE BALL IS LIKE stepping into a time machine. Ball, … Read more