I was visiting the always entertaining Armchair Golf Blog on Wednesday to catch up on some of my random golf news (Neil is one of the best at that), and came across this story about Doug Sanders in Golf Digest.
Now, I've always enjoyed Sanders, mostly because he has seemed to live a pretty good life despite some troubles he's had, but this story tops nearly all the ones I've ever heard on the golf course. Tin Cup, watch out, because Dallas Weaver is the new king of the crazy bank shot.
In a money game at Cedartown one day, a guy named Dallas Weaver found his ball behind a tree. A lot of money was riding. We thought he was dead. There were train tracks running by our course, and just then a freight train came through. Dallas Weaver turned sideways, took some kind of low iron and banked a ball off the side of a freight car and almost onto the green. That was 50 years ago, and I've never seen anyone top that shot.
So many things go into this, it is hard to totally grasp. First, you need someone (read: Dallas) that is crazy enough to try and hit this shot. Second, you've got to get the timing/luck down to hit the flat part of a boxcar, because if you hit a part that wasn't flat, the ball could go anywhere. Third, you've got to commit enough to the shot that if you actually pull it off, it'll get to where you want it to go. Fourth, holy hell this is awesome.
It reminds me of a story my dad told me from some years ago in his money playing days. At my home course in Texas, there is a short par-4 on the back that is drivable. In those days, my dad and his buddies had a really, really great money game (one that brought people in from all over the state), and him and his partner were playing all the twosomes. My dad hooked his tee shot left, near a fence that was marked as out of bounds because of a highway that ran along the barrier of the golf course. One of his playing partners came over and deemed his ball playable, because more of it was in bounds than out under the wire. My dad, standing out of bounds, hit a 4-iron from about 80 yards, let it run up around the green, and it hit the pin and went in for a deuce. Supposedly, the other guy in the group had a fit about it, but the playing partner that said it was playable calmed him down and carded the eagle.
Golf. It's a crazy ass game.
1 comment:
I too saw this entertaining post on The Armchair Golfer and it reminded me of a time I saw Doug Sanders play. He shot a course record 62 in 1975 at Fulford GC in the UK. His caddie was giving him tots from a hip flask on the tee!!
His outfits were something else too always colour co-ordinated.
A shame about his putt at St Andrews but somehow it adds to the legend doesn't it?
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