Collecting memories

Before I get to my regular column, a note about this month’s issue:

This issue is our first “Greens Theme” issue. We’ve focused much of our content this month on the most important part of a golf course: the almighty putting green. We’ve got a story about the hard work conducted by assistant superintendents in Wisconsin to help the First Tee by building a new green over a weekend; Mark Woodward writing about the trickiest green of his career; Karl Danneberger writing an ode to greens; Clark Throssell discussing the benefits of fans around greens with Bert McCarty; and two research articles, one focused on managing dollar spot and the other on how to increase the value of fungicide applications.

I myself will be ducking the theme for the issue, because let’s face it: unless you want advice on how to three-putt greens, I’m not much help. I’ll leave the words of wisdom to the real experts on this topic, and continue being happy to have the opportunity to enjoy some of the best greens in the country, month in and month out, by being the editor-in-chief of this magazine.

So what do I want to focus on this month? A successful Golf Industry Show? Industry trends? My 1964 Impala?

How about another topic near and dear to my heart: collecting.

I’ve admitted here before that I’m a collector. I have about 5,000 comic books neatly stored in a room 20 feet from where I write/edit every issue of Golfdom. I’ve got a great sports memorabilia collection of my two favorite teams, the Kansas Jayhawks and the Wichita Wings (a defunct indoor soccer team I grew up watching). I also enjoy coin-operated machines… currently I have two arcade games and a jukebox in the house.

And for obvious reasons, I’ve also begun collecting Golfdom memorabilia. (Even though my wife is asleep as I write this, I’m sure she just shuddered and is now in the middle of a nightmare about me starting a new collection.)

There are three new acquisitions to the Jonesy Golfdom collection I want to tell you about, because they’re all recent, and in my opinion, they’re all pretty cool.

I asked Rees Jones to help me present the Herb Graffis Businessperson of the Year Award during the Golf Industry Show, and he was happy to oblige (see page 9). I’ve always admired Rees and his family’s work from afar, but in recent years I’ve been fortunate to add Rees as a friend and even a father figure of sorts; he looks out for me and is always happy to help me out when he can.

When he arrived at the Golfdom booth this year, he quietly pulled me aside. “I brought you something,” he told me. He then pulled out some papers from his jacket pocket and stuffed them in my hand. “This is a letter Herb Graffis wrote to my father… I want you to have it.”

Let me be clear: it’s a copy of the letter, not the letter itself. And yet, Rees Jones took the time to bring me a gift, dated August 16th, 1970, a letter written by the founder of this very magazine, addressed to Mr. Robert Trent Jones.

That doesn’t happen everyday, you know?

The letter is scathing and also hilarious. Graffis bashes the Tour players of that era for their bad manners. He mentions that Gene Sarazen used to criticize the U.S. Open course every year just to get his name in the paper. He mentions a caddie who “must be embarrassing to his family.” He also writes, “the old poet who wrote that you can’t make a velvet purse of a sow’s ear might be amazed to see how you can make a golf star out of a pig’s ass.”

To read the letter, stop by the Golfdom blog (golfdom.com) where I’ll post the letter in its entirety. And thank you to Rees for the kind gift.

The next souvenir has become something of an annual tradition. Mike Bavier, CGCS-Retired, a former president of the GCSAA (1981) brought me the June, 1967 issue of Golfdom during the GIS.

Bavier is another guy I’ve been lucky enough to befriend since taking over Golfdom. I now have a nice chunk of his back issues of Golfdom that were mailed to him when he was a young superintendent. I hope I’m lucky enough to one day pass them on to my successor in 30 or so years… and I’ll be sure to name-check Bavier and his kindness for keeping these gems out of a recycle bin.

Finally, this last one is going to frustrate my publisher, Pat Roberts, that I nabbed it and he did not. It’s a Golfdom money clip, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the magazine.

Several things amaze me about this piece of memorabilia… the fact that it’s almost 50 years old and still in such great shape… the fact that it’s celebrating the 40th anniversary of this magazine, and that was way back in 1966-1967… and the fact that I snagged it for the low, low price of $12.50 on eBay (and this is the moment where Roberts slams down the magazine and shouts my name along with an expletive. But it’s OK, this happens at least once a week.)

I fully expect Roberts to try to talk me out of this find. But I’m sorry, my friend — this one is just too cool to part ways with.

(I oftentimes say the same thing about my job!)