Thanks for the memories

A look back at advertising over the years shows how some things have changed and some have stayed the same.

It’s not easy being free.

In 1927, Herb and Joe Graffis knew there were many golf companies around the country eager to inform the industry about their products. They made the leap of faith to create a magazine that would be distributed to golf courses around the country — free of charge to readers — that would be the vehicle to share those messages.

Placing those advertisements would not be free. Those advertisements, to this day, generate the revenue that makes Golfdom possible.

Over the years, Golfdom has been fortunate to see a wide variety of products advertised in its pages. The most common ads were from companies with various equipment or chemicals to improve the golf course itself. Along the way, there also were products to improve the reader — his or her style, golf swing or beverage of choice.

These ads have made Golfdom possible over the years… so to the advertisers of yesterday, today and tomorrow… we say thank you.

Jacobsen has appeared in Golfdom since the publication’s infancy, including this ad from the February 1928 issue. We estimate this ad features the great-great-great grandfather of the company’s walk-behind reel mower, the Eclipse2

Even back in the 1930s, George A. Davis Inc. was trying to help superintendents ease the pain of ball marks with this “ball bruise repairer,” while Winco was eager to help save man-hours.

Gear- and cam-driven rotor sprinklers were a thing of the past, and this January 1967 ad from Rain Bird promoted the benefits of the company’s rotor-impact drive sprinkler, the Pop-Up Sandpiper.

In this April 1981 advertisement, PBI-Gordon promoted Trimec as “the keystone of immaculate turf,” whether at your home, business, golf course or busy interstate highway.

From 1969, Smithco’s Ranger-23 made moving people and equipment easier with its 23-cubic-foot bed.

We bet the superintendent quoted in this 1944 Toro ad would give more than his shirt for a modern Toro mower.

This August 1976 Standard Golf ad let superintendents know that all they had to do to mark out-of-bounds and hazards was to “put their foot down.”

We’re tempted to name Pabst Blue Ribbon Golfdom’s official beer after finding this ad from 1941.

Then going by the name Sod Master — now known as Turfco — the 1964 Mete-R-Matic promised to get topdressing down to the base of the turf, something “no other spreading machine does!”

John Deere’s most famous slogan originally was created for its line of snowmobiles, but it eventually was used for commercial products, too. This ad from February 1979 is one of the first appearances of “Nothing runs like a Deere” in Golfdom.

Photos: Golfdom