More death by golf

We've previously posted about the 1951 case of Edward Harrison who accidentally killed himself when he swung his golf club against the golf cart in anger.

Below are two more examples of the same phenomenon.

Clearly, think twice before taking out your frustration on your club.

Regina Leader-Post - Apr 17, 1982

Louisville Courier-Journal - July 14, 1994

Posted By: Alex - Wed Sep 28, 2022 - Comments ()
Category: Death, Golf

The Fuse Ball

In 1926, Philip S. Kane of Pennsylvania received a patent for his "fuse ball" (Patent No. 1,583,721). It was a golf ball with a fuse. Before teeing off, you'd light the fuse, which would then start emitting smoke. That way, you could find the ball wherever you hit it, even if it landed in tall grass.

According to various media reports, while testing his ball Kane accidentally set a wheat field on fire, but I haven't seen any proof to back up that story.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Aug 15, 2022 - Comments ()
Category: Sports, Golf, Patents, 1920s

Death by golf and peacocks

Oct 1951: Edward Harrison died in a freak golf accident, by managing to stab himself in the leg with a broken club. As he lay bleeding to death, he screamed for help. "Two other golfers said they twice heard screams, but thought they were the cries of peacocks from a peacock farm."

Deseret News - Oct 9, 1951

Posted By: Alex - Fri Jun 25, 2021 - Comments (2)
Category: Death, Sports, Golf, 1950s

Shaver’s Golf

Shaver's golf = a game to find out the smallest number of strokes with which you can shave your face.

Minneapolis Star - Aug 6, 1939

A useful aid for this game would be the "stroke-counting razor" invented by engineers at Gillette a few years ago. Using this tool, Gillette determined that the average man takes about 170 strokes to shave his face. So, in the game of shaver's golf, I guess that 170 would be considered par.

Posted By: Alex - Tue Jan 12, 2021 - Comments (4)
Category: Games, Sports, Golf, Hair and Hairstyling

Buried at the golf course

In 1989, a Canadian company tried to promote the idea of burying people at golf courses. They imagined that courses could add memorial walls made out of their patented "mod-urns" — hollow, cremain-filled building blocks that could be snapped together to make instant memorial walls.

A company rep argued that this could be "a potentially lucrative business for golf courses, who could pack in up to 50,000 new 'members' per acre."

Ottawa Citizen - Sep 29, 1989

Posted By: Alex - Mon May 25, 2020 - Comments ()
Category: Death, Sports, Golf, Patents, 1980s

Isostatic Rebound Golf Course

The Valley of the Eagles golf course in the small town of Haines, Alaska boasts an unusual feature. It’s currently a nine-hole course, but due to the geological phenomenon of isostatic (or post-glacial) rebound, in a few decades it may be an 18-hole course.

Post-glacial rebound is the phenomenon of a land mass rising after the weight of a glacier has been removed from it. This is occurring in Haines, at a rate of about 0.9 inches per year, and because the golf course borders the water, it's steadily growing in size as it rises above sea level, exposing more land. The course has already doubled in size since the 1960s.

More info: pasturegolf.com

Posted By: Alex - Fri Aug 02, 2019 - Comments (2)
Category: Science, Sports, Golf, Natural Wonders

The Atomic Golf Ball

A demonstration that what is possible may not be what is practical.

Developed by nuclear physicist William Davidson in 1950, a small amount of radioactive material at the core of the atomic golf ball allowed it to be found using a Geiger counter, should it be hit into the rough. But there were a few problems with the concept:

1: The Geiger counter needed to be pretty close to the ball (within 5 feet) to actually detect it.
2: Not many people own Geiger counters.
3: Even though a single ball didn't pose much of a radiation risk, a bunch of the balls stored together would be a problem. So, it wasn't possible for stores to stock and sell these.

Mechanix Illustrated - Mar 1951

Akron Beacon Journal - Aug 20, 2000
click to enlarge

Posted By: Alex - Wed Jul 24, 2019 - Comments (4)
Category: Sports, Golf, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s

The Yips Phenomenon in Golf

The Yips are defined as "a disorder in which golfers complain of an involuntary movement — a twitch, a jerk, a flinch — at the time they putt or even when they chip. This interferes with their ability to perform that activity.” It was the subject of a multidisciplinary study by researchers at the Mayo Clinic, who concluded:




The Yips should not be confused with the Yip Yips, which are something completely different:

Posted By: Alex - Wed May 15, 2019 - Comments ()
Category: Medicine, Sports, Golf

Golf Ball Hits Airplane

Back in in 1969, a golfer accidentally managed to hit a plane with his ball. The ball went through the plexiglass windshield and into the cockpit.

Which raises the question: Do golf balls pose a potential hazard to planes? This is discussed in a thread over at aviation.stackexchange.com, and the consensus seems to be, not really. Even if a golf ball were, somehow, to get into a plane's engine, it's probably small enough that it wouldn't cause damage.

Oakland Tribune - Jan 16, 1969

I was curious about how often golfers hit planes. Apparently, not often. But some googling yielded this video, which purports to show a golfer hitting a 757 with a ball. Though no one in the YouTube comments seems to believe he actually hit the plane.

Posted By: Alex - Wed Mar 06, 2019 - Comments (1)
Category: Sports, Golf, Air Travel and Airlines

George Barris’s Bob Hope Golf Cart

Posted By: Paul - Fri Mar 23, 2018 - Comments (3)
Category: Beauty, Ugliness and Other Aesthetic Issues, Motor Vehicles, Sports, Golf, Outsider Art, Surrealism, 1960s, Head