Golf Compendium

The 1959 U.S. Women's Open was the 14th playing of this major championship. And for the first time, the tournament had a back-to-back winner — Mickey Wright.

Photo credit: Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA , CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons Mike Hill was a PGA Tour player in the 1960s and 1970s, and Senior Tour star in the 1990s. He was the younger brother of a more-famous older brother on the PGA Tour, but once he joined the Senior Tour Mike became the Hill family's bigger star.

Pinehurst System is the name of a golf competition format for 2-person teams. It starts on each hole with the partners each playing two strokes, then switches to alternate shot, with a switch of balls also included following the drives. This format is designed to allow teams comprised of two golfers whose abilities, or at least strengths, widely differ to compete fairly against other such teams, while allowing (requiring, really) the higher-handicap partner to contribute to the team's success.

There is an old golf term — "fog" — that golfers might still encounter (or even use) today. It's a term found in old books, and, in modern lingo, most likely to be heard in Scotland. But this fog has nothing to do with the weather. It's a term that refers to rough.

Do you know what it means to gobble a putt? There probably aren't a lot of golfers familiar with this bit of slang today, because "gobble" is one of the terms from earlier times. When a golfer hits a putt that rolls hard and fast to the hole but does drop in, he gobbled it.

The Miller Open, also called during its short run the Miller High Life Open and Milwaukee Open Invitational, was a PGA Tour tournament in Wisconsin in the 1950s and 1960s. All but one of its winners was also (or would become) a major championship winner.

The "broomstick putter" in golf is a putter with a much longer shaft compared to traditional putters, which usually are around 32 to 36 inches in length. A broomstick putter typically ranges from 46 to 54 inches. The clubheads on broomstick putters are the same as those on "regular" putters, but they have that longer shaft, with the grip end covered by a longer (and sometimes split) grip.

A Kickers Tournament (also called a Kickers Handicap) is a golf tournament format in which golfers select their own handicaps for the round. At the end of the round, they compare their net scores calculated with those self-chosen handicaps, and the golfer who comes closest to matching the secret score drawn by tournament organizers prior to play is the winner.

The 1960 U.S. Women's Open was the 15th time this major championship was played. When Betsy Rawls lifted the trophy, she became the tournament's first four-time champion.

The Ladies German Open was a professional golf tournament on the Ladies European Tour (LET) played over a 30-year period (albeit with a couple gaps). The tournament moved to different golf courses around Germany.

The golf game named Trash is actually a collection of common side bets, all played concurrently, and played for points. When a golfer in your groups wins a bet — say, chips in from off the green to claim a "Chippies" points — they mark it down. At the end of the round, high points wins, and golfers pay out the differences in points.

The 1961 U.S. Women's Open was the 16th time this major championship was played. For Mickey Wright, it was her third victory, and this one was by six strokes.

Clarence Clark was a professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour in the late 1920s through the mid-1940s. His tour career began with back-to-back multi-win seasons. All of his tour victories — there were seven total — happened between 1931 and 1936.

Graphite is one of the two common materials (along with steel) used to make golf shafts. Have you ever wondered just how golf designers and manufacturers turn graphite into golf shafts? We have.

There are two primary ways to manufacture steel golf shafts. One is called "seemless" construction; the other is "welded tube" construction.

The 1962 U.S. Women's Open was the 17th time this major championship was played. The winner trailed by multiple strokes following each of the first three rounds, and came back from five behind in the final round.

A 36-Hole Eclectic is a competition format that can be played by two or more golfers or used for a tournament. You can probably guess that it is played over two, 18-hole rounds, played on the same golf course. The gist of this format (or an eclectic of any length) is that each golfer compares his scores in the two rounds and selects the lower score on each hole played.

The Vintage Invitational (also remembered as the Vintage Chrysler Invitational) was a golf tournament on the Champions Tour, the U.S.-based senior golf circuit. The tournament was played in Indian Wells, California, typically early in the senior tour's schedule.