The '80s brought controversy in the forms of Laura Baugh and Jan Stephenson. The LPGA had hired a new marketing chief (the guy behind Life cereal's famed "Mikey likes it!" commercials) who put female pros in come-hither calendar poses, spurring a dispute the magazine billed as "Sex vs. Sock." Tour veterans hated it. "I didn't join the tour to be in a chorus line,".said Kathy Whitworth, while Jane Blalock called the tour's cheesecake photos "quasi-pornography." In the June 1981 GOLF MAGAZINE, Baugh's IMG agent, Hughes Norton, who would later guide Tiger Woods's career until Tiger dumped him, stuck his wing tip in his mouth. "Ladies' golf had no one along the lines of appeal that Laura represented," he told us. "You had some reasonably good-looking women who couldn't play very well and some great players who looked awful -- typical women's athlete types." In the end came a fragile equilibrium: The game rewarded the best players, male and female, but rewarded them more if they were good-looking or charismatic. Baugh fought alcoholism and never won an LPGA event. Stephenson fought sexism, won 16 tournaments and three majors, then triggered another uproar last year when she told us that Asian players were "killing our tour."
In May of 1982 our readers met "Professor Putt," better known as Dave Pelz. Here's a trivium: Did you know that Pelz faced Jack Nicklaus 22 times in Midwestern junior, high school and college tournaments? Can you guess how many times Dave beat Jack?
You're right. None.
After more than a decade as a NASA nuclear physicist, Pelz returned to the game that had haunted him since that 0-for-22 against the best player ever. He knew there had to be a scientific way to play better golf. There wasn't, but in time he invented one. Over the course of 22 years and 14 cover stories, Pelz has nuked the idea that short-game talent is a gift, not a craft any golfer can learn.
Remember Olivia Newton-John in health-club leotard and leg warmers? Nancy Lopez aced that look in "Let's Get Physical," a 1983 fitness feature we published in Fairway, our guide to LPGA golf. But sex symbol N.Lo looked shy compared to the full-frontal hilarity of Peter Jacobsen, our 1983 Golfmate of the Year. Posing in a sauna with a GOLF MAGAZINE towel draped over his drop zone, Jacobsen grinned like a guy who knew he'd still be winning on Tour two decades later.
In 1983 Tom Doak took over a new, improved ranking of the world's best courses that evolved into GOLF MAGAZINE's Top 100 Courses in the World. Doak, who would go on to become one of the world's finest course designers (his Pacific Dunes ranks 19th on our latest list), filed his story and kept his head down, knowing that every golfer who didn't belong to Pine Valley or play the other greats would be mad at him. The top five that year were Muirfield, Pebble Beach, Royal County Down, Pine Valley and Cypress Point -- not hugely different from our current top five of Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Muirfield, Shinnecock Hills and Augusta National. This fall we will rank the best public-access courses, the Top 100 You Can Play. We're also working on a new list. Golf-travel guru Scott Gummer won't give up the details, but says, "Trust me -- it's going to be big."
In May of 1982 our readers met "Professor Putt," better known as Dave Pelz. Here's a trivium: Did you know that Pelz faced Jack Nicklaus 22 times in Midwestern junior, high school and college tournaments? Can you guess how many times Dave beat Jack?
You're right. None.
After more than a decade as a NASA nuclear physicist, Pelz returned to the game that had haunted him since that 0-for-22 against the best player ever. He knew there had to be a scientific way to play better golf. There wasn't, but in time he invented one. Over the course of 22 years and 14 cover stories, Pelz has nuked the idea that short-game talent is a gift, not a craft any golfer can learn.
Remember Olivia Newton-John in health-club leotard and leg warmers? Nancy Lopez aced that look in "Let's Get Physical," a 1983 fitness feature we published in Fairway, our guide to LPGA golf. But sex symbol N.Lo looked shy compared to the full-frontal hilarity of Peter Jacobsen, our 1983 Golfmate of the Year. Posing in a sauna with a GOLF MAGAZINE towel draped over his drop zone, Jacobsen grinned like a guy who knew he'd still be winning on Tour two decades later.
In 1983 Tom Doak took over a new, improved ranking of the world's best courses that evolved into GOLF MAGAZINE's Top 100 Courses in the World. Doak, who would go on to become one of the world's finest course designers (his Pacific Dunes ranks 19th on our latest list), filed his story and kept his head down, knowing that every golfer who didn't belong to Pine Valley or play the other greats would be mad at him. The top five that year were Muirfield, Pebble Beach, Royal County Down, Pine Valley and Cypress Point -- not hugely different from our current top five of Pine Valley, Cypress Point, Muirfield, Shinnecock Hills and Augusta National. This fall we will rank the best public-access courses, the Top 100 You Can Play. We're also working on a new list. Golf-travel guru Scott Gummer won't give up the details, but says, "Trust me -- it's going to be big."
