Golf has long been a celeb magnet: Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Sean Connery... Tommy Lee? Celebs from Samuel L. Jackson and Jack Nicholson to Cheech Marin and the Three Stooges have starred in our pages along with a guy you might not want to call a nasty slicer. "If you're going to play golf seriously," O.J. Simpson told us in 1990, "you got to know how to make excuses."
One of our most popular features bowed 12 years ago when "ClubTest '92" put the latest woods and irons on trial. Callaway's brand-new Big Bertha woods got raves, including one from tester Ken Van Kampen: "Looked at it: 'Uggh! Look at that big fat head!' Waggled it: 'Hmmmm... not bad.' Hit a few: 'Hey, wait a minute -- let me hit some more!' " (Van Kampen now works for TaylorMade. Asked for a follow-up comment, he says, "Whatever happened to those Callaway guys, anyway?")
If you're among the legions of golfers who bemoan the cost of clubs, try a price test: How much did a set of three graphite-shafted 1992 Big Berthas cost?
(a) $195
(b) $395
(c) $810
The answer, (c), proves that not everything is going to hell. Computers and metalwoods just get better and cheaper.
Of course, those graphite shafts were already obsolete back in 1979. That's when we called graphite a fad whose time had come and gone. Ten years later we said the same about the long putter: "A few companies will continue to manufacture long putters. But for most of the golf world, it's become yesterday's pet rock or mood ring."
If recent rumors are right and the USGA.bans long and belly putters later in 2004, we'll claim we were correct -- 15 years early.
In 1995 we followed Bill Murray at Pebble Beach as he sported a GOLF MAGAZINE cap, a tam-o'-shanter with an Astroturf top complete with flagstick and golf ball. Murray and hats have a fine history. Here's a story you haven't heard before: Actor Randy Quaid was playing with Murray one day when they came to a fairway flooded by rain and a sprinkler that had gone haywire. Murray, irked to see a lake where his ball had gone, turned to Quaid. "I'm going to play it," he said. So he waded into waist-deep water -- and vanished when the fairway caved in. There was nothing left but the bill of Bill's cap, floating, until he popped up under it, spouting water like a cherub in a fountain.
You'll find many more great moments in this special edition, starting with a sampling of classic covers on the next four pages. But there's far too much in 50,000-plus pages of GOLF MAGAZINE history to slam it all into one issue, so we're going to keep the birthday party going all year. For the rest of 2004, each issue will hold a special 45th Anniversary section, with our ongoing countdown of the 45 Greatest Moments of the GOLF.MAGAZINE.era. Each month we'll reveal five more. Check the list, go to www.golfonline.com/45 to rank the top 10, and you might win $45,000.
One of our most popular features bowed 12 years ago when "ClubTest '92" put the latest woods and irons on trial. Callaway's brand-new Big Bertha woods got raves, including one from tester Ken Van Kampen: "Looked at it: 'Uggh! Look at that big fat head!' Waggled it: 'Hmmmm... not bad.' Hit a few: 'Hey, wait a minute -- let me hit some more!' " (Van Kampen now works for TaylorMade. Asked for a follow-up comment, he says, "Whatever happened to those Callaway guys, anyway?")
If you're among the legions of golfers who bemoan the cost of clubs, try a price test: How much did a set of three graphite-shafted 1992 Big Berthas cost?
(a) $195
(b) $395
(c) $810
The answer, (c), proves that not everything is going to hell. Computers and metalwoods just get better and cheaper.
Of course, those graphite shafts were already obsolete back in 1979. That's when we called graphite a fad whose time had come and gone. Ten years later we said the same about the long putter: "A few companies will continue to manufacture long putters. But for most of the golf world, it's become yesterday's pet rock or mood ring."
If recent rumors are right and the USGA.bans long and belly putters later in 2004, we'll claim we were correct -- 15 years early.
In 1995 we followed Bill Murray at Pebble Beach as he sported a GOLF MAGAZINE cap, a tam-o'-shanter with an Astroturf top complete with flagstick and golf ball. Murray and hats have a fine history. Here's a story you haven't heard before: Actor Randy Quaid was playing with Murray one day when they came to a fairway flooded by rain and a sprinkler that had gone haywire. Murray, irked to see a lake where his ball had gone, turned to Quaid. "I'm going to play it," he said. So he waded into waist-deep water -- and vanished when the fairway caved in. There was nothing left but the bill of Bill's cap, floating, until he popped up under it, spouting water like a cherub in a fountain.
You'll find many more great moments in this special edition, starting with a sampling of classic covers on the next four pages. But there's far too much in 50,000-plus pages of GOLF MAGAZINE history to slam it all into one issue, so we're going to keep the birthday party going all year. For the rest of 2004, each issue will hold a special 45th Anniversary section, with our ongoing countdown of the 45 Greatest Moments of the GOLF.MAGAZINE.era. Each month we'll reveal five more. Check the list, go to www.golfonline.com/45 to rank the top 10, and you might win $45,000.
A long shot? Maybe, but so was GOLF MAGAZINE 45 years ago, when nobody thought we would be here today, just hitting our stride in 2004.
