Golf Spelled Backwards

Genevieve Hecker was an early American golf champ. She won the U.S. Women's Amateur twice in the first decade of that tour's existence, her titles coming in 1901 and 1902. Hecker also wrote the first instruction book for women golfers, Golf For Women , published in 1904. There's a chart in that book that says a lot about the state of women's golf at that time. Hecker described what she called her ideal golf course for women, listing 18 holes, yardages for each, and the clubs she would use to play that hole. She didn't list each hole's par, but we can tell what that would be based on the number of strokes she saw herself needing to play the hole. This is that chart: The first hole she lists as 365 yards, but she expects to need five strokes to play. We would call that a par-5 today, but such terms didn't yet exist in 1904. Hecker, by the way, was known as a fairly long driver of the ball, not the longest of her era, but someone who hit her drives ...

There are few thrills in golf as exciting as making a hole-in-one. But here's a thrill that is much bigger: Making two aces in the same round. What could put a damper on the buzz from doing that ? Losing, that's what. Take, for example, Ray Maguire. In sectional qualifying for the 1949 U.S. Open, Maguire made two aces in the same round. In the second round, at Plum Hollow Golf Club in Detroit, Maguire aced the fifth hole, and later aced the 14th hole. But he failed to qualify for the U.S. Open. But if you think that's a sad story, here's an ever sadder one. In 1933 a golfer named Eric Fiddian, who had previously won the English Amateur Championship, reached the championship match of the Irish Open Amateur. His opponent was Jack McLean. During the morning 18, Fiddian made a hole-in-one. In the afternoon 18, he made another one. And he still lost, 3-and-2.