by Doug McAllister
So by now you know me, right? I'm the guy who wants to look at Golf from a bigger (perhaps nuttier) perspective. Yes, there's all sorts of tabloid-like golf stories swirling in the media right now. That's fine. And there always will be. Yes, most of the golf blogs out there deal with them. Good, good! No, I am not a professional golfer who can help you with your slice, hook or with your putting. Probably fine too. Just golf-obsessed and willing to write about it.
So, let's proceed with today's post: Marking your ball.
Why this? Frankly, it's one of my favorite things about golf. Marking the ball is as fundamental as teeing it up. There was a time, you know, when it wasn't even permitted. In those days a Stymie — getting your ball in front of your opponents ball on the green and effectively blocking access to the hole — was the rule of the day and a time-honored strategy.
Moreover, there have been all sorts of controversies regarding marking the ball. One of the most preeminent came to the forefront during the 1999 Ryder Cup Matches at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts. At that time Jarmo Sandelin — a Finnish born Swede with some interesting views on the game and on his golfing wardrobe, as well — had previously accused Mark O'Meara of improperly marking his ball. Sandelin went so far as to say that O'Meara had intentionally been improper in order to gain an advantage.
Say it isn't so!
The episode elicited an interesting response from O'Meara in which he referred to himself by his complete name: "Everyone who knows Mark O'Meara knows that improperly marking a golf ball to cheat is something Mark O'Meara just wouldn't do!" Wow! I guess the structure of that tirade might be because, as we all know, there is no 'I' in golf!
Ball markers vary tremendously. Some are free while some are expensively not! Some are as big as a house, having gigantic logos on them from this company or that one. Some are metal and some plastic. Some fit on the side of golf gloves as little pearl snaps. Some are magnetically attached to ball mark repair tools or the those swanky new magnetic areas on the brims of some golf hats (I'm a bit worried about those. Who's to say that the magnetic field so close to the brain might have adverse effects?!). Some are as ordinary as dirt while some are supposed to be...MAGICAL!
What about me? I always use a 1978 Lincoln penny to mark my ball. The significance of that year? It's the year that my brother-in-law literally forced me to start playing the game. So a 1978 penny is my marker.
Why a penny? I know that some like bigger coins — say a nickel or even a quarter — arguing that a larger coin is easier to see when lining up your put from the opposite side of the green. Okay. I recall, though, an article in which Golf Great Hale Irwin talked about marking ones ball "like the pros!" He then went on to say that pros use pennies because they are adequate and big enough to see without becoming an abstraction to other golfers. Good enough for me. Accordingly, I went out and began to collect all of the 1978 pennies that I could find.
Mind you, not just any coin from that year will do. I prefer circulated coins. There's a magic in a coin that's been circulated. Think of it! One of the coins that I have collected in recent days might have been in my pocket on that day at Cascade Golf Course, in Orem, Utah. I may have instinctively pulled it from my pocket and used it to mark my ball. After that, it may have traveled all over the place. It may have been used by Hale Irwin, himself, to mark his ball during one of his three U.S. Open victories. Or it may have been the coin that Billy Ray Brown threw, in dismay and anger, at a wayward rolling putt and was nearly penalized. Perhaps, seemingly losing its luck, it was pitched into the water hazard at Sawgrass' 17th hole — only to be seen and rescued by a diver, there to dredge balls that missed the famed Island Green! It may have then found its way to the change drawer of the cash register at Pebble Beach's pro shop. And then... Pretty magical stuff, eh? I think so.
Okay, so I'm either a little too sentimental or too weird or too something. So be it! I will continue to pull out of circulation every single 1978 penny that I can find! And, who knows, with all of the luck that each one is sure to emit...well...I might just be able to go out, one fine day, tee up my golf ball at each hole and...
Hit 'em Long and Straight!
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