Golf Central

         

            I'd rather just play golf in Chicago, to be honest...

Today is all about celebebrating the city of Chicago's contrbution to golf. If there was ever a candidate for Chicago National Golf Day, June 4^th would win hands down. Anyway, on this day in 1943, the Chicago District Golf Association initiated a cunning plan to help the USA’s effort in the Second World War. The Dime-A-Round-Program urged golfers to pop a dime in a milk bottle at the first tee of all golf courses, with all proceeds going towards helping Uncle Sam and his troops. Not sure how well that idea would go down nowadays, however.

It was on this day in 1932 that a certain Mr.Wood made a name for himself with long, booming drives. And for once, we’re not talking about Tiger, rather Craig Wood, who smashed his way to the top of the World’s Fair Long Drive Contest at Chicago’s Soldier Field. His average driving distance for the day was 247 yards and his best effort being a hearty 253.5 yards wallop. Wood picked up a cool $1000 for his work, which was a lot back then according to my grandma. And it was on this day in 1882 that O.B Keeler was born in, you’ve guessed it, Chicago. Keeler became famous for his coverage of Bobby Jones and was co-author of his 1927 autobiography, “Down the Fairway,” passing away in 1950 in Atlanta.

Away from Chicago, on this day in 1967, Dave Hill captured the Memphis Invitational Open, which is now known as the Stanford St. Jude Championship and, coincidentally, is this week’s stop on the PGA Tour.

On this day in 1926 Robert Earl Hughes was born in Missouri. By the time he was 20 he held the Guinness world record for the largest chest measurement ever recorded on a human, at 124 inches. His peak weight of 1069 pounds was also a record for a staggering two decades, and he died, presumably with a sandwich in each hand, aged 32 in 1958.

Back in the days of Elizabeth l, on this day in 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh established the first English colony on Roanoke Island, in Old Virginia. He had a fair old time of it, did Sir Walter. He sailed to South America in 1594 to find the legendary ‘Golden City’ of El Dorado. Was twice held in the Tower of London, wrote the odd book of poetry, married a consort of The Virgin Queen, bought tobacco and potatoes to these shores and was finally beheaded in 1618 to appease the Spanish.

And we shout a hearty Taichiro Kiyota! as they in Japan to 42 time LPGA Tour winner Sandra Haynie (65), hirsute annoyance Russell "You swines" Brand (33), and a thespian triumvirate of Sean Pertwee (44), Bradley Walsh (48) and Geoffrey Palmer (81). We apologise for calling Pertwee and Walsh thespians. It was a late night…