Tales From The Bunker

In our last post one of our loyal readers stated that Byron Nelson and Harold McSpaden were named the “Gold Dust Twins” at the 1944 Minneapolis Four-Ball Golf tournament. That got me wondering about other “Gold Dust Twins” and where did the name originate.

After an spending a massive amount of time on intensive research (no way) I discovered surprising that the name came from Gold Dust Washing Powder, an all-purpose cleaning agent first introduced in the 1880s.

The Gold Dust Twins, “Goldie” and “Dustie”, were the ‘faces’ of the Gold Dust Washing products.  The original version of the twins was a standard drawing of two young African-American children cleaning up together in a washtub. The Twins were featured in print advertising and radio ads for over sixty years. When national sensibilities about race began to change, the products (along with Goldie and Dustie) were phased out by the mid-1950s.

The phrase has also been used to describe two high profile individuals working successfully to achieve a common goal. Examples of “Gold Dust Twins” include:

• Harold “Jug” McSpaden and Byron Nelson, golf (1930s and 1940s)
• Royal Copeland and Joe Krol, gridiron football (1940s and early 1950s)
• Lew Hoad and Ken Rosewall, tennis (1950s)
• Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, baseball (1970s)

So sorry Byron and Harold, you were not the original “Gold Dust Twins”.

Until next time, keep ‘em in the fairway.

Tags: Blogging by admin
No Comments »

On August 15th we posted a question from a reader asking the location of the 1944 Minneapolis Four-Ball event won by Byron Nelson. Apparently our readers have no clue as there were no responses.

However the reader that posed the question apparently also has the answer. Posted below is an email he sent us on the subject.

“I was watching that Byron Nelson special on the Golf Channel tonight and Byron stated that he and Harold McSpaden got the nickname the ‘Gold Dust Twins” in Mpls. in 1944 in winning that event and the newspaper they showed had a headline of it being accomplished in Golden Valley. Logically that would be the country club which is an A.W. Tillinghast design. That course was originally Minneapolis Golf Course started in 1914 and 3 yrs. later was renamed the Golden Valley CC. Mpls. Golf Course started in 1917 in a nearby suburb of St. Louis Park and they hosted the 1959 PGA. There is another course here in Golden Valley- Brookview that was private from 1921 until 1961 until the city took over the operation which continues to this day”

A big round of applause to our reader for his contribution to our golf history knowledge.

Until next time, as always keep ‘em in the fairway.

Tags: Blogging by admin
2 Comments »

There is a common misconception that Gene Sarazen invented the sand wedge. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

Scottish golfers in the 19th century had special clubs for getting out of the sand. Walter Hagen was using a battle ax of a sand wedge in the late 1920s, with a hickory shaft and a smooth concave face, later deemed illegal,  with a lot of loft and about a half pound of weight in the flange. What Sarazen did was invent the modern sand wedge.

Gene was a good friend of Howard Hughes.  Sometime in the late 1920s, he went flying with Howard Hughes. When Hughes’s plane took off, the flaps on the wings came down and Sarazen made a connection between the flaps and the flange you could add to a club that would allow it to slide through the sand and help the ball pop up.

Sarazen experimented by soldering flanges to his niblicks, which were similar to a modern pitching wedge. By building up the flange so that it sat lower than the leading edge when soled,  the flange, not the leading edge, would contact the sand first, and explode sand as the shot was played. The additional weight provided punch to power through the thick sand.

Sarazen’s newly developed technique with the new club was to contact the sand a couple of inches behind the ball, not actually contacting the ball at all on most sand shots.

He sent the clubs to Wilson, and the company used those prototypes to come up with its first sand wedge in the early 1930s. Almost 80 years later the club has barely changed. Sarazen’s contract with Wilson lasted 75 years, the longest endorsement contract in sports. He was still under contract with Wilson when he died in 1999 at age 97.

As a player who hates bunkers, I cannot even imagine the nightmare sand play would be without Sarazen’s  invention.

Until next time, as always keep ‘em in the fairway.

Tags: Blogging by admin
1 Comment »

Do you know where the 1944 Minneapolis Four-Ball event won by Byron
Nelson was played? I think it was Golden Valley CC.

Tags: Uncategorized by admin
3 Comments »