Tales From The Bunker

Evel  Knieval demanded a rematch the next day. He would provide hotel rooms and, if he lost again, would drive to the PGA show for free, wear his motorcycle leathers and sign pictures to promote the metal woods.  Gary and Eddie stayed.

This time Eddie took Knievel for $1,400 and Gary won $200. On the way back to the PGA show they ordered 1,000 chicken wings.  beer and had a sign made that said “Wing It On A Taylor Made”, which was the name of their company.

Friday night they had a party for the 228 golf pros staying at their hotel. Beer flowed and wings were consumed. Knievel appeared and signed autographs. Orders for $375,000 worth of metal woods were signed.

This was the first real sales for the new metal driver. Evel Knievel never did become associated with the company but he still was its most important early investor.

As Paul Harvey would say “Now you know the rest of the story”.

As always keep ‘em in the fairway.

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Gary Adams and Eddie Langert had a truck filled with metal woods that no one wanted at the PGA Merchandise show in the winter of 1980.The clubs that made an offensive clank with they hit a ball.

Gary’s credit cards were maxed out and Eddie had declared personal bankruptcy. They need to find an investor fast.  Enter Evel Knievel.

“He called us” Eddie said. “He said” I’ve seen your product and I’m a believer. I’d like to get involved in this.’”  Evil’s career was over at that point. He played a lot of golf, drank a lot of Wild Turkey and did a fine job of living up to his reputation as a reprobate.

He invited the two to play a round in Key Largo. Gary has $75.00 in his pocket and Eddie had $25.00. When they arrived Evil (a 1 handicap) asked how well they played. Before they knew what happened they were playing a $25 Nassau with some side bets.

Fourteen holes in the match Knievel was winning everything. The two entrepreneurs wondered how they would pay. Embarrassment lurked and an investment partner would be gone.

On the 15th hole Knievel hit a bad drive and, disgusted, turned and threw his club. The club missed Eddie by inches.  Eddie grabbed Knievel and said he should beat the hell out of him. Evel knew he was wrong and apologized.

The match turned at that point and Knievel fell apart. Eddie was $250 and Gary took him for $75.00.

Stay tuned for part two and as always keep ‘em in the fairway.

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Back on August 4th we wrote a blog on the greatest golf movies of all time based in part on information at http://www.sportsinmovies.com. Recently we found a list of the box office proceeds of recent golf movies.  With a big thank you to GolfWorld  the list is as follows;

Tin Cup – $53,854,588
Happy Gilmore – $41,205,099
Caddyshack – $39,846,344
The Legend of Baggar Vance – $39,459,427
Caddyshack II – $11,798,302
The Greatest Game Ever Played – $15,431,177
Who’s Your Caddy – $5,713,425
Seven Days in Utopia – $3,588,000
Bobby Jones: Stokes of Genius – $2,707,913

Obviously this list does not include all of the greatest movies ever in our previous blog as some of them are quite old. However the box office proceeds listed above are pathetic.

What is it about golf that does not resonate on the big screen?  It is an elitist sport, the game does not lend itself to a good movie story or is the problem that the scripts just simply are bad?

We are struggling for an answer. We would love to hear our reader’s opinion on the subject
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As always keep ‘em in the fairway.

P.S. Has anyone ever seen Par 6?

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These poor guys are up at 5:00 AM cutting grass, raking bunkers and generally getting the course ready for another day of amateurs trying to destroy the grounds. Without them there would be no golf.

However why are there always certain workers who pay to no attention to the golfers who pay their salaries?

They drive their carts by full speed as you are hitting. If they are working around the greens they briefly stop and wave you up but do not move. If your ball heads in their direction they do not move.

Have you ever felt like they are stalking you for several holes? Are they laughing at how bad you are or do thy simply enjoy making you nervous.

But the worst, the absolute worst, is when you are playing at the end of the day and they follow you around and start the sprinklers as soon as you are done with a hole. That would be ok but why do they always jump ahead and start the sprinklers on holes you have not played?  Even though you plan your strategy to avoid the sprinklers you always hit into them. First you have to time the sprinkler head, then run and hit your ball and get out before the sprinkler head comes around to nail you. Success rate of getting nailed….100%.

Let me restate that 95% of the maintenance workers are great. The other 5% hopefully do not know where I live.

As always, keep ‘em in the fairway.

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