The Game of Golf

Golfers will really enjoy this article: Cooler (club) heads prevail

Selected quotes:

"When they used to use the little tractors as tee markers at the John Deere [Classic], that got pretty ugly," Lowery said. "Guys just mangled those things, just reduced them to matchsticks. The pineapple tee markers at Sony have also taken a beating. You'd walk up to a tee there, and one of the markers would be nothing but a stump, the pineapple vaporized, and you'd start chuckling and say, 'Well, I guess Steve [Pate]'s been here.' "

"I think that's because the guys today don't really know the proper way to throw a club," said Bolt, always the showman, in a recent interview. "First, you've got to helicopter a club. Throw it so it spins parallel to the ground. Don't tomahawk it, not if you plan on hitting it again. Those tomahawk jobs almost always break. Plus, I've had more than a few jagged shafts lunge back at me for revenge when I've broken them like that.

"Second, always throw clubs down the fairway, so you don't have to waste energy and suffer the indignity of walking back for the darn thing. I always suggest putters for beginners because not only will those suckers really fly, but I haven't met one yet that didn't deserve some abuse."

Such displays are completely alien to today's tour, though Sweden's Jesper Parnevik recalled a moment of somewhat premeditated mania from early in his career. "One of my first years on the European Tour we were in Spain and I was over a 3-foot putt, and this Spanish guy up in the TV tower wouldn't stop talking on his cell phone," Parnevik said. "I screamed at him, and he didn't stop. He just kept right on chattering away, very loud. So, finally, I marked my ball, very calmly, picked it up, and threw it at him up in the tower. Unfortunately, I missed the putt. More unfortunately, I missed him."