Now that the Sydney Games have been consigned to history, it is perhaps worth noting that the closest golf came to the competitive arena was in Australia's Karrie Webb and Greg Norman carrying the torch. And in Tiger Woods using a club as a javelin in a television commercial.
Meanwhile, this column has already noted that a Canadian by the name of George Seymour Lyon was the last Olympic golf champion, at St Louis in 1904. So, in the interest of gender balance, we cannot forget Margaret Abbot, who captured the Olympic golf championship in Paris in 1900, the only time women's golf was included in the Games.
Remarkably, the one-time Chicago society girl died in 1955 without ever knowing she was an Olympic champion. She thought she had simply won an ordinary tournament like those she entered back home. Even her children didn't know anything different until they were informed by an American sports history professor about 12 years ago.
A gold medal, of course, would have pointed to such status, but Abbot's award was just a silver bowl. So, American historians have been careful to describe her as their first female Olympic champion, rather than Olympic gold medallist. According to Britain's Golf Illustrated, the event was "The International Golf Competition at Compeigne in connection with the Paris Exhibition." And the player just happened to be in the French capital at the time, accompanying her novelist mother, Mary Ives Abbott, who was there finishing a book.
This day in golf history. . . . On October 7th, 1922, at the Westchester-Biltmore GC in Rye, New York, Gene Sarazen beat Walter Hagen by 3 and 2 in a marathon, 72-hole match for the unofficial title of world champion.
Teaser: A player assumes his original ball to be in a water hazard, although there was not reasonable evidence to that effect. Using the option in Rule 26-1a, he plays another ball at the spot from which the original ball was played. He then finds his original ball outside the hazard. What is the ruling?
Answer: The original ball is lost and the other ball is in play under penalty of stroke and distance.
