#4 Golf is a Ball Game (Part 1)

18 Opportunities returns to celebrate Hiram Hart.  This episode was recorded in Portland studio on January 3, 2020 by Billy McGee and accompanied by Jan Knott.  Both Hiram and Jan are avid birders and golfers.  Together we explore  the natural beauty of the trees, birds and wildlife at Eastmoreland and throughout their travels.  Hiram Hart is now playing golf on the celestial plane.  He was the founding member of the Eastmoreland Greyhound Tuesday & Thursday noontime game.  enjoy hearing the words of a kind man and tough competitor.  The picture of Hiram with his bicycle and golf cart is a familiar sight we will all cherish.   Enjoy and Play Well!

On Special Segment, Billy is joined by Christine as they, along with families across the globe, live through new social distancing and work from home orders.  We explore how golf can be a respite and mental health break from a world turned upsidedown.  We explore how the golf course has changed with more activity, more couples and more families and we appreciate the silver linings and the coming of a new dawn. 

Billy welcomes Conner from the Society of Golf Historians and Talking Golf History podcast to replay Hole #5 and explore Golf as a Game of Tools.  We explore Connor's love and obsession with hickory golf clubs, his collection of Rut Irons and Sand Wedges and explore how the evolution of the guttie and wound ball led to club innovations, specifically irons, and the magic of bounce and the Sand Wedge with Hagen and Sarazen in 1932 British Open.

Blake joins Billy and Drew for the Hole #5 Golf is a Game of Tools.  We begin with Blake's recent passion for old school blades and persimmons.  Going deeper we explore golf as a game of tools with an emphasis on the putter, having gone through many changes through history leading to design bans by the R&A and USGA. We further explore the relationship of green speeds and maintenance now compared to 1903 when Jon Low explored the Cleek versus the Putter

In this episode, Billy & Drew pick up with the endo of the Guttie era with the introduction of the Wound Rubber Ball from America.  John Low provides excellent commentary in 1903 decrying the "new ball" with longer distances that will make the current golf courses obsolete as drives now are going from 170 to 200+ yards.  This episode is super relevant to the current USGA research on issues of distance and the ball advances the past 20 years, at the end of the Wound Ball Era.

Hole #4 Billy and Drew explore how Golf is a Ball Game and unique from other games, in that the evolution of the ball was a critical element to the evolution of the game itself.  Learn about the original wooden golf balls pre 15th century and the origin of the featherie- the first "modern golf ball" in 1603.  Then discover how the Hindu God Vishnu is connected to the Guttie - first natural rubber golf ball made of gutta-percha.  The episode ends with the introduction of the India-Rubber Ball the  Haskell or "Bouncing Billy" then we break for Part 2 following the golf ball space race of the early 20th century.  The snippet featuring Malcolm Gladwell comes from "A Good Walk Spoiled" Episode 1 of Season 2 of Revisionist History Podcast produced and owned by Pushkin Industries.

Hole #2 Golf is Made By the Land explore how golf was made by the land, specifically the links of Scotland. The game was one shaped more by the land itself then by any theoretical constructs of gameplay, like court games. The game evolved to follow the natural contours and make a game of what nature provided. The episode explores how golf can co-exist with open space and natural areas that live on the edges of civilization. This episode is a combination of multiple recordings, from Billy's initial foray into podcasting, snippets of a discussion with Drew on newer golf courses built on reclaimed land, and closing with some golfing at Black Mesa Golf Course in New Mexico.  

This episode features long friend and competitor Vinny who joins Billy to discuss the appreciation of the Match, specifically match play, making a wager and some American versions played in Texas called Wolf Hammer.  This is an episode that will have you making a tee time and digging into the wallet for some cash.    Note: we skip Hole #2: Golf is Made by the Land because we are on our way to Bandon for the Oregon Coast Cup match play event. That episode will include some of the exploits of our annual pilgrimage.

On the opening hole of the 18 Opportunities Podcast, Billy and Drew explore the origin of sports specifically melee games and target games, and how both golf and football were banned in 1457 by the King of Scotland.  

"Why 18 Opportunities?" This episode introduces Billy and Drew to the listeners, as we explore why we love golf through the lens of history, culture, science, and evolution.  Billy explains the origin of 18 Opportunities from the book Concerning Golf by John Low and his Eastmoreland 100 history project.  Together they lay out the purpose and structure of the 18 hole journey with the goal to persuade Malcolm Gladwell's to reconsider his avowed hatred of golf in "A Good Walk Spoiled" from the Revisionist History Podcast (owned and produced by Pushkin Industries)