Shell's Wonderful World of Golf...

[PEZGolf]

4 hours ago, Coronagolfman said:

One of the earlier Shell WWOG shows was filmed at Banff - it featured some Canadian pro and ......... Jack Burke.  For some reason back when VHS copies of the Shell shows were available this was one that was never available. Never any reason given for why it wasn't released like most of the others.

I did not know that. I wonder if the Canadian pro was George Knudsen?

[natureboy]

17 hours ago, Coronagolfman said:

One of the earlier Shell WWOG shows was filmed at Banff - it featured some Canadian pro and ......... Jack Burke.  For some reason back when VHS copies of the Shell shows were available this was one that was never available. Never any reason given for why it wasn't released like most of the others.

 

13 hours ago, PEZGolf said:

I did not know that. I wonder if the Canadian pro was George Knudsen?

 

There is a Shell match of Knudson v. Geiberger. Knudson could have appeared on more than one, but wonder if maybe the Canadian Pro was Stan Leonard since Banff is more western Canada?

[Gunther]

2 hours ago, natureboy said:

 

 

There is a Shell match of Knudson v. Geiberger. Knudson could have appeared on more than one, but wonder if maybe the Canadian Pro was Stan Leonard since Banff is more western Canada?

It was Stan Leonard, in 1962.

Surprising to see them putt with the flag in in the early days.  Watched a match between Cotton and Sarazen at St Andrews in '62 and this happened more than once.  Perhaps it was an R&A rule that allowed it at the time?

[iacas]

4 hours ago, Gunther said:

It was Stan Leonard, in 1962.

Surprising to see them putt with the flag in in the early days.  Watched a match between Cotton and Sarazen at St Andrews in '62 and this happened more than once.  Perhaps it was an R&A rule that allowed it at the time?

Watch some old Masters coverage.

http://ruleshistory.com/green.html#flag

Read up on 1956 and 1968.

[PEZGolf]

16 hours ago, iacas said:

Watch some old Masters coverage.

http://ruleshistory.com/green.html#flag

Read up on 1956 and 1968.

Good post.  Some new golfers may not realize that the Rule Book that is governed by the USGA and the RGA is subject to change (most of the time, it is "tweaking").  As you and other pros know, there are changes almost every year.  For golfers who play competitively in tournaments, it is absolutely critical to really know the rules.

[iacas]

4 minutes ago, PEZGolf said:

Good post.  Some new golfers may not realize that the Rule Book that is governed by the USGA and the RGA is subject to change (most of the time, it is "tweaking").  As you and other pros know, there are changes almost every year.  For golfers who play competitively in tournaments, it is absolutely critical to really know the rules.

That's not correct.

http://www.usga.org/RulesFAQ/rules_answer.asp?FAQidx=180&Rule=100

Quote

The Decisions on the Rules of Golf book is revised every two years (even numbered years) and the Rules of Golf are revised every four years (leap years).

 

[powerfade66]

On 12/28/2015 at 10:36 AM, Coronagolfman said:

The original series took place in the 1960's and was of course sponsored by Shell Oil - while originally featuring famous courses like Pine Valley or St. Andrews  and some perhaps not so famous courses from around the world in places like Africa or Southesast Asia, the series at one point came under the influence of Rockefeller's "RockResorts" and thus became an advertisement for new resort courses designed by Robert Trent Jones to be found at those resorts  (Dorado Beach, Mauna Kea, Fountain Valley (Virgin Islands), Royal Kaanapali to name a few).  A number of other resort owners jumped on board so the parade of new (and not necessarily famous) courses continued with the likes of Cotton Bay (Bahamas) and El Conquistador (Puerto Rico).  Of course, there was still a number of "name" venues like Pebble Beach (several times), St. Andrews, Mid-Ocean Club, Royal County Down, Royal Melbourne and Medinah that were used as well.

The series ended sometime in the late 60's and was resurrected in the '90s by a production company I believe was owned by Jack Nicklaus and not surprisingly, featured a number of appearances by Jack and his contemporaries on courses designed by Jack and associated with resorts or clubs owned by some of his cronies. The shows also began to feature the "young guns" of the tour at that time including Fred Couples, Phil Mickelson and Payne Stewart from USA and European stars like Ernie Els, Sergio Garcia, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo and Nick Price.

Eventually the idea of matches like those in the Shell format gave way to the Skins Game series which existed for a decade in one form or another only to be replaced by the more circus-like atmosphere of staged exhibition matches involving the hottest player in the sport, Tiger Woods.

There are very few of the earlier Shell series matches from the 60's available on DVDs from what I have found - the Ben Hogan vs Sam Snead match is one of the few that was put on DVD.  Those earlier original matches were most all available for a number of years on VHS but I have not seen many of them offered online in recent times (I have about 15-20 of the 60's matches on VHS).  The more recent vintage matches from the 90's were available for awhile on DVDs (in some cases a whole year of 4-5 Shell matches was available on a DVD set) but I have not seen that many of those available these days. 

Somebody else may know of some internet sites were the VHS or DVD versions can be found.

There is one other series of matches that took place in the 1960's that you might find interesting if you like the Shell WWOG series - they were called Challenge Golf and featured Arnold Palmer and Gary Player playing against another pair of players - one of those matches was Arnold and Gary versus Ken Venturi and Byron Nelson at Pebble Beach; another was against Jack Nicklaus and Phil Rodgers at LA North.  And of course, there is always the venerable Big Three Golf series that featured Arnold, Jack and Gary at Firestone CC in Ohio and at Mauna Kea in Hawaii (where Gary had to hit driver off the back tee at famed #3 just to carry the ocean from the 250 yard back tee designed by Trent Jones just for that match and which now has been restored with a plaque commemorating that event)

Good hunting if you are looking for these older videos or scouring the Golf Channel program listings to record these terrific glimpses into what the PGA tour looked like prior to the desecration of the game and its classic courses through new technology.

 

I also have a pile of Shell’s matches on VHS. Nice to see another collector.