Hall of Fame

I spent several days this week in St. Augustine, attending the World Golf Hall of Fame induction ceremonies and eavesdropping on interviews of Hall of Fame members for a new project called Chronicles. You can't have a better time.

Chronicles is, essentially, an oral history of the game as told by Hall of Fame members. It will be part of the Hall of Fame and, we hope, part of golfdigest.com in years to come. To get things started our Pete McDaniel and Ron Sirak interviewed, respectively, Curtis Strange, Hubert Green, Charlie Sifford, Carol Mann, and Nancy Lopez, Louise Suggs, and Betty Jameson on behalf of the Hall. Though the interviews were relatively short, the recounting of careers, mentors, approach to the game, great shots-- and "others"-- was eye-opening, entertaining, moving and inspiring. It was My Shot in motion.

In the months to come, you'll hear more about Chronicles. I think you'll be as moved by these conversations as I was. Here are a couple of snippets:

Nancy Lopez on her most indelible trait: "My smile. You see, I had worn braces for five years. My father spent a lot of money on my teeth. I sucked my thumb as a little girl and my teeth were crooked. He spent a lot of money to fix them. And I always remembered that he said, 'If you're happy doing what you're doing, you'll be successful.' So I always wanted to smile.'" Charlie Sifford on being the "Jackie Robinson of golf": "I met Jackie Robinson and he asked me, 'Are you a quitter?' And I said, 'No, I'm no quitter.' And he said, 'Then go ahead and take a shot at it.'.....But I wasn't the Jackie Robinson of golf. I don't mean any disrespect to him, but he had nine guys behind him and played in a stadium. I was out there in the fairway by myself. They coudn't touch Jackie Robinson. But they could touch me."

Great stuff. And lots more to come.

--Bob Carney