The Hole Truth and Other Mostly True Stories is a great read for golfers where legends Dale Hayes, Denis Hutchinson and the late Simon Hobday take you inside the wacky world of golf.
A sneak peek inside the book:
Dale Hayes
We were running the South African PGA Club Pro Championship one year at Houghton Golf Club. Johan Engelbrecht, who was a pro at Parow Golf Club in Cape Town, arrived wearing a pair of shoes with soles that were two inches thick.
I asked him, “What’s with the soles of your shoes?”
He said, “I did a study and found that the average height of the best players in the world was six foot one. I’m five foot 11, so I needed to add two inches onto my shoes. Now I’m six foot one”.
Dennis Buryns was doing the rulings for the event and I pointed out the shoes to him. Dennis had a look and said, “I don’t know about this.”
He phoned the R&A and they said, “No, he can’t wear the shoes, it’s an artificial aid.”
Dennis explained to Johan that he couldn’t wear those shoes today.
Johan said, “Well, in that case, I’m withdrawing from the tournament.”
Dennis said, “You don’t have to withdraw from the tournament, you just can’t wear the shoes.”
Johan withdrew and I was feeling bad about it, so I went up to him and said, “Why are you withdrawing? Why don’t you just go and get another pair of shoes.”
He said, “No, because I’ve custom-made all my clubs two inches longer as well.”
The late Simon Hobday
So I got a hat, one of those big straw ones, and I wrote “David Frost” on top, and off I went. I thought that the golf god was not looking after me. Bugger me if I didn’t hole a 20-footer on the 1st hole. On the 2nd hole I nailed another 20-footer. On the 3rd, I three-putted, looked up to the skies and said, “Well, it didn’t take you long to find me, but at least I got two in.”
I had to do those kinds of things to relieve the pressure, you know. I was an angry bloody player, and did more damage to myself than anything.
On the 5th hole you drove into a valley and I could only just carry the first hill and it would catch the downslope and finish at the bottom.
One day I caught it nicely and my ball ran up the other side and somehow stayed up there. Jack had hit the most monstrous drive, which hit the top of the far hill and rolled back down to the bottom, finishing behind mine.
As he was getting ready, I looked over and said, “Nice drive, Jack.”
He said, “Jeepers, Hutchie, you must have really killed yours because I could not have hit mine any better.”
He knew that I knew his ball had pitched up at the top of the hill and come rolling back.
The Americans won it that year and South Africa came third. Jack won the individual title, Arnie was second and Gary came third. I came tie-10th.
