(Column was written June 17, 2011)

 By Shelly Saltman

Over the years, many of my friends who are avid golfers have asked me to join them and take up the game. In truth, I won't do it because it might prove embarrassing to them and especially to me.

I played in a Pro-Am once and to give you an idea how bad my drives were, a member of my foursome around the sixteenth hole turned to me and asked me if my husband played golf as well. That was it!  I never picked up the clubs again to play. 

That is not to say that golf has not given me some great moments. In 1953, as a young announcer in Massachusetts, I drew the assignment of covering on radio for a local station The Walker Cup, or when I was involved with the Andy Williams San Diego Open from its inception.

For those who do not know, the Walker Cup match has been in existence since 1921.  It is a combined effort that takes place every other year in odd numbered years pitting the best amateur golfers of the United Kingdom and the United States against each other. 

The R & A (The Royal and Ancient Golf Club) and the USGA (The United States Golf Association), golf's amateur governing bodies make the team selections.  It is named for George Herbert Walker, the grandfather of the 41^st president of the United States, and great-grandfather to our 43rd president.

It has been a premier showcase for many potentially great pros.  The year I broadcast, the United States had, among others, on its team, a young Coast Guardsman from San Diego named Gene Littler and a fellow Californian, Ken Venturi.  Through 2009, the U.S. is leading with the number of victories - 34 to 7. However, like in so many sports as in life, the pendulum has been swinging to more of a balance.  The last two competitions, the U.S. barely eked out victory.

The Ryder Cup, golf's professional version, which came after the Walker Cup, is played along the same lines.  In fact, the Ryder Cup, which originally also had just a U.S. v U.K. format, has widened its scope to make it U.S. v Europe.  This format gives the U.S. plenty to worry about. Especially, since so many of today's top golfers are coming from the other side of the pond.

You know, I wonder about golfers.  My boyhood friend and pal, Earle Wolfe, lives in Palm Desert,  an area considered a golf Mecca.  If you talk to Earle (he lives in a gated golf community), he'll gladly tell you he plays golf on any day ending in "y".  Other times if you ask him how he did, he'll tell you he's throwing his clubs away.

This brings to mind, the fine art of throwing your club. Tommy Bolt won 15 PGA Tournaments in his, career including the 1958 U.S. Open. He is 55^th on the all-time wins list even though he didn't join the tour until he was 32 years old.  In 2002, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. As one of the most explosive men to ever play professionally, he, however, was better known for something else...  his temper.

 So bad was his temper that at various times he had nicknames such as: Terrible Tommy, Tempestuous, Thunder Bolt, as well as Vesuvius.  These names were all well earned.  Probably, my friend, the Late Los Angeles Times columnist  Jim Murray said it best. He wrote after watching Tommy play a round, " You could sense the lava rising, the ash spewing, the top about to come off... Mr. Bolt was about to erupt."

When Tommy's game was not going smoothly, his caddy, the gallery and his fellow players all knew to watch out... a club, or for that matter, clubs would be flying. He would sometimes launch a club into a lake with a two-handed backswing.  His inability to control his temper and his emotions cost him tournaments.  The great bantam Ben Hogan, his friend, often said, " If we could've just screwed another head on his shoulders, Tommy could have been the best ever."

His wild antics brought about a dubious honor.  Because of him, the PGA made it a two-stroke penalty for anyone who throws a club during tournament play.  The rule is affectionately known as the "Tommy Bolt Rule."  The day after the rule took affect, Bolt himself was the first to break it.  This time, it wasn't because he was mad he just didn't want some other golfer to be the first to break "his" rule.

There have been many other incidents of club throwing.  Two that come to mind belong to of the current acknowledged giants of the game... John Daly and Tiger Woods.

In the third round of the 1997 PGA, Daly was one under par and just three strokes off the lead.  At the 12^th hole, his drive sailed onto the fairway.  Unfortunately, it was the 17^th fairway.  Daly went berserk!  He threw his club completely over the gallery and into the woods.  Before they could continue the match,  it required two marshals to jump a chain-link fence to retrieve it.

Tiger Woods at the height of his game won the Bay Hill Invitational four successive years... 2000 to 2003.  One more victory in 2004 and he would have stood alone as the only pro with most consecutive wins at one tournament. Apparently, the pressure got to him.   He was in 46^th place in the final round and on the 6^th hole; he hit one into the water.  Then, according to many witnesses (he wasn't on camera), he threw his club after it. 

Like everything else that day, he missed. He accidentally hit has caddy Steve Williams instead. When asked about it later, Tiger said, "Steve was just as mad as I was, so it doesn't really matter."  I wonder if anyone ever asked Williams.

So, I don't play golf.  Not just because I am not good at it, but in reality I could not afford to throw away any clubs.  I should ask my pal Earle if he ever really went though with his protestations. After all, like me, he is a tight-fisted New Englander.