Golfdom, March 2014

Keeping up with The Jones Continued from page 6 to oblige see page 9 Ive always admired Rees and his familys work from afar but in recent years Ive been fortunate to add Rees as a friend and even a father figure of sorts he looks out for me and is always happy to help me out when he can When he arrived at the Golfdom booth this year he quietly pulled me aside I brought you something he told me He then pulled out some papers from his jacket pocket and stuffed them in my hand This is a letter Herb Graffis wrote to my father I want you to have it Let me be clear its a copy of the letter not the letter itself And yet Rees Jones took the time to bring me a gift dated August 16th 1970 a letter written by the founder of this very magazine addressed to Mr Robert Trent Jones That doesnt happen everyday you know The letter is scathing and also hilarious Graffis bashes the Tour players of that era for their bad manners He Several things amaze me about this piece of memorabilia the fact that its almost 50 years old and still in such great shape the fact that its celebrating the 40th anniversary of this magazine and that was way back in 1966 1967 and the fact that I snagged it for the low low price of 1250 on eBay and this is the moment where Roberts slams down the magazine and shouts my name along with an expletive But its OK this happens at least once a week I fully expect Roberts to try to talk me out of this find But Im sorry my friend this one is just too cool to part ways with I oftentimes say the same thing about my job Email Jones at sjones@ northcoastmedia net mentions that Gene Sarazen used to criticize the U S Open course every year just to get his name in the paper He mentions a caddie who must be embarrassing to his family He also writes the old poet who wrote that you cant make a velvet purse of a sows ear might be amazed to see how you can make a golf star out of a pigs ass To read the letter stop by the Golfdom blog golfdom com where Ill post the letter in its entirety And thank you to Rees for the kind gift The next souvenir has become something of an annual tradition Mike Bavier CGCSRetired a former president of the GCSAA 1981 brought me the June 1967 issue of Golfdom during the GIS Bavier is another guy Ive been lucky enough to befriend since taking over Golfdom I now have a nice chunk of his back issues of Golfdom that were mailed to him when he was a young superintendent I hope Im lucky enough to one day pass them on to my successor in 30 or so years and Ill be sure to name check Bavier and his kindness for keeping these gems out of a recycle bin Finally this last one is going to frustrate my publisher Pat Roberts that I nabbed it and he did not Its a Golfdom money clip celebrating the 40th anniversary of the magazine 42 Golfdom March 2014 Golfdom com PHOTOS BY SETH JONES MONEY CLIP RYAN BOCKMULLER SETH AND MIKE In what has become a GIS tradition Mike Bavier CGCS Retired stopped by the booth to give Seth a gift