Lefties: A Short History of Left-Handed Golfers

By Jack Heal

This book is about left-handed golfers. Most play golf for a living. However, there are a few names not necessarily associated with golf. For example, did you know Babe Ruth was a left-handed golfer and a darn good one at that. Former president Barack Obama is a left-handed golfer. Mardy Fish, once ranked number nine in the tennis tour, is a left-handed golfer. There are a few names you may not readily recognize today, but some could become household golf names in the future.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Sep 16, 2019
• ISBN: 9781644717301

Book preview

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Table of Contents

Prologue

List of Left-Handed Golfers

Right-Handed Golfers Mentioned

The Thirteen Left-Handed Winners on the US PGA Tour to Date

Bob Charles

Sam Adams

Ernie Gonzalez

Phil Mickelson

Russ Cochran

Mike Weir

Steve Flesch

Eric Axley

Bubba Watson

Ted Potter Jr.

Brian Harman

Greg Chalmers

Cody Gribble

Some Other Lefties of Particular Distinction

The Australian and New Zealand Brigade

Adam Bland

Nick Cullen

Richard Green

Nick O’Hern

Gareth Paddison

Tim Wilkinson

Two Lefties Whose Competitive Pro Careers Were Ended by Medical Problems

Kevin Wentworth

John Engler Jr.

Two Other Left-Handed NCAA Champions

Scott Langley

Cameron Wilson

More Left-Handed Golfers of Significance

Henry Do

Mardy Fish

Chris Gane

Ralph Howe III

Yutaka Hugawa

Rick Lamb

George Lanning

Stuart Little

Edward Loar

Barack Obama

Paul Peterson

George Herman Babe Ruth

Vic Wilk

The World of Left-Handed Women’s Golf

Bonnie Bryant

Judi Pavon

Evolution of the Web.com Tour, Including Its Left-Handed Winners

This Author’s Ranking of the Top Ten Left-Handed Golfers

Lefties and the Senior (Champions) Tour

2018 Season to Date

Oddities

Blaine McCallister

B.J. Staten

Notah Begay

About the Author

Lefties

A Short History of Left-Handed Golfers

Jack Heal

ISBN 978-1-64471-729-5 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64471-730-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2019 Jack Heal

All rights reserved

First Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Covenant Books, Inc.

11661 Hwy 707

Murrells Inlet, SC 29576

www.covenantbooks.com

Prologue

I am a seventy-eight-year-old left-handed golfer. I first hit a golf ball in August 1944, shortly before my fifth birthday. My dad and I were in Canada, near Kingsville, Ontario at the Kingsville Golf and Country Club somewhere in the middle of the course. My father, a right-handed golfer, dropped a ball down, handed me a club, and told me to take a swing. I did but swung the club left handed. It did not work very well. My first lesson: you cannot swing a right-handed golf club left handed and get a good result. Instead of telling me the game of golf should only be played right handed, my father simply pulled an old hickory-shafted putter from his bag. It had somewhat of a left-handed lie on the backside of the club. I had a better result (by no means great) swinging this club at the ball. So there began my life as a left-handed golfer. I did not know swinging a golf club left handed was an indictable offense, at least in the United States (please excuse my sense of humor—or at least the attempt).

Over time, I took up golf more seriously. When I was seven or eight years old, my father brought home a left-handed four iron. I used it to drive, hit fairway woods, as well as all manner of irons (chipping included), and even to blast from sand traps with it. Over time, my father brought home some other left-handed clubs. It was hardly a matched set, but I managed to get along and make some progress.

Along came high school. I now had a matched set of clubs (Wilson Sam Sneads, as I remember). In my