The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History: 1940-1969

Nobody likes listening to a golfer go through his or her entire round shot by shot, but allow us some indulgence as we near the end of our 75th anniversary year. We were very selective. To choose the 75 moments that tell our story—from a naval officer named Bill Davis getting a taste for magazine publishing after writing an account of a kamikaze attack, to our current position within global sports leader TNT Sports—we discarded stories and episodes that were merely popular or fun in favor of those that had lasting effect. An editorial moment had to ripple for years afterward in the way Golf Digest operated, the golf world or even media at large. That’s why senior editor John P. May quietly deciding in 1961 to try photographing Ben Hogan with an 8-millimeter motion camera, which birthed our interactive and digitized modern swing sequence analyses, gets the same nod of importance as when we upended tempers at the PGA Merchandise Show in 2004 with our first Hot List ranking of clubs. We also didn’t spare our embarrassments, such as when in 2010 the cover story “10 Tips Obama can take from Tiger” landed the same week revelations of Woods’ personal life busted the Internet and a fire hydrant.

Thank you for being a member of the Golf Digest community. We hope you enjoy the stroll down memory lane of this special club that predates us all.

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Max Adler, Editorial Director

The 75 Biggest Moments in Golf Digest History: 1940-1969 / 1970-1980 / 1981-1992 / 1994-2006 / 2007-2023

1940s

1944: A Naval officer named Bill Davis oversees a battery of six anti-aircraft guns on Oct. 29, when a Japanese kamikaze fighter takes out one of his gun tubs. Davis publishes a story about the crew’s heroism the following May in Our Navy magazine, which becomes the inspiration for a magazine called Golf Digest.

1950s

1950: Golf Digest is founded out of a bedroom in Evanston, Ill. The original investment is $2,000; the first issue is pocket-size, 20 pages and sells for 15 cents. The following year, Bill Davis is joined by co-founders Jack Barnett and Howard R. Gill Jr., classmates from New Trier High School and Northwestern University. “Bill was always more equal than the rest of us,” Barnett said.

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1950: Golf Digest publishes its first instructional advice. In putting: “Grasp the putter so that both thumbs point down the shaft. Take a firm grip. Not light and not tight.” Since its founding every male winner of every major championship has bylined at least one instruction article in Golf Digest, except Ed Furgol, the 1954 U.S. Open champion, and no one remembers why not him.

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Print Article: How To Putt | Golf Digest | SPRING 1950

1952: The first Hollywood celebrity appears on the cover—comedian Red Skelton. Others will follow, in order: Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, Danny Kaye, Jayne Mansfield, Debbie Reynolds, George Gobel, Perry Como, Jackie Gleason, Jack Nicholson, Justin Timberlake, Jimmy Fallon, Mark Wahlberg, Joe Pesci, Colin Jost and DJ Khaled.

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1952: We start the Hole-in-One Clearinghouse, a one-stop center for obtaining all the available prizes for making an ace. “We were getting calls every day from club pros asking where’s the case of Miller beer for my member’s ace,” Davis said. In its first year, 1,421 aces were recorded. Golf Digest becomes widely quoted for setting the odds for an average golfer making a hole-in-one at 1 in 12,500—about as mathematically rare as getting hit by lightning.

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1953: Dwight Eisenhower becomes the first U.S. President to appear on our cover. That spring, he had taken a trip to Augusta National with friends and was barraged by questions about his game. “There ought to be a law against asking a person what he shot,” he reportedly said. Sympathetic and inspired, the magazine’s editors create an oversized campaign button as a publicity stunt—“Don’t Ask What I Shot!”—that Ike proudly wears. More than 100,000 people write to get a free button while we collect their information in hopes of selling them subscriptions. In ensuing years, Golf Digest would mount campaigns to stop slow play, play the ball down, support junior golf, take a caddie, bring back walking and “Be Nice to Monty.”

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1955: Golf Digest introduces the Most Improved Golfer program for weekend golfers. It becomes our trademark as the editors often quote Ben Hogan as saying, “The real fun of golf is in improving.” Instruction becomes synonymous with Golf Digest as we create monthly franchises like Instant Lessons, The Primer, Tour Tips, How to Break 100/90/80 and Game Plan.

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1956: We pick Cary Middlecoff to win the U.S. Open and he does—a rare example of accurate golf prognostication, the exception proving the game’s unpredictability.

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1960s

1960: The Golf Digest Professional Panel is formed and joined by Bob Toski. It begins a process of recognizing teaching professionals as distinct from tour players as the ideal coaches for recreational golfers, and we begin to identify club pros who are known for their success as teachers. The Panel makes stars of Jim Flick, Eddie Merrins, Davis Love Jr., Peter Kostis, Butch Harmon, Jim McLean, Hank Haney, Rick Smith, Mark Blackburn and many others through the years. Rather than promoting one way to play the game, Golf Digest becomes a forum for the best thinking about technique and strategy.

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1961: Senior Editor John P. May photographs Ben Hogan with an 8-millimeter motion camera and publishes the grainy images, leading to decades of technological innovation that captures swings from every direction (including underneath a plexiglass platform).

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1962: Sam Snead and Byron Nelson formally begin their association with Golf Digest that will continue the rest of their lives. The Player Editor role is created and filled with the best current players in the game as Golf Digest signs exclusive contracts with the likes of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Billy Casper, Arnold Palmer, Tom Watson, Tom Kite, Seve Ballesteros, Johnny Miller, Jerry Pate, Nancy Lopez, Amy Alcott, Nick Faldo, Nick Price, Annika Sorenstam, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson, Jordan Spieth and Collin Morikawa.

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1962: The magazine changes size from 8 1/4-by-5 1/2 inches to standard size 8 1/4-by-11 1/8. The issue price increases to 50 cents in February, and the offices move from Evanston to Norwalk, Conn., in November.

1966: We pioneer golf course rankings by publishing America’s 200 Toughest Golf Courses after a mapmaker asks for a list. This evolves into America’s 100 Greatest Golf Courses—what quickly becomes the standard for measuring golf architecture worldwide. The USGA and PGA of America begin to use our rankings to identify championship sites.

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1966: Charles Price writes “Golfingly Yours, The Haig,” giving a glimpse of the old days when sportswriters traveled with the game’s heroes: “It was characteristic of Walter Hagen that he was referred to as The Haig, for there was something extraordinary about the man, something grandiose about the way he refused to do anything the way anyone else might. Last year, at 72, he went to New York City from his home in Traverse City, Mich., to undergo an operation for cancer of the throat. He entered the hospital by getting roaring drunk with his son and a writer friend (Price himself), smacking a nurse on her bottom and making a wry joke about Heaven to a priest as he ascended to his room in an elevator.”