Golf Loops

A curious view of the world of golf

"I started playing righty. Everybody told me there are no lefty golfers. Then you go to Canada and that's all you see because they're all hockey players."

Mark Wahlberg, Actor, Executive Producer of HBO's Entourage, and lefty golfer, during a 2009 episode of the Golf Channel series, Playing Lessons From The Pros. Wahlberg putts right-handed "because it feels better" and "still plays righty every once in awhile.”

As a catcher, you threw right and batted left. How about golf?
"I started as a lefty, but one time I was behind a tree and couldn't hit it lefty. I borrowed a club and hit it right-handed. I hit it pretty good and kept on playing righty. But I still putt lefty."

Yogi Berra, in an interview in the January 25, 2010 issue of Golf World.

"I was born left-handed--that was the normal way for me to do things. I was switched over to doing things right-handed when I was a boy but I started golf as a left-hander because the first club I ever came into possession of, an old five-iron, was a left-handed stick. I stopped being a left-handed golfer for what might be termed local commercial conditions: the boys in my home town, Fort Worth, used to buy their golf clubs (at a dollar per club) at a five-and-dime store and there simply never was any left-handed equipment in the barrel where the clubs were stacked."

Ben Hogan, Ben Hogan's Five Lessons

Golf in The Olympics – A Bit of
Left-handed Golf History

"When Harry Vardon was engaged at Ganton, his members got rather tired of being beaten by him, though in receipt of extravagant odds. He made a futile attempt to relieve the monotony of the results by playing left-handed from a handicap of scratch. It was soon decided that he ought to owe two as a left hander. There seems here to be some connection between left handedness and Celtic blood, as we have observed before; for the chief market for left-hand clubs is said to be in the extreme north of Scotland, where right-handed players are reported to be in the minority."

From the book, The Curves of Life by Theodore Andrea Cook, originally published in 1914.

Who becomes a left-handed golfer?
It's not necessarily left-handed people.

Who Becomes A Left-handed Golfer?
By Nancy Kapitanoff

When Barack Obama was sworn into office on January 20, 2009, he became the fourth left-handed President of the United States since 1974, beginning with lefty Gerald Ford (politics notwithstanding). Ford followed the old adage that left-handers should play golf right-handed. So did left-handers George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. President Obama is the first left-handed President to play golf left-handed.
3484868454_30c937d0ed_b

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

Barack Obama is not quite as unique in the golf world as he is among his presidential peers. Contrary to conventional wisdom, and until recently the challenges of finding quality left-handed clubs, men and women have been swinging a golf club from the “wrong” side since golf became a popular game in the late-1800s.

“…The woman champion of the same [Morris County Golf] club should not be overlooked, for the women of Morristown are famous as energetic golfers. Miss Helen Shelton holds the proud position. She is a left-handed player and one of the best of the few who play golf in that manner.”

“Local Golfers Of Note: Prominent Players Who Hold Championship Honors in Their Various Clubs”
New York Times
August 21, 1898

“Mr. G. H. Lindsay of the Homewood Country Club won the ‘Southpaw’ championship of the Chicago district at the Midlothian links Aug. 28. He turned in the low gross score of 176 for thirty-six holes against a brilliant array of left-handed golfers. He was the only scratch man in the tournament…”

Western Department
The American Golfer Magazine
September 1909

But unlike President Obama, many of the golfers who play golf left-handed today, including the #2 ranked player in the world, Phil Mickelson, are right-handed in everything else they do.

Read the complete article