We’ve known about John Wooden’s famous golf round from 1939 for a long time, the one at Erskine Park Golf Course in South Bend, Indiana in which he nailed both a hole-in-one and a double-eagle (or albatross) on the way to shooting a 75 (+4). Well, the scorecard from that day on the course has been found.
According to an article from the online edition of the Los Angeles Daily News, Wooden’s daughter, Nan Muehlhausen, recently found the scorecard while cleaning out her father’s condominium in Encino. As you can see, the card clearly shows Wooden’s name signed as “John W.” as the first player on the card along several others who would have had to vouch for the feat.
We understand that these things need to be vetted and proven, that witnesses of such accomplishments on a golf course are necessary. But we’re with Wooden’s son Jim. When Jim was told that Golf Digest wanted to see the scorecard, he responded, “If daddy said he did it, he did it.”
Wooden was a keen golfer and even got down to a six handicap. When Corey Pavin (the captain of the USA’s Ryder Cup team this year, by the way) won the U.S. Open in 1995, Wooden called long time friend Eddie Merrins, Pavin’s golf coach at UCLA, and congratulated him on Pavin’s win — a respectful acknowledgment of the relationship between player and coach.
According to Golf Digest, the making of a hole-in-one and a double-eagle in the same round is something that’s been done just four times, one of them by Coach Wooden. We ask you — is there anything the man couldn’t do?