With most of the world's pro sports being cancelled, paused, postponed or suspended golf is no different and by now you know the Masters has been postponed to be played at a later date if prudent, as the COVID_19 virus rages through most of our planet after being spawned in China several weeks ago.
There is so much bad news, but here is a gem for those who subscribe to the Golf Channel. https://www.golfchannel.com/livegolf
Today I was delighted at 6am to discover they are airing 5 solid hours of the fabulous classic, Shells Wonderful World of Golf and again on Sunday at the same time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shell%27s_Wonderful_World_of_Golf
It began in 1961, sponsored by Shell. Now remember golf on TV was in it's infancy, ratings were negligible, tournaments often ending on Saturday as pro sports weren't allowed on Sunday's.
Buoyed by the arrival of Arnie, Jack and Gary all that began to change and with Shell picking up the tab, a one hour Sunday afternoon show featuring two pros in a stroke play format at a stunning location, usually at a course from around the world we'd never seen before, with players we'd never seen before, was born.
It was a huge hit, 91 episodes between 1961-70 from places like Chile, Singapore, Sweden, Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, Japan, Spain, Canada, Luxembourg, often with relatively unheard of pros from their respective countries playing a star from the PGA Tour.
The series was cancelled when Shell pulled out in 1970 and was re-resurrected in 1994-2003 by Jack Nicklaus Productions and Shell back as sponsor, with Gary Player doing the commentary.
So have a trip down memory lane, Gene Sarazan then Jimmy Demaret will guide you through the early episodes with the pros talking to them during the round then giving a lesson after !!
Further, after 2 hours of the studio golf lessons 11am -1pm, there are a series of great one hour documentaries, today at 1pm it's Arnie and his Army to kick things off.
Bryan Angus
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