Players Championship: Finding the worst avid golfer at TPC Sawgrass

The idea for the Search for America’s Worst Avid Golfer originated in the grillroom at Winged Foot in 1984 when a couple of editors were discussing how the average golfer would play the West Course as it had been prepared for that year’s U.S. Open. After a couple of beers, it turned to this question: “What would a really bad golfer shoot?”

As the concept rattled around our hallways back at the Golf Digest office, it grew bigger. We didn’t want just any golfer; we wanted somebody who legitimately was trying his best. Dean Knuth, who helped develop the USGA Slope handicap system, helped us draw up the criteria: “No physical handicaps, old enough to qualify for the Mid-Amateur (25), but not old enough for the Senior Amateur (55). Must have an established USGA handicap of at least 36 [the maximum for men at the time] and play more than 21 rounds a year [the national average] or once a week in season. And must be a confirmed golf nut who loves the game despite his inadequacies, confident in the knowledge that one day he will find the secret to put his game on track.”

We put a small notice in the front of the magazine, and more than 600 nominations poured in, from wives, girlfriends and buddies. Fact-checking followed; handicap and rounds-played requirements narrowed the field; interviews of each candidate were done by phone, and a final “Dirty Dozen” were identified. Then-Senior Editor Bob Carney flew around the country, met with each and played a round of golf to test their skill and seriousness. A final four were chosen by the editors—no digital voting, as this was pre-Internet days—and invited to a competition at the TPC Sawgrass, site of the Players Championship, provided by PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman, who also offered to be the rules official for the match.

On the appointed day, the week after the 1985 U.S. Open, the Worst Avid Golfer Championship became a national media event—it was covered by Time and Newsweek, and the results appeared on the evening news of the three TV networks at the time. Golf Digest pulled out our top gun, Peter Andrews, who reported on every shot. Andrews was also a contributing editor of American Heritage, a book critic for The New York Times and reviewer of classical music for Esquire. In earlier lives he was a child actor (“If you see a bad Korean War movie, I was probably in it”), a senior editor for Playboy and an international correspondent for Hearst. “I covered the Sino-Indian border war of ‘61,” he says. “It was a worst-avid kind of war—neither side knew what it was doing.”

Peter’s reporting appeared in the September 1985 issue, and many good things followed. The four worst-avid golfers became great friends, played in many charity events together, went to a Golf Digest School for lessons, and got slightly better, but forevermore remained true to their titles. On the 10th and 25th anniversaries of the championship, Golf Digest considered doing it again, but wisdom prevailed. This extraordinary event will never be duplicated. —Jerry Tarde