Babe Zaharias,¹ Guarding Against Slugging

Tips From the Top

Herbert Warren Wind and Ravielli, part II

These illustrations by Anthony Ravielli (whom we have discussed previously) are from Herbert Warren Wind’s book, Tips from the Top, book 2.²

Fay Crocker,³ Recovering Your Timing

Wind (with his suitably formal tripartite name) was educated at Yale and Cambridge. After serving in WWII he became a staff writer for the New Yorker, covering mostly golf. In 1954 he was lured from the New Yorker by Henry Luce to become the golf contributor for a new magazine, Sports Illustrated. In addition to general golf features, Wind edited the weekly golf instruction column “Tip from the Top.” The column was popular enough to be compiled into two books, of which these illustrations are from the second.

Wind returned to the New Yorker in 1962 and stayed there until his retirement in 1989. Along the way he managed to edit or write a number of golf books, including his classic The Story of American Golf, or my favorite, The Complete Golfer.⁴ He has been called the dean or poet laureate of American golf. In memoriam John Updike said that “He really gave you a heaping measure of his love of the game. He was so knowing, so perceptive.”

Betsy Rawls,⁵ The Shoulder Turn

Beverly Hanson,⁶ Flexing the Knees

The girls illustrated here (eight of the 52 lessons in Tips, book 2 are by women) were not just professional golfers, but the creators of the Women's tour. Berg, Hansen, Jameson, Suggs and Zaharias were among the group of 13 who founded the LPGA in 1950 and were directly responsible for the shape, and later success, of the Women's tour. The Annikas, Lorenas, Michelles, Natalies and Paulas of today are all in their debt.

Patty Berg,⁷ Getting the Right Hip out of the Way

Betty Jameson,⁸ Securing the Stance in Traps

Louise Suggs,⁹ Lining Up the Shot

Babe Zaharias, The Enjoyment of the Game

1. Mildred Ella (“Babe”) Didrikson Zaharias (26 June 1911―27 Sept 1956) stated as a teenager that her goal was “...to be the greatest athlete who ever lived,” and it can reasonably be said that she came pretty close; certainly she was the best female athlete ever. She was competitive in basketball, track, baseball, tennis, swimming, diving, boxing, volleyball, handball, bowling, billiards, skating and cycling. She even won awards as a seamstress. She won two gold medals (javelin and 80-meter hurdles) at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics. Looking for a new challenge she took up golf in 1933 and became one of the most recognized women professional golfer until she died, at age 45, of colon cancer. She was voted by the Associated press as the Greatest Female Athlete of the first half of the 20th Century. As a side note (to the footnote) she was also the first woman to compete in a men’s PGA event, some 60 years earlier than Annika or Michelle. (Lifetime: 41 LPGA wins, 10 majors, 2 time money leader, 6 time AP Woman Athlete of the Year).

2. Wind, Herbert Warren (ed). Tips From the Top, book 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. 1956:

3. Fay Crocker, born in Uruguay, was the first non-American to win the US Women's open (Lifetime: 12 LPGA wins, 2 majors).

4. Wind, Herbert Warren. The Story of American Golf. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1947, and Wind, Herbert Warren (ed). The Complete Golfer. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1954.

5. Betsy Rawls. (Lifetime: 58 LPGA wins, 7 majors, 2 time money leader).

6. Beverly Hanson, founding member of the LPGA (Lifetime: 17 LPGA wins, 3 majors).

7. Patty Berg, founding member of the LPGA (Lifetime: 60 LPGA wins, 15 majors, 4 time money leader, 3 time AP Woman Athlete of the Year).

8. Betty Jameson, founding member of the LPGA. (Lifetime: 13 LPGA wins, 3 majors).

9. Louise Suggs, founding member of the LPGA. (Lifetime: 59 LPGA wins, 11 majors, 2 time money leader).

5 Apr 2009 ‧ Illustration