A Golfing Legend

Hi and Lois Sunday page color proof, May 30, 1965.

Mort Walker and Dik Browne started playing golf together regularly in the mid-1960s. The Sunday page above was obviously based on personal experience.

Dik’s definition of golf was, “An obscene act indulged in by consenting adults.”

His exploits on the golf course were legendary. Entire golf tournament dinners have been taken up with Dik Browne stories. Here is one of the classics.

“One windy day, Dik was trying unsuccessfully to light a cigarette on the golf course. ‘Hit the ball, Dik’ yelled his partners impatiently. He put the ‘unlit’ cigarette in his pocket, hit his ball, and was striding down the fairway when someone in the distance called, ‘Hey! You’re on fire!’ ‘No I just got a lucky shot,’ Dik called back. Billows of yellow smoke trailed behind him and his buddies ran back, ripped the jacket off his back and stomped on it. Unshaken, he put on the jacket and felt in the pocket. ‘Darn it!’ he said, “You mashed my Tootsie Roll.’”

Many of these humorous anecdotes have been told and retold so many times that no one is absolutely sure if they ever really happened. But they were all true once. Honest.

– Brian Walker