Eighties – Golf

Mort Walker was an avid golfer for most of his life.  He took it up seriously at a pivotal point in his career.

 “I worked long hours all by myself and started having back trouble, which kept me from doing a lot of things,“ he remembered in his autobiography, Backstage at the Strips. “I found that walking helped and I thought golf would add some interest to the walking.”

Mort talked some of his cartoonist buddies, including John Cullen Murphy, John Fischetti and Dik Browne, into joining him every Friday for a round.  Eventually he was playing three times a week and got his handicap down to single digits.

Mort and Dik were members of the Silvermine Golf Club in Connecticut for many years. Its iconic barn can be seen in the drop panel of the 1980 Sunday page above.

Not surprisingly, Hi Flagston and Thirsty Thurston are weekend duffers. They struggle with the game but always come back for more punishment. 

Below are two classic golfing gags from 1969 and 2008.

We can’t assume that all of our readers know the rules of the game but it is a safe bet that most have some familiarity with how golf is played and the challenges of mastering the skills.  It has been a rich source of humor throughout the history of Hi and Lois and the opening of the season is an ideal time to revisit this popular pastime.

– Brian Walker