Texas Wedge (a golf putter)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

nothing in Dallas Morning News


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> Subject: Texas Wedge (a golf putter)
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> Subject:      Texas Wedge (a golf putter)
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>
> Any "Texas wedge" entry  coming up in OED, HDAS, DARE?
> Anything in the Dallas Morning News database?
> --Barry, back from Texas, who didn't play golf there.
> ...
> ...
> _http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/texas_wedge_a
> _putter/_
> (http://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/texas/entry/texas_wedge_a
> _putter/)
> ...
> ...
> <i>Listening to America</i>
> by Stuart Berg Flexner
> New York: Simon and Schuster
> 1982
> Pg. 276:
> <i>Texas wedge</i> does not refer to a wedge at all but is a
> late 1950s humorous American term for a putter when it can be
> used for a short  approach shot over very flat, rather bare
> ground, as might be found in  Texas.
>
> _http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_texaswedg.htm_
> (http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_texaswedg.htm)
> "Texas Wedge"
> From _Brent  Kelley_ (http://golf.about.com/mbiopage.htm) ,
> Definition: The  putter, when it is used to putt from off the
> green. The term was popularized by  Ben Hogan. Texas golf
> courses had a reputation, back in the days of Hogan and
> earlier, for very hard fairways. A player might have to land
> a ball short of a  green to allow it bounce up onto the
> green. And when a player's ball stopped  short of the green,
> the putter might be a better choice for the shot because of
> the hardness of the fairway and collar and the shortness of
> the grass. So a  putter would be used rather than a wedge.
>
> Texas' golf courses have come a long way since then, but the
> term stuck. A Texas wedge is the putter when used from off
> the green, or the shot that results.
> 14 March 1954, Florence (SC) <i>Morning News</i>, pg. 3B:
> Dave Neiman loves the "Texas Wedge" shot and usually can pull
> off some interesting shots with his putter over many types of
> terrain, but he added a new twist this week.
> 23 February 1955, Galveston (TX) <i>News</i>, pg. 11 photo  caption:
> [Mike Souchak -- ed.] is shown using a putter, called "Texas
> wedge" by the pros.
> 26 May 1957, Chicago <i>Daily Tribune</i>, pg. A4:
> Disdainful of a wedge, Joe elected to play it out with the
> Texas wedge -- the  putter.
>
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