In 1921, San Antonio Evening News sports editor Jack O’Brien read two wire stories back to back: the winner of the U.S. Open had earned $500, and an upcoming prize fight would pay $25,000. That arithmetic built the oldest golf tournament in Texas. O’Brien put an unheard-of $5,000 purse on the line, recruited golf course…
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For about forty years, one of the most important tournaments in American professional golf was played on a course you could walk onto for less than a dollar. It sits in a river bottom in the middle of San Antonio, on land that had already served as a Spanish colonial irrigation works, a Confederate tannery,…
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Episode 4 covers the first golf professional in Texas: Mungo Park Jr., who designed the golf course at Galveston Country Club (the first country club) and served as its professional for a brief time. Because Park’s stay in Texas was short, this episode is a doorway into several hundred years of Scottish golf history —…
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In the 1890s, Galveston wasn’t just a beach town — it was the “Queen City of the South,” one of the busiest ports in the country and a city determined to have every modern amenity a great American city should have. So when golf started sweeping the nation’s cities, Galveston wanted in. In 1898, a…
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Before there was a country club or a golf tournament, there was a preacher, a Saint Bernard, and a putting green on the parade ground at Fort Sam Houston. In Episode 2 of Wise About Golf, host Ken Wise traces the roots of the game from the windswept links of Scotland to the fairways of…
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For over a decade, Ken Wise has told the stories that built Texas on Wise About Texas — nearly two million downloads in 178 countries and a top 1% ranking worldwide. Now he’s turning that same back-porch storytelling toward a game he’s loved his whole life. In this introductory episode of Wise About Golf, Ken explains why he’s…
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