Christening a green in style is a Cool Golf Thing

It is tradition to christen a brand-new ship by smashing a bottle of champagne against its hull. It's a more modest and humane version of the ancient rites, which often involved animal or even human sacrifice to appease violent sea gods and grant boats good luck on the water.

In golf, the stakes are lower and the rites are more sedate, but the spirit is still there. There remains an urge to hold some ceremony to begin the life of a new or newly-renovated course.

Or, in the case of Robert Trent Jones Golf Club, a new putting green. I had the opportunity to play RTJ GC once, back in college. I arrived about half an hour before my host, and took the time to wander the area around the clubhouse, one of the most impressive I have seen before or since. On that stroll, I counted six separate putting greens.

The newest such surface was welcomed last week with a bang, as part of the lead-up to the club hosting the 2024 Solheim Cup. Club member and historian David Thomas lined up an 85-footer - one for each year of his life - across the surface and calmly rolled it in, to the delirium of those in attendance.

Seeing golfers go nuts over an improbable putt never gets old, whether it's a club member or Jack Nicklaus doing it.

The best thing about Thomas' ceremonial putt? No bottles were harmed in the making of it. Any champagne on hand to mark the occasion went in the mouths of those celebrating instead.

Cool Golf Things

March 22, 2019

Browse our not-too-long essays about cool things in golf.