Golf Trivia
The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson!
He once bet a group of players that he could hit a tee shot
500 yards: He didn't tell them it would be in the dead of winter across a
frozen lake. He liked to bet that he could throw a peanut over anybody's clubhouse.
Unbeknownst to his victims, the peanut shell was filled with ball bearings.
Born Alvin Clarence
Thomas, Titanic Thompson was a hustler during the “Roaring '20s", plain and
simple, He became the subject of fact and fantasy in his day, the topic of
conversation at gaming tables and golf courses all over the country. In the
days when top pros made $30,000 in a year, Thompson often made that in a week.
He died in 1974.
He was an excellent golfer, with the ability to hide his skill until
just the right moment. He could win by a stroke by shooting
99 or 69 either right handed or left handed. Thompson, according to Stowers'
book The Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, once beat Byron Nelson head to
head for nine holes. Harvey Pennick ran into Thompson and knew he couldn’t
beat him! But not all of his deals
paid off. He tried to fix a horse race in
Source: The
Unsinkable Titanic Thompson, by