Golfing History Makes A Stop In Oklahoma

The world's best golfers are coming to Tulsa in August for the 89th PGA Championship. The tournament itself travels from town to town, but over the past few years, the tournament museum has hitched

Tuesday, April 3rd 2007, 5:00 pm

By: News On 6

The world's best golfers are coming to Tulsa in August for the 89th PGA Championship. The tournament itself travels from town to town, but over the past few years, the tournament museum has hitched along for the ride. The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports if you want to brush up on all 89 years of PGA history you can do it one place, the Tulsa Historical Society.

On a stroll that's shorter than any golf course you can cover the entire length of PGA championship history.

"We have artifacts that date back to 1916 and the first PGA championship,â€ said museum curator Ryan Jordan. â€œSo for every year that there's been a PGA championship, there's an exhibit piece which tells a story, has a picture, has an artifact from that particular championship."

Jordan says a good example of one of these instant icons comes from 2005.

"Phil Mickelson, if you'll recall, he had a really clutch chip on the last hole, his wedge from that championship's been donated," Jordan said.

And if you ever wanted to walk a mile in Tiger Woods' shoes, you almost could, if they weren't bolted down. But it's still pretty awesome to see them up close.

There was no Nike swoosh in 1916, so Jordan marvels at how golfers of the day were able to even play the sport.

"The interesting thing is that the scores don't really change a whole lot. You'll notice that in some of the exhibit pieces, dating back into the 20s and 30s, players were shooting 5 and 10 under par," said Jordan. "I have a hard enough time playing with the new technology, so the fact that they were able to shoot those great scores with the equipment they had at the time really says a lot about the caliber of the players."

The museum will only be here temporarily, but Tulsa is guaranteed a permanent place in PGA lore.

"Southern Hills is actually going to become the first course to host a PGA championship four times, so it's actually making history in its own regard," Jordan said.

If youâ€™d like to watch todayâ€™s golfers, highlights of the Masters tournament start this week on The News On 6 after our late news, with live coverage on Saturday and Sunday.

The PGA's traveling museum will be in Tulsa until the end of July. It's open from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, and itâ€™s closed on Sunday and Monday.

For more information about the PGA Championship in Tulsa, click here.

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