Herb Graffis (1893 – 1987)
The rapid growth of golf’s popularity owes much to its brilliant and charismatic star players. Credit is due, as well, to its Herb Graffis enthusiasts among sports journalists. Herb Graffis didn’t miss much when he sat down at his typewriter. Golfing was created, in Graffis’ words, “because the manufacturers couldn’t afford to spend much on ad space in the (Saturday Evening) Post or Colliers, but they wanted to do something that would get in the hands of a select list of golfers.” His generation of great golf writers included Grantland Rice, Bernard Darwin, Ring Henry Longhurst, Herbert Warren Wind and Charles Price, yet his greatest contributions to the game came not from what he wrote, but through the conception of his ideas.
Graffis launched a number of golf publications: Chicago Golfer (1923); Golfdom (1927), a trade magazine; and Golfing (1933), a general interest monthly. Graffis co-wrote a book How to Play Your Best Golf All the Time (1952) with Tommy Armour (1894 – 1968), a golf legend in his own right. The book became a best seller and for many years was the biggest-selling book ever authored on the game of golf.
Graffis, along with his brother Joe, founded the National Golf Foundation, and was a founding member of the Golf Writers Association of America. Robert Rickey, a former NGF president said of Graffis, “Never has a person in the history of American golf contributed so much to the game’s overall growth and health. His greatest talent was to get people to do what was in the game’s best interest – and convince them it was their idea.”
Graffis was a member of Cypress Lake Golf Club until his death in 1987. He was fond of saying that “a golfer only needs seven clubs; the rest were developed to increase the revenues of golf manufacturers.” Graffis’ spirit lives on at Cypress Lake. In his honor, the Club holds an annual Pro-Am event in which a player’s weaponry is restricted to seven clubs – and their skill level, of course.
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