The stuff of Hollywood — kind of
Jay Delsing was more than a PGA Tour journeyman. He was a collector of insider golf stories and now he's sharing them in his new book, "You Wouldn’t Believe Me If I Told You.”
A UCLA freshman golfer, newly arrived in Los Angeles, stroked putts on the practice green at exclusive Bel-Air Country Club in 1978 when he felt a tap on the shoulder.
“Young man, would you care to play nine holes with me?” the tapper asked.
The golfer turned and saw the face of actor Sean Connery, the original Bond, James Bond, of movie-dom.
Welcome to La La Land, Jay Delsing.
It was a surprising moment for Delsing, who came from St. Louis’ North County area and admittedly was not very worldly. The Connery moment, which turned into nine holes and drinks in the grill afterward, was nearly as stunning as when he found out his college living quarters were in the stately mansion of the McCullochs of McCulloch chain saw fame. Delsing says he saw that home sold for $32 million not long ago.
You couldn’t make this up, hence the title of Delsing’s new book, co-written with Will Saulsbery, “You Wouldn’t Believe Me If I Told You.” This book is a delight because it’s not a narrative or a life story. It is simply a collection of breezy anecdotes that Delsing, now 64, remembers from his tour life. It’s a quick, bright, fun read.
Delsing had a nice run on the PGA Tour, better than just a journeyman. He played 565 events in the 1980s and ‘90s, had two runner-up finishes, three thirds and made the cut once in three of the four major championships. Delsing never made it into the Masters. He did have two wins on the Buy.com Tour, now the Korn Ferry Tour. And at UCLA — where he was a two-time All-American — his teammates included Corey Pavin, Steve Pate, Duffy Waldorf and Tom Pernice.
“The book is basically this — there’s a lot of famous people in there and this one guy who doesn’t belong and that’s me,” Delsing told me on a recent episode of “The Golf Show 2.0” podcast. “That’s really true. I owe so much to golf, I know how fortunate I am.”
He came from an athletic family. His dad, Jim, played baseball for the New York Yankees, St. Louis Browns, Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Athletics from 1948-1960. Jay keeps a Tigers jersey hanging in the backdrop of his broadcast studio. He does a radio show, “Golf with Jay Delsing,” some commentary for PGA Tour Live and has his own website, JayDelsingGolf.com.
A few things you’ll learn in Delsing’s book:
> He watched actor Fred MacMurray (“My Three Sons”) chase his golf cart down a slope after the brake popped loose at Bel-Air and it careened into a pond, taking his golf clubs with it.
> He once witnessed a murder (well, its immediate aftermath) on Wilshire Boulevard while carrying his golf bag from the parking area to Los Angeles Country Club.
> A guy who introduced himself as Justin joined him for breakfast in the dining tent at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am range and they had a nice chat about the previous day’s golf. That Justin was Justin Timberlake, a name Delsing didn’t know until he told his daughters and they suddenly wanted to come to the tournament.
> In the middle of the 1949 American League pennant race, Jay’s dad, Jim, replaced Joe DiMaggio because DiMaggio came down with a virus. Jim, a great defensive centerfielder, had two hits and a run batted in during his debut in the second game of a doubleheader against the Browns. Jim later achieved fame as the player who pinch-ran for Eddie Gaedel, a midget Browns’ owner Bill Veeck sent to the plate as a publicity gimmick and drew a walk.
> Jay once had a good round at Bay Hill and was eating in the clubhouse when tournament host Arnold Palmer came up, grabbed his arm firmly and asked if he wore his cap at the dinner table when he ate at home. Delsing said he did. Wrong answer. Palmer squeezed even firmer on Delsing’s arm and informed him that was disrespectful to everyone in the room and to Palmer himself. Delsing was unfamiliar with old-school cap etiquette.
“I wasn’t hungry after that,” Delsing said. “Oh, my gosh, I turned bright read. I had no idea. No one had ever told me that. To this day when I walk into a golf shop anywhere, I take my hat off. But Mr. Palmer pats me on the shoulder after that and says, ‘I hope you win this damn thing, good luck on the weekend.’ And then two of my friends, Brad Faxon and Willie Wood, come over and tell me Mr. Palmer got them yesterday.”
> Tiger Woods set up on the range next to Delsing and told his caddie, Stevie Williams, how excited he was to hit 300. Three hundred what, Delsing wondered, until he overheard Woods add, “That 300 bench-press is my all-time high,”
> Golfer George Burns, whose wife was named Irene, was nicknamed the Shah of Irene by Howard Twitty, who called him that to his face, setting off a wild, slappy fight in the fitness trailer.
> Delsing was paired in a pro-am with Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver when Seaver yelled “Hey, Bucket Head!” Delsing asked who he was talking to and Seaver answered, “(Johnny) Bench. You ever seen that head? The thing that will fit into is a bucket.”
> Tour player John Cook offered condolences to Jay shortly after Jim Delsing passed away and told him Tiger Woods’ father Earl died the same day. Cook, a close friend of Tiger’s, asked Delsing to write a note to Woods and put it in his locker. So he did.
There are many more anecdotes in “You Wouldn’t Believe Me If I Told You.” That first round with Connery, Delsing played only nine holes because of darkness. “If I was age 50 then, I would have asked him about different movies and his co-stars and things, but I’m 18 and he’s asking me golf questions,” Delsing says. “I was giving James Bond a lesson and I couldn’t even pick out shoes to wear with certain colored slacks.”
Connery graciously invited Delsing to join him in Bel-Air’s grillroom after golf. There, he introduced Delsing to a pair of Hollywood types. Delsing gave them generic “Nice to meet you” greetings and didn’t respond at all when he heard their names. Later, Connery told Delsing he should pay closer attention because those two guys are doing great things.
Who were they? George Lucas, whose “Star Wars” movie had been a blockbuster a year earlier, and Steven Spielberg, who had recently directed “Jaws” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”
“I didn’t know about ‘Star Wars’ or any of that stuff,” Delsing said. “I had no life experiences then, I had no business spending two hours with the coolest man alive back in 1979.”
But he did and he put it in a book. So believe it.
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Hope you enjoy
hopefully my piece didnt require a Spoiler Alert!