May 24 Report: 1971 Masters Winner Charles Coody, 1958 PGA Championship Winner Dow Finsterwald and Solheim Cup Player Becky Iverson

Three subset collections I began this year are slowly rounding into form.

Certainly those who regularly read this blog know I have been focusing a lot on golf lately. And amongst the thousands of individuals who have ever teed it up professionally, only a small percentage ever win a major championship or play for their country in either the Ryder Cup (men) or Solheim Cup (women).

The reason I chose to start a collection of American women who have competed in the Solheim Cup was twofold. First it is a heck of an accomplishment, and secondly it is the only subset among golf's 'major' accomplishments in which every player is still alive.

I've added Becky Iverson (2000) to the Solheim Cup collection today. I'll wait until the halfway point of the year to provide tallies on my subset quests, but suffice it to say I'm had pretty good success with the Solheim Cuppers.

The other subsets I received additions to today are from major championship winners.

First is 1971 Masters Tournament winner Charles Coody. Coody is among the 30 living Masters Tournament champions I'm hoping to collect on 5x7 photos of the Masters trophy. I know it's a longshot of ever getting Tiger Woods to sign, but if I can get all others I'll be incredibly pleased.

The other major championship winner I received today was Dow Finsterwald. Finsterwald won the first-ever PGA Championship in the stroke-play era.

You may recall Finsterwald signed for me earlier this year but the autographed photos were smeared so badly one could barely make out that they were signed. I explained this to Finsterwald and he kindly signed for me a second time.

Day of the Year: 144
Number of Autographs This Year: 191

April 7 Report: Andy North and Dow Finsterwald

A pair of golfing successes to report today -- though one was quickly tempered.

First up if former University of Florida golfer and two-time U.S. Open winner Andy North. I attended the 2001 Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf in 2001, which North won. I saved my patron badge from the event for all these years and now it is signed.

The cool thing about it was that the envelope was postmarked in Augusta, Georgia. Obviously North brought my letter with him to The Masters, where he is commentating this week for ESPN.

This is one of three different patron badges I've sent out in recent weeks, so we'll see if they all get returned.

The second success today is from Dow Finsterwald. Finsterwald won 11 events on the PGA Tour, most notably the 1958 PGA Championship. He was also a four-time Ryder Cup player.

In the last two years I've been fortunate enough to do photoshoots with many of the most significant trophies in golf. I've decided to begin collecting the signatures of major champions on photos of that particular trophy.

So when I saw this 5x7 envelope today I knew the forst of those had been returned. Sadly I think Finsterwald signed it and slid it right in the envelope while it was still quite wet.

The result being that the signature is so badly smeared it is unusable.

I guess I will be sending another request explaining that it was ruined when it arrived and hopefully he will sign another one for me.

Day of the Year: 97
Number of Autographs This Year: 137