July 16 Report: Golf Hall of Famer and British Open/PGA Championship Winner Nick Price

A day late getting this up, but a great success to report.

One of golf's all-time great guys -- not to mention great champions -- returned a pair of major championship trophy photographs.

Nick Price, who won the British Open in 1994 and the PGA Championship in 1992 and 1994, personalized and signed photos of the Claret Jug and Wanamaker trophies.

Price was inducted into the Golf Hall of Fame in 2003. His international record is remarkable, winning more than 50 times around the world including 18 times on the PGA Tour. He's also won on the European Tour, South African Tour and Japan Golf Tour. Price has added three wins to date on the Champions Tour, too.

Day of the Year: 196
Number of Autographs This Year: 230

May 26 Report: PGA Championship Winners Steve Elkington and Jeff Sluman

A pair of great successes this day to add to my major championship collection.

Both Steve Elkington and Jeff Sluman won the PGA Championship and both signed a photo of the Wanamaker Trophy accordingly.

Elkington, who is one of the nicest, funniest and sincere guys on Tour, inscribed his photo with this year's date. This was a first as winners of the majors have typically either inscribed no date or inscribed it with their winning year. Perhaps Elkington will win the PGA Championship this year and I'll have a photo already inscribed with that date??? Then I'll have to go back and ask him to sign one and inscribe it with 1995 -- the year he won his first major championship. Still very happy to have this added to my collection.

Sluman made an awesome inscription on his Wanamaker Trophy photo. In addition to signing it he also wrote 1988 PGA Champ. Really enjoy when winners add the year they won to the photo.

Sluman has won six times on the PGA Tour including the aforementioned PGA. He is now playing on the Champions Tour (over 50) and i've no doubt we'll see him in the winner's circle on that Tour a few more times.

Day of the Year: 146
Number of Autographs This Year: 194

May 25 Report: Masters Tournament and PGA Championship Winner Ray Floyd

As promised I've begun the process of updating this blog from the last week when I was out of town. Each day's mail was put aside in its own pile so I'd know which returns came when.

The first day I was gone I had a grand champions delivered. Golf Hall of Famer Ray Floyd was gracious enough to sign two 5x7 photos, one of the Masters Tournament trophy and another of the PGA Championship trophy.

Floyd, who became a Hall of Famer in 1989, won the 1976 Masters and added a pair of PGA Championship to his resume in 1969 and 1982. One day I'll have to add a signed photo of the U.S. Open as he also won that event, only lacking the British Open to claim the career grand slam.



Day of the Year: 145
Number of Autographs This Year: 192

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

May 10 Report: British Open Winner and PGA Championship Winner John Daly

Few people have made the splash John Daly has on the PGA Tour.

Daly joined the Tour in 1991 and won a major -- the PGA Championship -- in his rookie season. Daly's victory was so stunning because he was the ninth and final alternate for the competition held at Pete Dye's Crroked Stick Golf Club.

Daly's unrefined style won him legions of fans as golf's "everyday man". His ability to simply "Grip It And Rip It" while tossing back a few beers was an endearing trait.

His detractors point to his lack of fitness and dedication to the game as a waste of tremendous talent.

Seen above is Daly's autograph on a photo of the Wanamaker Trophy, given for winning the PGA Championship.
Daly again won a major championship in 1995 when he won the British Open at St. Andrews. His playoff victory over Costantina Rocca remains one of the dramatic wins in golf's oldest tournament.

Amazingly Daly has won only five PGA Tour events, but two of them have been majors. He's the only eligible player to win two majors but never get selected for a Ryder Cup.

The photo seen here is of the Claret Jug -- the prize for winning the British Open -- and Daly has signed it.

On both photos Daly has inscribed his catch phrase "Rip It" before signing his name.

Day of the Year: 130
Number of Autographs This Year: 178

April 19 Report: British Open Winner Lee Trevino and PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel

Another pair of major championship winners to add to the trophy collection today. One commemorates World Golf Hall of Fame member Lee Trevino's wins at the British Open and the other PGA Championship winner Shaun Micheel.

Hall of Famers first, so here's the skinny on Trevino.

Trevino was a two-time winner of golf's oldest major, The Open as it is simply known. Trevino won in back-to-back years in 1971-72 and he inscribed it as such in addition to adding his autograph to the photo.

A very nice success from a Hall of Famer.

Next up is a photo of the Wanamaker Trophy, given for winning the PGA Championship. One of the finest shots hit in major championship history -- under pressure and by a player in search of his first major victory -- came from Shaun Micheel.

Micheel's 7-iron approach stopped 2 inches from the hole on the 72nd hole to give him victory. Simply a brilliant shot, which I told Shaun was one of the finest I've ever witnessed.

He responded by signing the photo, writing the year he won the PGA on it and -- GET THIS -- also inscribed it with this: "7-iron -- 2 inches".

An awesome inscription and one that will be the centerpiece in my next major championship frame collage.

Day of the Year: 109
Number of Autographs This Year: 157

April 15 Report: PGA Championship winner John Mahaffey and Frank Dully

Happy to report the continuing success of the signed major championship trophy project. To date winners of the PGA Championship have been quickest to respond, easily outpacing winners of the British Open.

Today's signed Wanamaker Trophy photo comes from John Mahaffey. Mahaffey set a record for best comeback in a PGA by making up a seven-shot deficit over the last 14 holes to tie Hall of Famer Tom Watson and Jerry Pate.

Mahaffey won the playoff with a birdie on the second extra hole.

He also continued the trend of inscribing the trophy with his victory year.

Not sure exactly what to say about this next success. It comes from Frank Dully, an accomplished club pro who has played on the South African Tour. He's never won a tournament on a significant world tour, but for some reason Upper Deck included him in its card set.

I needed Dully's signature as I'm trying to compile as complete a set of this series of UD cards as possible. I am grateful Dully agreed to sign two of these cards for my set.

Day of the Year: 105
Number of Autographs This Year: 151

April 14 Report: British Open Winner Sandy Lyle and PGA Championship Winner Bobby Nichols

Thrilled to report two more successes today from major championship winners.

This little project of getting winners to sign photos of the major championship trophies they won seems to get better and better for each time I get one of the photos back signed.

This is the first time I've gotten a photo of a Wanamaker Trophy (PGA Championship) and a Claret Jug (British Open) back autographed in the same day!

First up is the Wanamaker photo, which was signed by Bobby Nichols and inscribed with "1964 P.G.A Champ". As I've said before I am loving the inscriptions that are coming back on these trophy photos. Nichols' victory in 1964 was most impressive because it came over two legends of the game -- Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.

Nichols' score of 271 was the low score for the event for 30 years until Hall of Famer Nick Price broke it in 1994.

The Claret Jug photo was signed by Sandy Lyle. The Scotsman has won 18 times on the European Tour and eight times on the PGA Tour. His most notable victories came at the 1985 British Open and 1988 Masters Tournament.

Here he has signed the Claret Jug and I hope once I get the Masters trophy pictures later this week to also add that signed photo to the majors collection.

Day of the Year: 104
Number of Autographs This Year: 149

April 12 Report: Don January

Some of the work I put in two weeks ago where I sent out about two dozen requests to major championship winners seems to be paying off.

Not only am I getting some quick turnarounds on my major championship trophy collection, I am also getting great inscriptions to go with the autographs.

This time it's courtesy of Don January, a 10-time winner on the PGA Tour. January signed this photo of the Wanamaker Trophy and added the inscription "1967 PGA Champ".

All three PGA winners who have signed for me in the last week have added their winning year(s) to the photo as well. That's so awesome they recognize the importance to their fans to go beyond just signing their name.

More and more today I see autograph shows that require additional fees to add an inscription.

Thanks Mr. January. Hopefully I'll see you playing next week in Savannah.

Day of the Year: 102
Number of Autographs This Year: 146

April 9 Report: Dave Stockton and David Graham

As I've mentioned previously I've undertaken a project to get as many major championship winners as I can to autograph photos I've taken of each trophy.

While I realize it is going to be impossible to get every major winner on a photo of that respective trophy (majors were first played in 1860 so many are deceased) I'm still going after all the living ones I can. I think it will make for a really neat framed photo collage.

Both successes I received today were former winners of the season's final major championship -- the PGA Championship.

Dave Stockton was a two-time winner of the event, and in an awesome move he signed the photo and inscribed it with "1970-76 PGA Champion". I'm really loving this new project!

In addition to the two majors Stockton won, he also claimed eight other PGA Tour events and plated on a pair of Ryder Cup teams. Stockton also signed a Ryder Cup trophy for me as well.

The other winner of the Wanamaker Trophy who autographed a picture of the spoils was David Graham. (Just noticed both of today's successes are named David and won the same event!).

Graham, an Australian, won nearly 40 times around the world including the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open. Unfortunately I have not yet had a chance to photograph the U.S. Open trophy so I wasn't able to send that to him to sign as well.

Something else to look forward to doing one day I suppose. That's one of the many great parts about autograph collecting.

Day of the Year: 99
Number of Autographs This Year: 144

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