The Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum are showcasing a new exhibit called Play Hard, Fight Hard. Developed by the Military Museums and Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame explores the relationship between sports and military service dating back to the 1880’s. Artifacts from golf and Canadian Golf Hall of Fame honoured members who served in the Canadian military will help in supplementing the exhibit.
The exhibit opened to the general public on June 1st and runs through Sept 15th at the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame and Museum located at the Golf Canada building at Glen Abbey Golf Club, 1333 Dorval Drive in Oakville. Spectators attending the RBC Canadian Open will be able to see the exhibit for free during the tournament. Admission to the exhibit and the museum is $10.00 per person.
Even during war golfers need their fix. J.I. Davies Lieutenant General (retired) donated the ball shown here and wrote the background story.
Enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1940 as an observer (navigator) was shot down over Germany in 1941. As a POW someone received via the Red Cross, a five iron with a wooden shaft. The inventive group of POWs’ laid out a short nine-hole course around and between barracks, outdoor toilets and the trip wire. With the help of a few cigarettes, they obtained a couple of old bicycle inner tubes; from there it did not take too long for a golf ball cover pattern to be drawn, and the immediate seizure of tongues from shoes for the cover. The string came from various sources and was waxed in part from the wax paper from parcels. The needles came from parcels as well.
This particular ball was made in the summer of 1943 in a cramped 16-bunk model room by Flight Lieutenant “Dad” Hybes, DFC who was an Irishman in the RAF and was shot down in 1940.
The centre of the ball is probably a small pebble with thinly sliced bicycle inner tubes tightly wound, and the tongue from someone’s Sunday best shoes.
