Persimmons and blades

It's fun to play golf with John Erickson, who plays with persimmon woods and 1960's era irons known as 'blades', which is like a really good writer writing on an Olympia typewriter in the era of cut and paste word-processing.

John moves the ball right when he wants it to go right, left when it wants it to go left and hits it straight when he needs that shot. He was on tour in the 1980's and won a PGA event in Canada, playing against some of the finest professionals in the game.

As a purist, he has certain ideas about golf that are not in synch with the game as it's presently constituted. For instance, he refers to the new club technology--the oversized woods and cavity-backed irons--as 'frying pans' and detests the move away from traditional golf course design to the monstrously long, tricked up courses of our time. Get him started on the subject and before you know it you've played 18 holes.

John's pictured here on the 16th tee at Lincoln Park Golf Club, a tough long par 3, hitting his 2-iron. Hitting a 2-iron properly is a little like trying to shoot a flea with a BB gun, but John went on to make his par.