“Golf”
The Miami News – July 19, 1951
By: Leonard Lyons
A group of golf professionals who were in Los Angeles on the eve of a pro-amateur
tournament played a practice round with Danny Kaye, who, with enough practice, can
shoot in the 70’s. Bryon Nelson suggested that he enter the tournament with them,
but Kaye said he’d be too self-conscious. “But there’ll be only 500 people watching
you tee-off,” said Nelson. “Would they make you afraid?” . . . “I’d be afraid to
have 500 people watching me hit a little ball,” Kaye replied. “I’ve appeared before
10,000 people, as an entertainer, without being nervous. But there I knew what I
was doing.”
Some months later Kaye made a personal appearance at a Minneapolis theater. The same
group of golf-pros, including Nelson, Lloyd Mangrum, Jimmy Demaret, Cary Middlecoff,
Lawson Little, Skip Alexander and Johnny Palmer, were in the city for another tournament.
They came to see Kaye, but it was a sell-out and so the star arranged for them to
watch him from the wings . . . Then Kaye told the audience about the presence of
the great golfers, introduced them and brought them onstage. When, in response to
his plea that any one of them sing, they all froze—Kaye told them: “Now you’re on
my golf course.”