On May 19, 1998, the World Golf Hall of Fame opened in its new location in St. Augustine, Fla., having moved from Pinehurst, N.C. Some of golf’s biggest names, including Patty Berg, Hale Irwin, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, Gene Sarazen, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino and Kathy Whitworth were on hand to celebrate the glittering new home for golf’s legends.
Complete with 45,000 square feet of exhibition space, the new building featured state-of-the-art technology and exhibit spaces that highlighted the achievements of the game’s greatest players and contributors. The facility was a golf paradise – once they were immersed in the history of the game, guests could try it themselves outside at the Hall of Fame’s Challenge Hole and 18-hole, natural-grass putting course.
In 2013, the Hall of Fame is celebrating 15 years of honoring golf’s greats by telling their incredible stories. The following 15 numbers help tell the story of the Hall of Fame:
2 – Members of the Class of 1998. Nick Faldo and Johnny Miller made up the first class to be inducted at the re-opened Hall of Fame.
6 – Stops for the traveling exhibition, “Bob Hope: An American Treasure.” The most recent stop is at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.
8 – Special Member Exhibits produced at the Hall of Fame. Ben Hogan, Bob Hope, Bobby Jones, Nancy Lopez, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player have all been honored.
16 – Different countries represented by the Hall of Fame membership.
19 – Holes-in-one by visitors at the Hall of Fame’s 132-yard island Challenge Hole since it opened in 1998.
34 – Total number of major championships won by Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Gary Player. The balls from their ceremonial tee shots at the 2013 Masters are now on display in the Hall of Fame’s History in the Making exhibition.
65 – Items from 1900 or earlier on display in the Hall of Fame.
89 – Career victories for Annika Sorenstam, who also led Team Europe to victory at the 2003 Solheim Cup. The Hall of Fame’s latest exhibition, The Team Gallery, is dedicated to golf’s team competitions and visitors can re-create Sorenstam’s clutch 16-foot birdie putt that helped put the Europeans over the top.
146 – Total members of the Hall of Fame with the inclusion of the Class of 2013.
750 – Roughly the total number of minutes of Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf played inside the Hall of Fame daily in Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf Theater. Each day features five matches including Gary Player vs. Peter Thomson (1962), Ben Hogan vs. Sam Snead (1965) and Sandra Haynie vs. Kathy Whitworth vs. Carol Mann (1969).
1,105 — Total number of golf clubs on display in the Hall of Fame, equivalent to more than 79 sets of clubs.
1800 – Circa the year the Hall of Fame’s oldest feathery golf ball was created.
2,700 – The number of items on display in the Member Locker Room alone.
4,780 – The number of commemorative bricks around the Hall of Fame’s Walk of Champions.
597,000 – School-aged children who have visited the Hall of Fame through its educational programs, including the Science of Golf show and IMAX Theater documentaries.
