Count Yogi

I stumbled across Count Yogi when a Google Alert came my way. Have you ever heard of the Count?

By some accounts, he was an early Moe Norman. Early, but not all that early. The Count played most of his golf in the early- to mid-20th century, not long before our local Mr. Norman began turning heads.

The Google Alert pointed to this site and a brief article on the Count. This article listed some of the Count’s many exploits. Here’s the list, borrowed from the aforementioned article:


- Shot 26-29 for a 55 at Bunker Hill Golf Course, a regulation course, winning the 1934 Chicago golf championship. Included two back-to-back holes-in-one (187 and 347 yards) while playing with Al Espinosa and Terry McGovern
- Also has shot scores of 55, 57, 58 and 59 in 18-hole rounds.
- Shot a 59 in winning the best ball title at Greenview Country Club, Chicago.
- Shot seven birdies in a row for a world tournament record (held for eighteen years) in the 1941 Chicago Open at Elmhurst Country Club.
- Averaged 67 per round for 203 rounds of 18-hole golf in 1940, playing either right handed or left handed.
- Played a 550-yard hole in two strokes in Corpus Christi, Texas, driving 453 yards and sinking the next shot with a wedge.
- Shot par or under for 267 of 273 successive shows
- Drives of 453, 450, 435 and 425 yards.
- Fifty-five holes-in-one; nine of them on par-4 holes, two in succession (187 and 347 yards); one 416-yard hole-in-one
- Fourteen putts for eighteen holes (score 29-29=58) on par-72 Wilson Golf Course, Griffith Park, Los Angeles, former scene of Los Angeles Open, 1951.
- 645-yard par-6 hole in 3; 59 on par-74 course, 1933.
- Eight birdies and two eagles in succession in a 58 at Paw Paw Lakes Links, Michigan, 1939.
- Played eighteen holes in fifty-seven minutes and 69 shots; fastest round (not cycling, but walking), mid-City Golf Course, Chicago, 1948.
- 31-32=63 course record at Bel Air Country Club, Los Angeles, 1948.
- 34-31=65 par-73 to win Metro Goldwyn Mayer's annual Open, 1949.
- 31-36=67 at Western Avenue Golf Course (Los Angeles) to win Universal International event, while in Hindu suit, 1949.


Turns out there’s a company marketing golf lessons under the banner Count Yogi Golf. Interesting. You can find their site here. I’m not sure where they’re located. Their area code is 805, but I have not looked it up.

A web search revealed little else. The same articles and sites popped up several times, but I found very little else on Count Yogi.

If any readers have any Count related information, I’d welcome more input. He seems like an interesting figure.