NEWPORT DESIGN_150_END_FINAL2_TEXT 12/27/13 4:09 AM Page 217
THURSTON HOWELL III AND NEWPORT COUNTRY CLUB was a CBS television comedy (1964-67) about seven castaways. The episode broadcast on Dec. 26, 1966 featured the enthusiastic but dim Gilligan (played by Bob Denver) becoming the island’s deputy marshal. His first arrest is of the very wealthy Thurston Howell III (an entertaining caricature of a good-hearted snob, as played by Jim Backus). After being jailed for allegedly stealing binoculars, the millionaire’s wife comes to visit him, and he vows to fight this injustice.
GILLIGAN’S ISLAND
was eloquently described by a Boston Globe writer as “... the closest thing to the Old Course at St. Andrews that graces these shores ... it is one of the game’s jewels, yet few know its subtleties and its perils.” And the 1995 return to Newport was part of a symmetrical celebration of the USGA’s centenary by three of its five founding clubs: the U.S. Women’s Amateur would be played at The Country Club in Brookline, Mass., and the U.S. Open would be at Shinnecock Hills Golf Club, on Long Island. The amateurs who came to Newport were the usual mix of college stars with perfect swings; veteran amateurs with reliable, well-
From the script:
tested games; and crafty everymen with homemade swings and
CLOSE UP OF MR HOWELL IN CAVE. We
see Mr. Howell holding onto the bamboo bars of a make-shift jail. He’s looking grim. Mrs. Howell is crying into a handkerchief as she sees Mr. Howell behind bars. MRS. HOWELL: Thurston you’re a convict! Oh! MR. HOWELL: Lovey! I…I’ve been framed! I’ll appeal! I’ll take it to the Supreme Court! I’ll go even higher! Rules Committee of the Newport Country Club! Ahhhhhh!
more determination than technique. Among the 312 qualifiers were a 40-year-old salesman of Yellow Pages advertising; a 58-year-old former brigadier general who had two artificial hips and had flown 221 combat missions in Vietnam; and a 43-year-old liquor salesman. Regrettably, only 311 of the qualifiers took part the first day because the owner of the Seattle lawn-service company “Mr. Mow Better,” went to the wrong course on the first day of stroke play, missed his tee time, and was disqualified. Billy Harmon, NCC’s golf professional in 1995, suggested that the younger golfers might be at a disadvantage at Newport because “we have a generation of golfers who have been brought up on these target golf courses, so a course like this is very foreign to them. You can’t play this course through the air. You’re going to have to
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