Are ghosts haunting your fairways?
All Hollow’s Eve is upon us so it seems a good time to enjoy a few harrowing tales of things that go bump in the night at a few of our favorite links.
Legends of ghosts and goblins chasing their victims down foggy fairways under a blood-red moon abide from all over the world, some very close to home.
Our first tale is The White Lady of St Andrews, from the Stonehouse Golf Collection. The six-hundred-year-old course boasts many ghost stories. The most popular is the story of the White Lady, a ghost-like image that often appears near the ruined abbey.
TheWhite Lady beckons those that see her to come closer, and then she lifts her veil. Those that look upon her disfigured face are instantly driven insane. The legend states that the White Lady was a nun in the convent that occupied the abbey. It is thought that in life she became so badly disfigured that she became a nun so that she could hide away from people.
Another of St. Andrews frights is Martyrs Monument, behind the 18th hole. The monument proclaims that their ghosts still roam the course in search of justice.
The Lincoln Park Golf Course in San Francisco offers views of the city skyline, the Golden Gate Bridge and, according to some, ghosts. A wide variety of ghosts have been seen at this public course. They may be the souls of those buried in an old cemetery on the same site. It housed more than a thousand corpses, and it lies directly beneath the course. As homes were built many wealthy homeowners were able to remove the remains, but poor residents were left with a “potter’s field” under their homes and a host of unwelcome visitors.
Our next items come courtesy of the PGA. It’s at the Victoria Golf Club in British Columbia, Canada.
As the legend goes, in 1936 Doris Gravlin was murdered by her estranged husband after a nighttime meeting on the course. Her body would not be found until five days later when a caddie noticed it along the shoreline of the bay near the seventh hole. Police deemed the crime a murder-suicide as the body of her husband, Victor, would be found by a fisherman a month later.
Since then the ghost of a woman in a white gown has been reported to hang around the course. Golfers explained: She will rush towards people, and then disappear. The spirit so exhibits a variety of other odd behaviors. One night, for example, a woman saw the apparition while out walking the course with a group. A wild wind suddenly sprang up, blowing at them from all directions, despite it being a perfectly calm day. Some of the group became very frightened. As the woman hung back from the rest of her group, she felt someone with a cold, clammy grip take her hand. She assumed one of her friends needed comforting. Then she notice that all her group had moved on, and she was alone.The hand disappeared.
In nearby New Orleans the City Park golf course has its share of spooky stories. One of the more famous tales is about a murder in the 1960s. Two women were finishing their round on the 18th green when a man shot and killed one of them. Even now, there are claims of people hearing a gun shot and a woman screaming on the same green, although it’s completely deserted.
Are these legends real, and do the spirits of the victims of violent crimes walk the links after midnight? Perhaps they’re seeking a resolution of their violent murders or some form of restitution. Could they still be looking for lost balls? Or maybe they’re just a few local pranksters out having fun with the tourists?
Remember the last time you hit a perfect shot down the middle of the fairway, and once you got there you never found the ball? Could it be an angry ghost playing a trick or just the rub of the green? Perhaps we’ll all find out this Halloween.
Phillip Ellis has covered Gulf Coast golf for over 40 years. His resume includes articles for the Azalea City News, Bayside Loafer, a Sunday column in the Mobile Press Register and the Lagniappe. He’s the author of the novels “Golf n’ Grits The Adventures of Orville and Calvin Clyde,” and “Golf n’ Grits Orville and Calvin Ride Again.” His latest is the upcoming “Murder on the Turn, a Desi Quina Mystery.” Reach him at PhillipEllisMedia@gmail.com.
Featured image: created by AI with Open AI’s Sora imaging app.
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