/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /* ponder.js Code was created by C. Eton. Statement author unknown. Only 1 item need to be edited: 1. The Statements array variable. */////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // List the statements to display. Add statements as necessary. var Statements = new Array( 'Sometimes a golfers ego gets in the way.... Babe Ruth had never played Mid Ocean Club course in Bermuda. On the fifth hole, an elevated tee 370 yard hole, he asked his caddie for his driver. The caddie suggested that he might be better off laying up and taking the lake out of play. Ruth, showing a little annoyance with such a suggestion demanded his drive and stated \"I could throw it \(the driver\) on the green from here\". He then proceeded to hit fifteen consecutive shots into the lake. He then snapped his driver over his knee and stormed off the course.', 'Golf is truly a mental game.... Gene Sarazen hit an amazing double eagle at the 1935 Masters. Just before he hit the shot he took out a \"lucky ring\" that a friend had given him the night before, telling him the ring had belonged to Benito Juarez, a Mexico statesman and would bring him luck. It did.... then he found out the friend had actually bought the ring from a local street vendor and the story was all fabricated. Leaving us to wonder would he have made the double eagle without the confidence the ring gave him\?', 'Some people are really fanatical about playing golf....During the Battle of Britain, diehard golfers were asked to collect bomb and shell shrapnel from the fairways to keep them from damaging the mowers. Red flags were place in the rough near delay action bombs so the golfers knew to keep away.', 'Money can\'t buy a low golf score...In the early 1900\'s Count d\'Alcardi paid $650,000 to have his own private golf course built on his private estate (think about how much money $654,000 was in the early 1900\'s). After taking a 15 on the fifty hole, he quite the game in a fit of anger. He then had the course plowed under shortly thereafter.', 'The Ryder Cup is named after Samuel Ryder who made his fortune selling packets of seed for a penny each.', 'The namesake of the Ryder Cup, Samuel Ryder was buried with his favorite five iron.', 'The top five golf course names in the United Sates are: Riverside (46), Lakeview (40), Rolling Hills (38),Hillcrest (37) and Lakeside (37).', 'In a tournament in Sweden during 1990, Steve Elkington was waiting for a ruling. Standing in the hazard and waiting for the ruling he reached down and pulled a blade of grass out to chew on. This was a violation of the \"not allowed to touch any impediments in a hazard\" rule. He was assessed a two stroke penalty which ended up costing him a considerable amount of prize money.', 'After a long search for his ball during the 1968 Schweppes Championship, Brian Bramford found his ball and played his next shot. His final score was a respectable 68. But he was disqualified for searching for his ball too long.', 'In 1977 Gary Smith was the first played to ever be disqualified for teeing up an illegal ball.', 'The first time Frank Sinatra played golf with Arnold Palmer, it was in Palm Springs and Frank spent most of the day in the rough and sand traps. He had a miserable day. At the end of the round he asked Arnold \"What do you think of my game?\", to which Palmer replied \" Not bad....but I still prefer golf\".', 'At the 1920 British Open, George Duncan hit an amazing seven shots in a row out of bounds. On his eighth shot he holed out. And coincidentally, he won the tournament. Of course, in 1920 the only penalty for hitting out of bounds was lose of distance (no penalty stroke added).', 'Charles Howell III always tees his ball up so the club will strike the manufacturers name on impact.', 'Justin Leonard uses the same coin to mark his ball..... until he misses an easy putt. Then he changes the coin.', 'The golf course in Lajitas, Texas has an extra (unofficial) hole that a lot of players play. It has the tee box on the U.S. side and the green on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande River. You are not allowed to retrieve your shot (the nearest border crossing is about 50 miles away) but a lot of players try to make the Ace, just to be able to tell the story.', 'Willie Nelson\'s Pedernales Golf Club has the unusual rule that the are is not such thing as a lost ball... because sooner or later, someone is going to find it.', 'Will Smith is such an avid golfer that he had a par three hole built in his expensive backyard. With two different sets of tees he can hit a short 105 yards or a longer 150 yard shot.', 'The Old Course at St. Andrews was originally built with only 11 holes. The players would play 11 holes going out, then turn around and play the same holes coming back to make a 22 hole golf course. It\'s not as dangerous as it sounds... the outbound players \"gave way\" to the inbound players.', 'You cannot even apply for membership to the Champions Club in Houston unless your handicap is under 15. The club boasts that it has more single digit handicap members than any other club in the U.S.', 'A little \"outside of the box\" thinking had one man come up with the idea of creating the company \"Geese Police\". He rents border collies to golf clubs to chase geese off the course. The geese are quick enough not to get hurt and the dogs are energetic enough to keep them off the course all day long.', 'In 2001, Tiger Woods was the highest paying taxpayer in Senzhen, China. His taxes from his undisclosed golf earnings in the country amounted to about $500,000. That gave him the distinction of paying more in taxes than any of the 1.3 billion (at that time) people in China.', 'President Woodrow Wilson was known to play golf six times per week when he was in the White House. Winter made no difference... he played with red golf balls so he could see them in the snow.', 'President Calvin Coolidge was an avid golfer but hated losing golf balls. He only hit short shots in order to keep from losing a golf ball. This strategy kept him from losing many golf balls but his scores were high. Hit\'em short and hit\'em often.', 'Pro golfers make about 50% of their putts inside 6 feet and less than 20% if the putt is over 12 feet.', 'After his first 21 tour victories, Phil Mickelson took the flag from the 18th green pin and gave it to his maternal grandparents. After 21 flags, they asked that he not give them anymore because they didn\'t have any more room left on their kitchen wall where they displayed them.', 'Sam Snead used the same driver for over 20 years.', 'Sammy Rachels of the Champions tour calls his three iron his mother-in-law club...he says it\'s because he wants to hit it but he can\'t.', 'The U.S. Open was not played during World War II. The raw material rubber was needed to support our military so the price went through the roof. And subsequently so did the price of golf balls which needed rubber at that time. It\'s said that nightly scavengers cleaned every pond and water hazard of every golf course clean as a whistle during that time.', 'You\'ve heard that golf got its\' name as Gentlemen Only, Ladies Forbidden. Great story but most likely not true. Language experts now believe that the word \'golf\' comes from the medieval Dutch word \'colf\' which means \'club\'.', 'If you are hitting a short shot from just off the green, leave the pin IN. Research has shown that you improve your chance of a hole out by 34 percent if you leave the pin IN.', 'The average tour player hits only seven fairways and twelve greens in regulation in a round.', 'The odds of beating your handicap by three shots are 200 to 1. The odds of beating your handicap by 5 shots are 500 to 1. The next time you play a tournament and someone beats his handicap by 10 shots, just know that statistically the odds of doing that are an astonishing 1,000,000 to 1. Maybe the guy didn\'t know his handicap after all.', 'The average golf score (non handicapped) is 107.', 'Only 20% of golfers have a handicap of less than 18.', 'David Duval was the first PGA Tour player to win his first three career victories in three consecutive starts beginning in 1997.', 'Ben Hogan won five tournaments in 1953, the amazing thing is that he only played in six tournaments that year.', 'In 1971, in less than a three span, Lee Trevino won three national titles in succession. He won the U.S. Open, the Canadian Open and the British Open.', 'In 1998, when Tiger Woods three putted the first hole of the Masters Championship, it ended a streak of 133 holes without a three putt.', 'In 1974, during the English Amateur Stroke Play competition in Leeds, England, a golfer hit his ball past the 18th green and into the clubhouse. The local rules was that the clubhouse was considered \"in bounds\" so he had to play the ball off the carpet, chipping the ball through an open window to make a bogey. Sounds like something out of Tin Cup doesn\'t it?', 'Ben Hogan hated putting so much that he recommended that the stroke be removed from the game.', 'Bad putting and a bad temper are not a good match. During the 1968 French Open, Brian Barnes took twelve putting strokes on one hole (yep, 12 putts) and his first putt was only three feet from the hole. He missed his first put, then missed his short comeback putt that he just casually tried to tap in. When it went past the hole, he lost his temper and began putting the ball back and forth without waiting for the ball to come to a halt. So he was adding not only putts but penalty strokes too. From on the green and three feet from the hole in one, he took a 15 on a fairly short par 3.', 'The 1906 U.S. Open Champion, Alex Smith is said to have taken less than ten seconds to line up a putt and then putt the ball. His famous motto was \"Miss\'em quick\".', 'Probably the best putter in history was Bobby Locke. He went the entire 1948 season without ever three putting a single green while in tournament play.', 'The longest putt ever made during the Master was in 1955 when Cary Moddlecoff sank an 85 foot putt on the par 5, 13th hole.', 'Where did the expression \"whiff the ball\" come from? Well in 1876 the stately Lord Gormley Whiffle completely missed a four inch (yes 4\") putt to lose the Silver Medal and the old St. Andrews course. Those that saw the miss, kept asking each other \"Did you see that Wiffle?\". The Wiffle was shortened over the years to just be \"whiff\".', 'During the 1989 U.S. Open, four tour players aced the same hole during competition. The 167 yard par three at the Oak Hill Country Club in New York. They all used seven irons for the aces. The statisticians have calculated that the odds of that happening are an astounding 8,675,083 to 1.', 'You better have some extra money saved up if you ever hit a hole in one in Japan. Tradition requires that the person making the ace, buy each witness an expensive gift, buy everyone in the clubhouse a drink and plant a tree commemorating the feat.', 'He was just kidding around. When Andy Bean held his putter upside down and putted the short shot into the hole during the 1963 Phoenix Open. Great entertainment for the crowd, but he was assessed a two stroke penalty. As if that\'s not bad enough, he then missed getting into a playoff for the championship by, you guessed it, two shots.', 'Ever wonder where the \"10 second rule\" came from. That\'s the rule that a player has 10 seconds to tap his ball into the hole if it is \"hanging on the edge\". During the 1963 Phoenix Open, Don January waited seven minutes for his ball to fall in the cup. His delay caused the rule, now known as the January Rule to be put in place.', 'Craig Stadler had a tough shot under a pine tree during the 1987 Andy Williams Open. There was a big puddle of mud next to the ball and he had to hit the shot while on his knees due to the low hanging branches. He placed a towel down so he wouldn\'t get his pants dirty. Yep, a two stroke penalty was assessed for \"building a stance\". Not knowing about the penalty, he then signed his score card and was disqualified for signing an incorrect score card.', 'The club astronaut Alan Sheppard used to hit his famous shot on the moon is on display at the USGA museum in Fair Hills, New Jersey. As a side note, it cost us taxpayers $120,000 to carry the extra two pounds the golf club weighed to the moon.', 'In 1997 actor Michael Douglas was sued for $155 million by his caddy. It seems his caddie had gone ahead of the tee box and was still within striking distance when Douglas teed off. The ball struck his caddy in the groin and he filed a $155 million lawsuit. Douglas settled for $2 million.', 'During the 2003 Sony Open, rookie Scott Laycock was playing when \'nature called\'. The nearest restroom was in the greens keepers compound. Worried about keeping the pace of play, Laycock took a cart, and answered natures call. Upon returning to the match, he was informed that he had incurred a 2 stroke penalty for the usage of the cart.', 'During the 2001 B.C. Open, Paul Gow missed a short putt and out of frustration threw the coin he was using as a marker down. The coin struck and moved his ball and he was assessed a one stroke penalty. He ended up tied for the lead after the final round and ended up losing the play off. The difference between coming in first and coming in second was $144,000. A costly burst of anger.', 'During a tournament where Tiger Woods seemed to come close on his putts, but they just wouldn\'t sink, he was asked what he thought the problem was. His answer was one word \"liprosy\".', 'Gary McCord, now a golf commentator, played on tour for 17 years and never had a win. His California vanity license plate read \"No Wins\".', 'During the back nine of the 1996 British Open, Paul Azinger had to putt with his sand wedge. It seems he got so frustrated about his poor putting that he broke his putter over his knee. PGA rules do not allow for the replacement of intentionally broken clubs so he putted with his sand wedge.', 'The oldest golfer on record to ever hit a hole in one is Harold Stilson. He was 101 years old when he hit his ace at the 108 yard, 16th hole at the Deerfield Country Club.', 'In 1996 New York Yankee star Joe Dimagio held a golf tournament and offered a free color TV (a hot item back then) to anyone who scored a hole in one. As it turned out, the only one to hit a hole in one was Joe DiMaggio.', 'When is it bad luck to hit a hole in one? Just ask Michael Grimaldi. He was a VP of sales for General Motors in 2002 and played in the Indianwood Golf Club, Lake Orion, Michigan charity tournament. He hit a $1 million dollar hole in one. The problem was that General Motors had paid his entry fee and felt they (the company) was entitled to the prize money. They compromised and allowed Grimaldi to donate ALL of the money to charities of his choosing. He got nothing.', 'Long drive champion, Viktor Johansson, with his 165mph club head speed can drive a ball through a phone book and a 3/4\" piece of plywood.', 'Lee Janzen keeps three coins in his pocket for marking. He uses a quarter for long putts, a nickel for medium putts and a dime for short putts. (A dime is smaller in size than a nickel)', 'Jack Nicklaus alway carried three pennies in his pocket for marking and always marked them using tail side up.', 'Jesper Parnevik always hired beautiful women to be nannies to his children while his was on tour. One of his nannies was noticed by Tiger Woods and before long Tiger and Elin Nordegren were married.', 'A few years after turning pro, a young Tiger Woods was asked by a reporter what he remembered most about his rookie year. The young Woods answered \"Getting all the free stuff. Man that was great\".', 'Tom Lehman turned pro in 1982 but lost his card in 1987. Three years later (and a Q school qualifier) he had his card back.', 'The green jackets awarded at the Masters are never allowed to leave the premises. They even have their own dry cleaner on the property.', 'Rich Beam carries an old ID card in his wallet from the days when his job was a salesman. He says the card reminds him that things could always get worse.', 'Byron Nelson hit the pin 6 times from the tee or the fairway during the 1939 U.S. Open.', 'At a Nike tournament John Daly once hit a ball so hard with a 5 iron that he actually knocked the ball out of round.', 'Mo Norman, the father of the \"natural golf swing\" still being taught today, once held an exhibition where he hit a 30 foot target circle with 1500 drives and missed only 8 times (that is not a typo, 1500 times).', 'In 1260 A.D. turf-covered banks were first used as seats in British gardens.', 'In 1307 sod sold for one shilling per 100 turves in England.', 'In 1312 10\,000 sod turves \(purchased at a price of one shilling per 100 turves\) were installed on the grounds of Westminster Palace.', 'The first appearance of the word “lawn” in the English language was in 1584.', 'The first mention of \"Poa pratensis\" \(Kentucky bluegrass\) in North America was in 1749.', 'In 1830 the frst modern “lawn mower” was invented by Edward Beard Budding.', 'In 1858\, Central Park in New York\, became America’s first public park with grass.', 'The first lawn sprinkler was patented in 1871.', 'In 1880 there were 47,000 man-powered push lawn mowers manufactured in the U.S.', 'Construction of the first golf course in the United States was in 1888.', 'The first motor\-driven lawn mower was manufactured in the U.S. in 1900.', 'The first U.S. patent was issued for a rotary lawn mower in 1929.', 'Astroturf was invented in 1965\; natural turf in the Houston Astrodome was replaced with synthetic turf.', 'Artificial turf installed at new Royals Baseball Stadium in Kansas City in 1973.', 'The United States Lawn Mower Racing Association was founded in 1992.', 'In 1997, 12-year-old “Ryan Tripp” set the world record by riding a lawn mower 3,116 miles, from Salt Lake City to Washington D.C. Once there he offered to mow the White House lawn\, but his offer was graciously declined.', 'Our \“Tour\-Putt\” Synthetic Bent Grass Turf was tagged by the media\, as the \“Turf of the Millennium\,\” at Las Vegas International PGA Show in 1999.', 'From 1980 through 2002, Scot Hoch made over $16 million playing golf, but will always be remembered as the guy that missed a two and one half foot putt to lose the 1989 Masters Championship.' ); /* GetStatement( ) is the primary function. It assumes the following: 1. The HTML file contains a form named "statementform". 2. Within the statement form, there is a textarea or textbox named "statement". */ function GetStatement(outputtype) //modified by javascriptkit.com to either write out result or set innerHTML prop { if(++Number > Statements.length - 1) Number = 0; if (outputtype==0) document.write(Statements[Number]) else if (document.getElementById) document.getElementById("ponder").innerHTML=Statements[Number]; } // The GetRandomNumber( ) function extracts a random number within a given range. function GetRandomNumber(lbound, ubound) { return (Math.floor(Math.random() * (ubound - lbound)) + lbound); } // The Number variable keeps track of which statement to display. It will start at a random point. var Number = GetRandomNumber(0, Statements.length - 1);