Meet The Golfing Peacock Who Nearly Killed Dean Martin

Hey pallies, likes I totally totally loves how you never ever know what new Dino-story is waitin' to be uncovered on the ol' world wide web. Recently the pallies at google 'lerts sent me over to a blog mag pad tagged "Sabotage Times" where writer Mr. Owen Blackhurst has scribed a fab tale of the life and times of swingin' golfer Doug Sanders. Blackhurst, Associate Editor of "Sabotage Times" has wisely tagged his prose, "Meet The Golfing Peacock Who Nearly Killed Dean Martin."

Likes with such an evocative tag likes that how could this tale be anythin' besides Dino-rific?!?!?! What follows is a simply stunnin' retellin' of an encounter that our most beloved Dino has with Mr. Sanders that puts the accent on two of our great man's fav pastimes....golfin' and drinkin liquid libations.

As you will read below, the "Golfing Peacock" is none other then swingin' golfer Mr. Doug Sanders" and the way that Sanders "nearly killed Dean Martin" by offerin' our swingin' Dino some of his "homemade moonshine." Don't want to gives it all away, so keeps readin' below for this very cool cool remembrance from the life and times of our King of Cool.

ilovedinomartin expresses our deepest of the deep appreciato to Mr. Owen Blackhurst for bringin' this bit of Dino-history to print. To view this in it's original format, and to read all of Blackhurst's excellent prose on Mr. Sanders, just clicks on the tag of this Dino-gram. Likes how thrillin' to be immersed more and more in the life of our most beloved Dino! Dino-always, ever, and only, DMP


Meet The Golfing Peacock Who Nearly Killed Dean Martin

He grew up dirt-poor, dressed in every colour of the rainbow, partied with Evel Knievel and The Rat Pack and had vodka delivered to him on course. But he'll always be remembered for missing that putt in 1970...



Colourfully dressed and exciting to watch, he was given the moniker ‘The Peacock of the Fairways’ by the press

1957, his first season as a professional ended winless, but he won in both 1958 and 1959, finished second by a stroke in the USPGA in the latter and, with a bit of money in his pocket, began making up for all those days spent in tattered rags by developing a love for clothes and the high-life. He had a car phone in 1959, he flew by jet, and he was divorced twice between 1957 and 1960. Colourfully dressed and exciting to watch, he was given the moniker ‘The Peacock of the Fairways’ by the press. “Clothes make the man,” he said. “I went to great lengths to blend the colours of my clothes. I’d go to the pharmacy and look at all the colourful capsules, choose the ones I liked and send the top half of an empty yellow capsule with the bottom half of a blue one to the factory where my shirts were made. Oh my clothes were beautiful.”

Out of the 20 years that he spent on the PGA Tour, 1961 was his banner season. He won five times that year, tied for 11th at The Masters, third at the USPGA and again finished second by a single stroke to Gene Littler at the US Open. America was a good place to be at the beginning of the ‘60s, especially for a small town boy made good with a taste for liquor and lavender. The Rat Pack were in full wing and Doug was quickly assimilated into the gang. He spent a lot of time talking to Sinatra, both in person and on the phone. He would regularly pop round to Bob Hope’s house to shoot the shit and he almost killed Dean Martin with his homemade moonshine.

“The moonshine we made was not clear like normal alcohol, it was the colour of gasoline,” he remembers, “it’s about as powerful as gasoline too, about 190 proof. I always kept a gallon or two for guests to try. ‘Take tiny sips’, I said to Dean, but he was sceptical and took a huge mouthful, swallowed half and was about to swallow the other half when I went to light a cigarette. Dean’s eyes got big, and he spat it out, ‘don’t light that smoke,’ he cried, ‘you’ll blow my head off.’ My moonshine is not to be trifled with.”