The World Golf Hall of Fame

This past Saturday was "Free Museum Day," which means free admission to a number of participating museums. In scanning the list of local possibilities, I noticed that the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine was included. I knew Eric had been itching to go, so we selected that as our free museum of the day and off we went. It was a dreary, rainy morning, so this was a perfect activity.

Ellie and Eric are ready to check out some golf memorabilia!

When we first entered, we were treated to a photo-op with a giant golf club...

Ellie loved it.

...followed by displays of some of the oldest forms of golf equipment, and a putting green with 19th-century style equipment to use.

Really old golf stuff

Eric doing some old school putting

There was also a photo op with a replica of the Swilcan Bridge at the Old Course in St. Andrews:

Family photo on the Swilcan Bridge

Happy golf girl!

Eric marveled at how NOT to scale the replica bridge was. We know because we've totally been there in real life, as you may recall!

Us in St. Andrews in 2009. Maybe someday we'll retake this picture with Ellie!

There was also a gallery of portraits of famous golfers:

Fancy.

And of course, the busts of the hall-of-famers:

A sample of the display

There were also cool exhibits including Johnny Miller's scorecard and clubs that were used to shoot the lowest round in U.S. Open history, collections of pins given out for playing in each major, a case of all Phil Mickelson's various trophies, and Adam Scott's scorecards from this year's Masters.

Johnny Miller's scorecard and clubs

Pins from each major

I'll bet Phil Mickelson thinks he's soooooooo fancy.

Adam Scott's scorecards

We also visited "Trophy Tower," and Eric was very excited to see the trophies for all four majors live and in the flesh. The tower also offered nice views of the grounds.

Crystal sculpture entitled "The Perfect Swing" overhead in Trophy Tower. It is made up of 162 crystal prisms, simulating the arc of the golf swing.

Top: Trophies for the U.S. Open and PGA Champtionship

Bottom: Masters and British Open trophies (I actually recognized the Claret Jug from our trip to Scotland! This is what Eric has done to me.)

Ellie and Eric with the Claret Jug

View from Trophy Tower

More of the grounds. At the bottom left (to the center of the lake) is the Challenge Hole, and to the rightis the putting green. All the shops, etc. are straight ahead.

Logo at the entrance, as seen from Trophy Tower

Our other favorite part was the Member Locker Room, with display lockers for each hall-of-famer. Ellie was pretty over it by this point, but everyone else thought it was cool.

Heading into the Member Locker Room

 Ellie says, "that will be quite enough golf for one day, thank you."

 The locker room

Sample of locker displays

Thanks to Free Museum Day for giving us a fun activity on a rainy Saturday morning!