Image Credit: www.historylocker.com In his book 99 Stories Of The Game, Wayne Gretzky talked about his passion for the game when he was injured after playing only one pre-season game in the 1992-93 season with the Los Angeles Kings. Gretzky had some nagging injuries the previous few years, but it was never determined the exact problem. So he was sent to the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic, famous for doing the Tommy John surgeries replacing a ligament in the elbow with a tendon from somewhere else in your body. He was asked by the doctor at the clinic if his back had ever been checked. Gretzky replied he hadn’t because he thought the recurring problem was related to a broken rib. The doctor told him he had a herniated thoracic disk.

The end was coming and everyone knew it because Se Ri Pak said at the start of this season that this would be the final year of her glorious career, but it was still somewhat sad to see her retire from the game. At the age of 38 and with the game trending more and more to players in their teens or early 20s, Pak knew it was time to put away the competitive clubs. She announced earlier in the year that 2016 would be her final season as a full-time player.

For many, dressing up for Halloween is one of the highlights of the year. It’s one of the few times in life when you can put on a costume and pretend to be someone else. But if vampires and zombies aren’t quite your thing, why not dress up as your favorite golfer? Here are five costume ideas for the golf fan this Halloween.

This is the time of year when golfers have to cherish every chance they have to play a round. The temperatures are dipping for people who live in the eastern part of the U.S. and Canada – and didn’t it seem like only yesterday when the thermometer was going through the roof in what became the hottest summer on record? It certainly felt like that. And in a way, we were all spoiled. Yes, we sweated like crazy and had to drink tons of water to stay hydrated, and when we finished didn’t the prospect of sipping that first beer make you want to make a beeline for the clubhouse?

Bill Murray and golf go hand in hand. Whether he’s playing the game seriously or just to have a hoot, there’s no mistaking Murray on the course. He has dressed in some of the craziest outfits if for no other reason than to have fun and make people laugh. After all, that’s what comic actors do, and although he is known for his career on Saturday Night Live and the many characters he portrayed, anyone who follows the game of golf knows Bill Murray for the role of the irreverent groundskeeper Carl Speckler in the movie Caddyshack. He was terrifically funny trying various ways to kill gophers, along with the one scene in which he is dressed in rain boots and a rain cap taking some shots on the practice range, pretending to be the Cinderella story groundskeeper trying to win the Masters.

On September 10, 1929, a man was born in Latrobe, Pennsylvania that would not only change the sport of golf, but the lives of everyone who was lucky enough to cross his path. Arnold Palmer is undoubtedly one of the greatest golfers to ever walk this earth, but to limit our image of ‘The King’ to his sporting accomplishments is to sell short his accomplishments as a person. Arnie was as great an ambassador for the game as there ever was and his death will leave a hole that can never be filled.

Legendary golfer Arnold Palmer has died, reminding us yet again that the great ones in sports cannot live forever. Mortality does, indeed, have a time limit. Earlier this year, we mourned the loss of boxer Muhammad Ali and hockey player Gordie Howe, two individuals who helped make their sports great, both with what they did as athletes, but more important what they did as people. Now we are feeling that aching feeling again following the passing of Arnold Palmer, who died on Sunday at age 87. Maybe he made his mark on golf, but he stitched his way into fabric of all of sports.

Imagine being paid to write about golf! Dave Perkins covered the sport in his 40 years as a sports writer, a good chunk of that with the Toronto Star. Perkins, whom I had the privilege of working beside occasionally during my 21 years with the Toronto Sun, covered 58 golf majors, 10 Ryder and/or Presidents Cups, and countless tournaments of one sort or another in the sport. He also had opportunities to play some of the best courses in the world and interview the best of the best from numerous eras.

When the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour stopped off recently at Whistle Bear in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, New Zealand-born horse trainer Tony O’Sullivan had a chance to meet fellow Kiwi Lydia Ko. O’Sullivan, who has been living in Canada full-time since 2004, is a club member at Whistle Bear. He wanted to take his daughter, Mackenzie, to the Pro-Am event at the club to meet the competitors and to talk to Ko. “There was no one there and Lydia took the time to talk to us for 10 minutes,” he told me. “We didn’t talk about golf. We talked about New Zealand and how beautiful it is. It was awesome. She’s a really, really nice person. People say ‘Lydia Ko is unbelievable to watch. She’s so relaxed and nice.’ And she is. It was pretty cool. Not just because she’s a sports star, but she’s genuinely a good person; she genuinely wanted to talk to you.”