Do you remember Raymond J. Johnson, Jr.? The character appeared on a weekly variety show in the 1970s and had the same routine each show. He would say, "my name is Raymond J. Johnson Jr., but you can call me Ray, or you can call me Ray J., or you can call me Junior, or you can call me R.J He always ended by saying "but you doesn't hasta call me Johnson!"
Same thing each week and we would laugh every time. The suggestion was that a person could be identified by a variety of monikers, not just his usual handle. I'm not sure why the bit was so funny. Perhaps it was his costume complete with suit, hat and cigar. Maybe it was the fact that I'm easily amused.
I have identity issues myself as I go by my middle name, and I've even shortened that. Officially my name is William Alan Stephenson, but you can call me anything you want. I've been called some interesting names, not all of which are flattering. One method of identifying myself that I don't use is W. A. even though I get that on address labels that show up in the mail from time to time.
Many people do use initials and frequently that's all that is needed for identification. I was looking at a list of PGA Tour golfers and noticed a number of players that were identified by initials. I thought it might be fun to see if you can identify the following golfers. Most are currently playing, though a couple of them are past members of the tour.
I will give you the initials and then you can see if you know the last name. I will include the last names later in the column and even give you the results before I'm done. As I am wont to do, I will even add some fascinating tidbits to go along with our little game. As always, you're welcome.
Here are the initials. 1 ? J.C. 2 ? J.J. 3 ? Y.E. 4 ? D.J. 5 ? J.P. 6 ? T.C. 7 ? J.B.
8 ? D.A. 9 ? J.L. 10 ? K.J.
I will now give you some time to see how many you can get before I give you the last names to choose from. OK, time's up!
The initials above go with the following surnames ? Chen, Choi, Yang, Hayes, Holmes, Henry, Lewis, Snead, Trahan and Weibring. Again I will give you some time to match up the answers. OK, it's tough to leave a space for time in a newspaper column. If you want to keep guessing, stop reading for a while!
1 ? Born in Hot Springs, W.Va., Jesse Carlyle Snead is the nephew of Sam Snead who just happens to be the biggest winner in PGA Tour history with 82. J.C. played baseball in the Washington Senators system before turning his attention to golf. He played on three Ryder Cup teams and is most disappointed by the fact that he never won a major though he was runner-up twice. Don't feel too sorry for J.C. however as he amassed over $7 million in earnings in his career.
2 ? J.J. Henry is actually named Ronald Henry III. I have no idea where J.J. came from so I guess you'll have to ask him. J.J. was a Horned Frog in college (another chance to guess). He has one win on tour, but came close in the 2012 Byron Nelson Championship. Leading by a stroke on the 71st hole, J.J. double bogeyed the hole, losing out to Jason Dufner by two shots.
3 ? Yon-eun Yang is from South Korea. His most famous win came at the 2009 PGA Championship as he came from behind to beat one Eldrick Woods. Y.E. currently owns an indoor golf range in the Dallas, Texas area.
4 ? Donald Roland Trahan Jr. was born in Atlanta, but his parents moved to Hilton Head Island shortly after he was born. Imagine spending your days as a student at Hilton Head High School playing the Harbour Town Golf Links. If I could do that you could call me anything you want. D.J.'s best major finish was a T-4 at the 2008 U.S. Open.
5 ? John Patrick Hayes was born in Appleton, Wis., and naturally matriculated to the University of Texas at El Paso for college. OK, maybe not so naturally, but a Miner he became. J.P. has two tour wins at the Buick and John Deere. Personally I would call him Woody or Gabby!
6 ? Tze-Chung Chen is from Taiwan. He became famous in golf circles for his performance in the 1985 U.S. Open. He recorded the first double eagle in Open history and led the field with record setting scores after 36 and 54 holes. Alas in the final round he took a quadruple bogey 8 on a hole in which (among other problems) he hit the ball twice on a chip shot. "Two Chip" Chen became his moniker as amateurs doing the same thing suggested they T.C'd it. He lost by a single stroke when his chip shot on 18 stopped an inch from the hole!
7 ? John Bradley Holmes was born in Campbellsville, Ky., and started on his "high school" golf team when he was in the third grade! Imagine getting eight varsity letters in one sport. J.B. is known for bombing the ball off the tee. He was the fastest player to win $1 million doing so by winning the FBR Open in his fifth professional start, which was his fourth PGA Tour start.
8 ? Donald Albert Weibring Jr. was born in Quincy, Ill., and has five PGA Tour wins on his resume. Included in that total were three wins in the Quad Cities Open. There you go ? name the four cities that make up the Quad Cities.
9 ? John Lee Lewis hails from Emporia, Kan. His parents were both teachers in the Emporia City Schools. Though he pitched several no hitters in Little League, J.L. played football, basketball and golf in high school. The dimpled ball apparently took preference over the horsehide. His two wins on tour included the John Deere Classic and the 84 Lumber Classic.
10 ? Kyung- Ju Choi became the first South Korean to obtain a PGA Tour card and was the first of his countrymen to win on tour at the Compaq Classic in New Orleans in 2002. He won the prestigious Players Championship last year. Before turning to golf, K.J. ? like me ? was a competitive power lifter. You may scoff, but I consider holding a Big Mac in each hand as power lifting!
Here's one more quiz question for you. Do you know the name of the comedian who created the Raymond J. Johnson Jr. character? If you said Bill Saluga, you must be as old as me!
Al Stephenson is the golf columnist for The Advertiser-Tribune.
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