I just finished reading a very timely article written by good friend and long-time colleague, Peter Stone the famed golf correspondent for the Sydney Morning Herald.

Stoney’s article highlights the glaring anomalies in the selection process for inductees into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

It was announced recently American Ken Venturi would be inducted into its ranks in March in the Lifetime Achievement  category.

As Stoney pointed out, Venturi won 14 times on the PGA Tour, including success in the 1964 U.S. Open over Tommy Jacobs at Congressional before becoming a TV analyst.

The legendary and late Norman Von Nida continues to be snubbed for inclusion into the Golf Hall of Shame.

However as Stoney also highlighted Venturi’s nomination continues to highlight the absurb leaning to select U.S. born nonimees when there are so many more deserving individuals who have probably achieved more in a lifetime than Venturi.

I was offered a ride this very morning from Edinburgh Airport to Dundee by another good friend, John Huggan and after the two us had been out in Turkey reporting on the Turkish Airlines World Golf Final.

‘Huggy’ has resigned as a member of the  World Golf Hall Of Fame voting panel in protest and has begun referring to the Hall of Fame as the Hall  of Shame.

Stoney says he remains a member of the voting panel in the forlorn hope a single  voice can right so many wrongs with the system. For years, Stoney has gone into bat for the inclusion of the late Norman Von Nida and, while he remains  on the ballot paper for selection in the international category, it seems he is  never likely to gain the necessary 50 per cent of the vote needed for  election.

There’s another Australian in David Graham who continues  to be snubbed by the Florida based Golf Hall of Shame.

Graham is no longer on  the international ballot paper, but remains a candidate in the lifetime  achievement category. He is winner of not one Major as Venturi but two  the 1979 U.S. PGA at Oakland Hills and  the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion where the U.S. Open will be staged next year.

Graham also had won six other PGA Tour events for a total of 37 worldwide  victories. He has been on Augusta National’s cup and tee committee for the  Masters, thus playing a key role in the set-up of the course.

Graham’s autobiography has just been released – David Graham – From Ricicule to Acclaim – and in the book Stoney says there is reference to his continual Hall of Fame snub.

“It is embarrassing, and I think  it shows the inadequacies that exist in it when some players are getting in  without winning major championships because they’re from certain countries,” said Graham in his book.

“I  have no interest in being in there when I’m dead. If it’s going to happen they’d  better do it while I’m alive. I’m not having my family there when I’m  gone.”

The same could be said about Sandy Lyle, a fellow two-time Major winner, who if had not been been for myself and fellow Scottish newspaper writers, campaigned heavily for the Scot’s inclusion until Lyle was finally indocrinated earlier this year.

There’s others such as Britain’s greatest-ever female golfer Laura Davies along with Colin Montgomerie, a winner of eight European No. 1 titles and 2010 victorious Ryder Cup captain, who still continue to be snubbed.

Recently www.golfbytourmiss.com wrote about the life of Tom Bendelow, the Scottish architect who designed Medinah and venue for last month’s Ryder Cup.

Bendelow, nicknamed the ‘Johnny Appleseed of American Golf,  is credited with having designed more than 600 golf courses in a 35-year span but how many American members on the Hall of Fame voting panel would have heard of the Scot?

Thanks to Stoney for allowing www.golfbytourmiss.com to help promote Von Nida and Graham’s inclusion into what is now becoming increasing known as ‘The World Golf Hall of Shame”.