At the top of the heap stood Sinatra. They said it was his world, and we just lived in it. Arrogant, irreverent, yet cherished by an adoring public, Frank and the Pack swaggered and caroused, yet remained endearingly and undeniably the hottest ticket of their generation.

Their playground stretched from the Sands to the Copa, but in Palm Springs, where Frank lived, the place where they hung was the Canyon Club. Tucked in a secluded cove at the southernmost corner of town, it was the haven for the well-heeled and the well-known. "We had all the celebs over here," says Jack Koennecker, who was the club pro at the time. "Frank, Hope, Dinah, Jack Benny, Dean -- they were all members here."

Courtesy of Jim Mahoney

In November 1963, golf heavies and showbiz elite joined together at the Canyon Club to pay tribute to the icon in a five-day swingfest in the desert. It was the one-time-only, PGA-sanctioned, Frank Sinatra Invitational, followed by a black-tie gala in the ballroom of the Palm Springs Riviera Hotel.

"He wanted it to be a big one," says Bob Rosburg, who was on the PGA tournament committee. "And it was. This was something special." After all, who could say no when it was Sinatra who asked? "If Frank invited you to play, in fact if Frank invited you to do anything, it wasn't like you were going to turn him down," says Jim Mahoney, Sinatra's publicist, who helped put the guest list together.

Not until 1965, almost two years later, did Bob Hope attach his name to what was then the Palm Springs Golf Classic. Save for the more intimate Crosby Clambake, the Sinatra Invitational was the first to involve this caliber of celebrity. Danny Thomas, Andy Williams, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Robert Wagner, Bob Hope, Jill St. John, Lucille Ball, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and a ton of others, paired with the likes of Sam Snead, Jimmy Demaret, Billy Casper, Doug Sanders, Mike Souchak, and Tony Lema.

Presented as souvenirs and given to the 150 guests who were there was a custom-crafted, Toney Penna-designed, MacGregor IMG-5, heel-shafted putter. Each of these copper-plated gems had the Sinatra caricature and signature likeness engraved on the head. None were ever sold, only given out as gifts to the celebrity and amateur swells in attendance. Today they are regarded among the most treasured items in collectible golf. "Oh, I adored that putter," says Dick Martin, who lost it along with an entire set of clubs on an airplane a few years later.

Noted putter expert and collector Bobby Grace relates that Sinatra originally wanted them to be made in gold, but was talked out of it because of the impracticality for use as an actual putter. Over the years, less than two dozen or so have surfaced on the collector circuit. Grace reports having sold one in Japan two years ago for more than $20,000. Clearly, the others are out there somewhere -- most probably undetected, stored away in closets or attics.

A fair player, with a rhythmic swing and good short game, Sinatra loved the game but was not particularly dedicated to it. "He liked to be good at everything, and he was not a great player," says Rosburg. "He couldn't play as well as [Dean] Martin, or Hope, or Crosby, and it bothered him, I think."

The late comedian Gary Morton told of playing with Sinatra one time at Tamarisk, when after a particularly poor 4-wood shot, Morton told him, "Frank the ball doesn't know it's you. He then walked up to the ball and said, 'I'm Frank Sinatra. I'm a very big recording star.' And he hit it, and he hit it super."

Frank Beard, then a 24-year-old sophomore pro, won the tournament, having had to qualify on the previous Monday just to get in. First place prize money of $9,000 was in the upper tier of existing Tour events. "Sinatra went first class," says Rosburg. "No question about that." Beard wasn't slotted to be in the following day's pro-am until an adjustment following his victory on Sunday. He would later write that even though it was his win, he was but a bit player in the overall soiree. The event wasn't about him and the other pros, "but an excuse for another party," wrote Beard.

"I think that's probably true," reflects Rosburg. "The pros thought enough of Sinatra not to want to be the big story, especially that Monday, that day was for the celebs." Nonetheless, Sinatra would introduce Beard from the audience at subsequent stage shows, as "My man Francis Beard, who won my golf tournament in Palm Springs a few years back."

Intended to be annual affair, 1963 was the first, last, and only. Speculation about why runs the gamut, though much of it involves the more preferable imagery and power of Bob Hope. Nonetheless, the legacy remains, and in the parlance of the Pack, that one cooker at the Canyon was a flat-out gasser.