I don’t think I had heard of this one before, but a good telephone-related mystery is fun to dig into.

As discussed on the Barely Sociable YouTube channel and numerous other sources, in the 1990s a toll-free number appeared on a billboard in Canada. That number was (800) GOLF-TIP. If you called the number all you heard was a recorded loop of someone counting from 1 to 10. If you stayed on the line long enough you’d hear a squawking or screeching noise.

IMPORTANT: Do not call this number today unless you want to connect to a phone sex service. Keep in mind as well that it is impossible to prevent the owner of a toll-free number from seeing your phone number on caller ID. So if you get a call from a shady-seeming toll-free number and want to call it back, use a payphone.

I think the answer to who was behind the (800) GOLF-TIP mystery probably lies with the PGA (Professional Golfers Association), and/or USA Today. I plugged the number into some research databases. Here is what I found.

This blurb in the December 3, 1994 issue of the Tampa Tribune refers to (800) GOLF-TIP.

Another reference appears in the December 1, 1994 issue of USA Today. That article refers to (800) GOLF-TIP as the “USA TODAY/PGA OF AMERICA HOT LINE”. I’d like to see the printed version of this, but a link to a text-only PDF version of the USA Today piece, found on ProQuest, is here.

Based on the Tampa Tribune blurb and the USA Today piece it looks as if the ability to call (800) GOLF-TIP and hear golf advice from “nearly 100 PGA members” was only available for the weekend of December 3 and 4, 1994; and only from 9am to 9pm at that. My guess is that before and after those dates the number remained in the possession of either the PGA or USA Today but, intentionally or not, got turned over to some test or placeholder content.

Contacting the PGA or USA Today to look for records of the billboard buy sounds promising but I wouldn’t expect records of something like to still be around. As for the screeching sound reportedly heard if you stayed connected long enough, I suspect that was the howler, or some kind of signal heard when landline telephones are left off the hook too long.

That the phone number got some level of national media publicity suggests to me that the billboards also appeared throughout North America and not just in Canada. Since the call-in event lasted only 2 days most of those signs were probably not out there for very long. Someone probably just failed to remove the Canadian billboard in a timely fashion.

That’s my take!