How to Feel a Real Golf Swing by Bob Toski and Davis Love

The most difficult part of golf is the mental game. Though cliched, that statement is incontrovertible. For most golfers, the tendency to view the swing as a mechanized process dominates their swing thoughts. “Keep my left arm straight,” “Swing through to the target,” “Don’t reverse pivot,” “Cock/load my wrists,” “Put the ball back/up in your stance,” “Shorten your backswing. . .” All of these ideas, though fundamentally sound in their physical advice, tend to prevent the golfer from optimizing his/her performance because they force the golfer to consciously force a complex physical activity that should really be driven by the subconscious and feeling.

Bob Toski and Davis Love III have written a book that truly fosters golf as an athletic expression. Rather than burdening ourselves with overly precise mechanical thoughts, we must allow our natural athleticism to shine through and carry our game. The golf swing is a beautiful, fluid motion. To mechanize it detracts from its efficiency and power and renders it less graceful and effective. “How to Feel a Real Golf Swing” provides invaluable drills and advice that will allow you to understand and develop the feeling a good swing creates. It fosters the notion of allowing the arms and club to do the work of turning the body and shifting your weight.

As a serious golf addict and student of the game, this book, more than any other I’ve read, allowed me to understand my swing and improve my game. We all know the sweet feeling of hitting the ball on the sweet spot, this book devotes itself to the sweet feeling of the entire swing. I give it the highest rating I can.

The Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf: Butch Harmon

As a golfer of over 35 years, a collector of golf books, and a serious student of the game, I believe “The Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf” is the most easily understood instructional books published on golf and a must for both the beginner or advanced golfer. Key to successful golf is an understanding of the fundamental concepts of the swing as well as the ability to form simple, repeatable thoughts as you play a shot. Butch Harmon provides the reader tightly focused instructional text along with with first rate photos and illustrations essential to understanding the basics of the game. Unlike many books that stress the “simplicity of the game”, Harmon minces no words on the importance of physical conditioning to achieve a higher level of play. It is this candor and his solid recommendations on how to development better golfing fitness that sets this books above the rest. In short, “The Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf” belongs on the bookshelf of any golfer wanting to better understand the game and improve his or her ability.

Bruce’s Castle Turnberry

Turnberry, Ailsa Course on the west coast of Scotland will host the 2009 Open. The course was originally laid out by Willy Fernie in 1902. During the war, the course was used for military training and destroyed. In 1951 the golf course architect Philip MacKenzie Ross rebuilt the course as it is today. The 9th Hole “Bruce’s Castle” is the best known tee shot, set on the cliff edge with views across the Clyde to Ailsa Craig, the Isle of Arran and the Mull of Kintyre. The Lighthouse is situated on the remains of the Castle of Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland 1302 till 1329 . Best memories of the course are the “Duel in the Sun” in 1977 when Tom Watson beat Jack Niklaus by one stroke after playing the final 2 rounds in 65. Another highlight was the final round 63 of Greg Norman in 1986 to take the title. Christmas at Turnberry

Golf Formats -What Do You Play?

What format of golf do you play? There are lots – here is a list. Is your preferred format included? Let us know (use the ‘comments’ link above (right) this article and we will come up with a list of all formats played by all-golf subscribers.

1-Player Golf Formats

Worst Ball

Play two balls (if they let you!) and only count the ball with the higher score on each hole and see if you can play to your handicap.

Herman & Sherman

Play 2 holes playing a draw on every shot and then the next two with a fade on every shot. Take lots of spare balls with you if playing a tight course.

2-Player Golf Formats

Singles

The classic form of golf: play off scratch or full handicap difference.

Skins

Each hole is worth one ’skin’ and whoever wins the hole gets the skin. If no-one wins the hole outright then the ’skin’ is carried over so the next hole is worth 2 skins, and so on until someone sinks that pressure putt. Play off scratch or handicap as per singles matchplay.

Stableford

Points are awarded for your score on each hole on either a nett or handicap basis. 1 point for a bogey, 2 for a par, 3 for a birdie, 4 for an eagle and 5 if you bag an albatross (fat chance). Anything worse than a bogey, pick up and stop wasting everyone else’s time.

Stringball

Instead of handicap strokes, each player is allocated one foot of string for every shot of his/her handicap. Each player can move the ball by measuring the distance moved and cutting that amount from the ball. You can use the string to remove your ball from hazards, get it out of a difficult lie or to hole out. If you like you can offer the option to gain one foot of string for each birdie scored. Remember to take your scissors!

3-Player Golf Formats

When you have a four arranged, someone always calls off and who wants to play strokeplay anyway? Have fun with these instead:

Skins

Each hole is worth one ’skin’ and whoever wins the hole gets the skin. If no-one wins the hole outright then the ’skin’ is carried over so the next hole is worth 2 skins, and so on until someone sinks that pressure putt. Play off scratch or handicap as per singles matchplay.

Split Sixes

There a six point up for grabs at each hole. If someone wins it outright then they get 4 points. The second best score gets 2 points and the third zero. If one person won the hole and the other two halved then it would be 4-1-1. Two players halving and beating the third 3-3-0. You get the picture. You don’t need a maths degree and can be tactical near the end. Use full handicap allowance.

Stableford

Points are awarded for your score on each hole on either a nett or handicap basis. 1 point for a bogey, 2 for a par, 3 for a birdie, 4 for an eagle and 5 if you bag an albatross (fat chance). Anything worse than a bogey, pick up and stop wasting everyone else’s time.

Murphys

Modified Stableford played in exactly the same way except the points are different: -3 for bogey or worse, -1 for bogey, zero for par, +2 for birdie, +5 for eagle, +8 for albatross.

Chairman

The player with the lowest net score on each hole becomes the Chairman on the following hole. The Chairman can win the hole if he/she again has the lowest net score. The winner is the person who wins the most holes. If two players tie then the current Chairman continues for the next hole.

Stringball

Instead of handicap strokes, each player is allocated one foot of string for every shot of his/her handicap. Each player can move the ball by measuring the distance moved and cutting that amount from the ball. You can use the string to remove your ball from hazards, get it out of a difficult lie or to hole out. If you like you can offer the option to gain one foot of string for each birdie scored. Remember to take your scissors!

Ghost

This is a game of Fourball Better Ball matchplay (see below), but with 3 real players and one imaginary player called the Ghost. One player elects to play with the Ghost who always pars every hole. The Ghost plays off scratch and gives shots to every other player in the group as per normal. The game is usually best when the highest handicapper plays with the Ghost.

4-Player Golf Formats

Lagging

After everyone gets on the green and regardless of the number of strokes, the player closest to the hole gets 3 points, the next player closest to the hole gets 2 points, the next player closest to the hole gets 1 point and the player farthest from the hole gets 0 points. Total the points for all eighteen holes and pay the winner.

Foursomes

Two players form a team and hit alternate shots at each hole until they hole out. One player tees off at the even holes and one on the odd holes. Handicap allowance is half of the combined total of both players. Played to schtrict rulesh of matchplay golf!

Greensomes

Matchplay game for teams of two where both partners drive and they choose the best drive and then play alternate shots for the rest of hole as in foursomes. For handicap matchplay, take the combined handicaps of both teams and the lower pair gives seven-eighths of the difference.

Gruesomes

As per greensomes, but after both players have driven, your opponents choose which ball you should play.

Shambles

As per greensomes, but after both players have driven, you choose the best tee shot and then both players play from that spot with their own ball and complete the hole. Scoring can be done any number of ways, such as using the lowest score per hole or the combined score per hole as the team score.

Canadian Foursomes/Pinehurst Foursomes

Same format as greensomes, but you choose which ball to play after you and your partner have both played your second shots.

American Foursomes

Another variation on greensomes, where both players drive and then play their partners shots before deciding which ball to play.

St Andrews Foursomes

Similar to an ordinary greensome, except that one player plays all the second shots on the odd numbered holes and the partner plays the second shots on the even numbers holes. They still both drive and elect the better drive for the appropriate player to play.

Scotch Foursomes

Similar to ordinary foursomes except the alternate shot is carried on from hole to hole. That means if Partner A holes out on the first green then Partner B will drive off on the second and so on throughout the round. Will you be tempted to the occasional tactical miss on the green to ensure your stronger driver is in control on the next tee?

Fourball-Betterball

Teams of two play their own ball and count the ‘better ball’ or score on each hole. Played in matchplay, handicaps are three-quarters of the difference form the lowest handicapper.

Fourball-Aggregate

Teams of two play their own ball and take the combined score for the team. Handicap is full difference from the lowest handicap player and then you add the nett scores for each player together to get the team score.

Better-Aggregate

A combination of Betterball and Aggregate (funnily enough). On each hole a point is awarded for the betterball and one awarded for the combined. Good game for mixed handicap groupings and should be played off full-difference.

Daytona

If you like risky games, you’ll love this. Each team of two add their scores together, so if they both had fours the score is 44. If the scores were different then the scoring depends on how you fared to par. If one of you got a par or better you would take the lower score first. For example a 4 and 6 on a par 5 scores 46. If you are both above par, say on a par three, then you take the higher score first giving 64. The lower total takes the money, but be prepared for some big swings.

Outings Golf Formats

Never mind the strokeplay or the stableford! Give one of these a whirl and make it a fun day out.

Stringball

Instead of handicap strokes, each player is allocated one foot of string for every shot of his/her handicap. Each player can move the ball by measuring the distance moved and cutting that amount from the ball. You can use the string to remove your ball from hazards, get it out of a difficult lie or to hole out. If you like you can offer the option to gain one foot of string for each birdie scored. Remember to take your scissors!

Pink Ball

In teams of three or four, each player plays there own ball and one plays the pink ball. The pink ball score plus the best of the other three counted for each hole. The lowest aggregate score and the lowest pink score take the money. Mind you if you lose the pink ball, you’re out!

Texas Scramble

Players play in groups of three of four. All drive and then select the best shot and mark it. Everyone then hits the next shot form this point. Repeat procedure with each shot until you hole out. This event is played off handicap and if you do not have special tables, add all the teams member’s handicaps together and divide by ten. Deduct the handicap from the final total.

Bloodsome Scramble

As per Texas scramble but the worst shot is selected. Beware, as everyone has to hole out for a hole to be completed! Best played over nine holes or you’ll never finish in daylight.

Bisque

Players can nominate to take their handicap strokes at any time. Strokes must be nominated before playing the hole. Can be used to liven up matchplay, strokeplay or stableford events.

Bingo, Bango, Bunco

Also known as Bingo, Bango, Bongo. A great format when the company is of mixed ability because final scores don’t count. Instead points are awarded for firsts: first player to reach the green, player closest to the hole, first player to putt out – and any others you’d like to include. Great fun and a brilliant way of including everyone in the day.

Side Bets

As well as your main event have a few side bets to keep interest up. Decide your own value for units and don’t get carried away. It’s meant to be fun not financially life threatening!

Oozles & Foozles

At a par 3 the player on the green nearest the flag after one shot has to hole out in two putts or better for an oozle and a unit. If the player fails to do this it is a foozle and is a loss of a unit. If no-one hits the green then the oozles can accumulate on subsequent par 3s. One-off oozles can also be played for gorillas who drive par 4s.

Gritty Pars

Getting a par after being in the sand at any point on the hole.

Ferrets

Holing out from off the green without using your putter. Golden ferrets are for holing out from a bunker and count double.

Birdies & Eagles

No prizes for guessing this – just put a premium on this depending on handicaps and the course’s difficulty.

Dr Doolittle

Dr Doolittle comprises various accumulators, such as Snakes for three-putting. Each time someone three-putts, this adds 1 unit to the value of the snake. The last person to three-putt is deemed to be holding the snake and pays out the total value to all others in the group. You can combine this with other accumulators for various misdemeanors using the same principle: Camels for going in a bunker, Fish for hitting into water, Bears for hitting trees, Rabbits for going in the gorse or bushes and Grouse for landing in the heather. Keep the monetary value of each unit low as they will mount up quite quickly!!

Flaps

When playing from off the green, a player shouts ‘Flap’ between hitting the ball and its first bounce. The player then has to hole out with the next shot to gain a unit. Failure to do so loses a unit. If a player calls a flap, opponents may shot ‘double’ before the ball makes its first bounce to double the win or loss.

Portuguese Caddy

Each player is allowed to move the ball without penalty by kicking it. Specify a number of Portuguese Caddies allowed per person per round.

Gotchas!

Each person has one opportunity to shot ‘Gotcha’ during an opponent’s swing during a round. Sometimes the anticipation is enough to put someone off.

Mulligans

Ever wanted to play a shot again? Give each person a mulligan and you disregard a bad shot and play it again. Named after a member at Winged Foot who always hit a second ball off the first tee and counted it as his first.

Metoo

A metoo is where you are allowed to swap your shot for someone else’s in your group at any hole, be it a drive, iron shot or putt. Move your ball to where the other shot finished and you both play the next shot from there. You may use your metoo to join someone in holing out. Agree the number of metoos among you depending on your handicap.

Dunce

Whoever has the worst score on each hole has to wear a designated hat for the following hole. The sillier the headgear the better.

Buckshot

Similar to Dunce, whoever hits the widest tee shot on each hole has to get the silly hat on. Have a Buckshot of the round too – you will have the funniest after round chat ever debating this one!

Adolf

Penalty for failing to get out of a bunker.

Seve

Scoring a par without hitting the fairway and having only one putt on the green.

Hole in One!

Those who calculate such things believe there were 109 aces yesterday. There will be 109 tomorrow, the same number the following day. They will be recorded by those who have never before gripped a club (and never will again), and by ancient mariners who after 60 years of never getting one find they can come in bunches. Four members of the same Pennsylvania family have each holed out – on the same hole! And consider the possibilities of a curious fact – each cup can accommodate four golf balls. Could it ever? Nah. Well, maybe!

Holes in one have bounded off trees, rocks, cart paths and body parts, and they have been launched on their glorious way with borrowed sticks and every club from putter to “trusty” four-wood to Snoopy driver.

Mark Brooks must be in the minority of those who see “golf’s uncommonly common miracle” as “just another shot.” For others, it’s simply a matter of “aiming and having fun.” Religious or supernatural intervention is a regular theme. Then there is the chap whose card on the back nine went: 9-21-9-16-11-13-1-11-9 = 100. Another guy’s card ran: 2-1-1-2. Gary Player’s wife had two in the same day, although why we need to be told this story twice is but a minor glitch in an otherwise absorbing frolic recounting this happiest and most unexpected shot.

Many golfers have never seen the ball go in, a personal secret fear, but the incidence of golfers who if not called their shot at least privately raised the possibility could lead one to reconsider a divine assist. You never know. Then again, the odds of getting a hole in one are (depending upon whose stats you buy into) about the same as being struck by lightning. Dear Lord, just so they don’t both occur on the same day.

Playing Partners

A Father, a Son, and Their Shared Addiction to Golf By George Peper Warner Books, 2003 ISBN: 0-446-52707-6 $24.95

He’s not exaggerating. Unfortunately, the game’s pleasantries are nearly poisoned in an alkaline-based obsession. The author, former editor-in-chief at Golf magazine, admittedly “semi-detached” from friends, a child loner who discovered a “blissful monomania” in golf, provides an introspective and often painful account of what golf has wrought on Pepers senior and junior as well as the missus.

Early on there’s an inopportune call from Johnny Miller that interferes with something of a first date (actually a couch moving). The call took an hour. “Golf had come between us for the first time – and far from the last,” he writes. “For the next twenty-five years the game would pull me physically, mentally, and emotionally from my wife.” While maintaining his vows, he nevertheless feels compelled to add, “However, I have nonetheless been criminally unfaithful to her through my fatal attraction to golf.”

Perhaps this book is meant as an apology to the long-suffering Libby. Perhaps he should pack it in. The deadpan earnestness – an admission, really, without the apology – is reminiscent of the criminally negligent at last coming clean, but only to make sure the details are in order.

“Golfers are essentially nice guys,” Mrs. P. suggests in a rare aside, “but they’re insensitive. They need to be beaten over the head with things. Once they understand what it is that you want or need, they’re like big loping dogs, only too eager to please. But until then they’re clueless, so absorbed in themselves and their game that they’re oblivious to everything else.”

That may very well be true, one of the few genuine insights obscured by the myopia – honest and sincere as it may be – that will likely interest only those closely acquainted with the personalities.

Pity there wasn’t more time for the interesting brushes working with name tour players and the occasional celebrity (he helped Bill Murray with his book, which included a “desperate” all-nighter), or even detailing the trials of growing a national magazine. We learn he is very likely the only person who agreed with Jan Van de Velde’s club selection at Carnoustie. It would be entertaining to hear more of his observations about those who display the qualities, as Shoeless Jean has, that he clearly admires in others, namely lack of self-absorption and friendship.

Favourite Golf Instruction Books

My students often ask me “What are the best books on golf instruction”. There are five books which I return to and I think are of value to the serious golfer (i.e. anyone really trying to improve their game.

1. Butch Harmon’s ‘The Four Cornerstones of Winning Golf”
2. Bob Toski’s “How to Feel a Real Golf Swing”
3. Jim Hardy’s “The Plane Truth for Golfers”
4. Hank Haney and John Duggan’s “The Only Golf Lesson You Will Ever Need”
5. Ben Hogan’s “Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf”

I have put a customer review of each of these books in the “Golf Book Reviews setion of the site”. Please let me know what you think of these (and any other golf book you have read – whether instuctional  or any other aspect of golf).

Gambling on the Golf Course

by John Hamarik

It was my junior year at the University of Tennessee. I was playing the best golf of my career and one Sunday I went to practice at Pine Lakes golf course. Pine Lakes was a public course with a driving range that we were able to use any time we wanted to. The pro and owner, Ray Franklin was a Southern boy who used to be a great player in his day, until he got into a car wreck that ended his career. He would always tell us stories that seemed so astonishing that I would have bet he was fabricating them, but I knew better.

Anyway, I was on the driving range in the afternoon working on some short irons when this scruffy looking guy approaches me and asked, “Are you on the Tennessee golf team, boy?” I smiled and said “Yes I am.” It was pretty obvious since I had an orange Tennessee golf bag plus I had a white golf shirt that had Tennessee Golf printed on it. I was wondering what the hell this guy wanted.

He extended out his hand and introduced himself as Bill White. I told him my name and the next question he asked almost floored me. He looked me in the eye and said, “Do you want to play me for some money”? I stopped for awhile and thought to myself, hey, you can certainly beat this guy, go for it. So I told Bill, sure, I’ll play you for some money.

We stood on the first tee and made the bet. We were playing a twenty dollar Nassau with automatic two down presses and one down presses when asked, plus I had to give him seven shots each nine according to the handicap from the scorecard. Well, I had no idea what I was in store for. He was kicking my butt, because he was a gambler and knew the course pretty well and pressed every time he was one down when the next hole was a stroke hole.

I was standing on the seventeenth hole, down two hundred and forty dollars, thinking to myself, what am I going to do. I only had thirty dollars in my pocket and my checking account probably had another hundred in it. The only thing I had was my father’s 1972 Buick LeSabre. I certainly was in a bind, so what did I do, I asked if he would play me the last two holes for three hundred dollars. Plus I had to give him one stroke. I know I was stupid, risking my dad’s car, but I had no choice. I some how birdied the seventeenth hole and Bill made a bogey so we headed up the eighteenth with more money on the line than I ever dreamed of. I hit my tee shot on the short 395 yard par four down the right side of the fairway about 275. Bill hit his normal drive, 240 down the middle. He put his second shot just short of the green with an apparently easy chip shot left. I got to my ball and pulled out a nine iron and was so nervous that I almost couldn’t pull the trigger. I somehow kept thinking about losing my dad’s car. I looked at the pin placement and slowly took the club back and tried to focus on the flag.

Well, somehow I made one of the best swings of my life, the ball landed ten feet past the pin and since it was into the wind and I had a lot of juice on the shot, it spun back to within two feet of the hole. I turned to Bill and smiled, he also smiled and said, “Helluva Shot”

I made birdie and he paid me the sixty bucks. I was overcome with a sense of relief. He asked me what I was doing later that night? I told him that I had a date. He handed me his business card and told to stop at his restaurant for dinner. The business card said ‘Cherokee Supper Club’.

So I pick up Tammy at 6 o’clock and told her we were going to a new place for dinner. We arrived at Bill’s restaurant at 6:30 and when we got to the door, it was locked with rusted iron gates. I pressed the buzzer and this guy who looked like Lurch from the Adams Family show opened the door and said, “What do you two want?” I told him we were guests of Bill and he immediately opened the door.

We were seated in the corner of the place and were listening to a Country band playing on stage. All of a sudden, Bill strolls to our table and I almost didn’t even recognize him. He was dressed in a white suit, white lizard cowboy boots and a white hat. He sat down and told us that he would order dinner for us. He got up and left. I told Tammy that I was certain that this dinner would probably cost me a couple hundred dollars. Fifteen minutes later our dinner arrived, Filets and Lobster and a bottle of French wine. It was pretty amazing for a college date. After the wonderful dinner, Bill came back to our table and asked if we were pleased with the food and service. I told him everything was great, but that we needed our check, since there were only a few people in his place listening to the band. Bill smiled and told me that dinner was on the house.

I thanked him and asked, “Bill, I don’t want to sound strange, but you have a six member band, three bartenders, four waitresses and you have only a few people in here, how the hell do you make any money?” Bill stopped for a moment, looked me in the eye and said, “I thought you would ask me that, follow me!” We got up from the table and he took me through a long hallway and opened a door. My eyes almost popped out of my head, he had a full-fledged casino right in Knoxville, Tennessee.

I was laughing so hard. I stayed there till three in the morning playing blackjack. I became a member and went there every time I had a few extra dollars. Bill became a great supporter of the golf team and even threw a party for the entire golf team and had ten pounds of shrimp and steaks for everyone.

Bill, if you are out there and happen to read this, Thank You. I will never forget the Cherokee Supper Club.

Lessons with Ian Butcher

Lessons from £29 per half hour and £45 per hour.
Nine-hole individual lesson (including green fee) from £100

Ian is a fully qualified level 3 PGA Coach based at King’s Acre Golf Course near Edinburgh, Scotland. King’s Acre is a fully equipped modern golf facility with all the modern facilities golfers off all abilities would expect.

Lessons with Ian take place indoors in a custom studio. The studio is ideal for wet weather lessons and for swing analysis as it incorporates a state-of-the-art VI computer video system with four camera angles.

Outdoor lessons are on grass areas and include play from fairway, rough, bunkers and specialist shots for long and short games and include King’s Acre’s renowned high quality driving range with real greens, water hazards and distance markers.

The 18 hole course itself can be used for lessons and is ideal for in situ shotmaking and tackling the specifics of positional play, different types of shots and how to compile a score.

You can book a single lesson or a series to work on all areas of your game.

Booking is easy; simply call King’s Acre on 0131 663 3456.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

The Greatest Game Ever Played
Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf
By Mark Frost
Hyperion , 2002
ISBN: 0-7868-6920-8 $30

The Ben Curtis story is different, obviously, but it is entertaining to consider the two improbable victors of a major championship their first time out. Francis Ouimet, of course, was an amateur and had no interest in pursuing a professional career in golf. He was also intimately acquainted with the course where he beat the immortals of his day head to head. Curtis, a pro, if unheralded, had never laid eyes on Royal St. George’s before arriving to play weekend practice rounds. He was able to post a score and thus avoid a playoff against his famous rivals, leading to a less dramatic but equally satisfying result. As astute an observer as Bernard Darwin thought highly of Ouimet and his game, but you won’t find an honest scribe who believed Curtis had a shot; even his caddie had never heard of him, and, as late as Saturday night figured his man was likely good for an 80 on Sunday and a tie for 20th.

There does seem to be some common ground as regards the type of man in question, and we can assume that each firmly believed deep down that he could do it. John Hopkins, writing in The Times of London, began his account by noting Curtis’s Hollywood good looks. Ouimet, we learn here, through the eyes of one experienced writing for television, had “a clarity of spirit and …straightforward manner: happy, courteous, good-humored, well-adjusted, and uncomplicated,” even if he appears to the author physically as a cross between Woodrow Wilson and Stan Laurel, hardly leading man stuff, but a good egg nonetheless.

Perhaps it’s apt that a novelist and television writer weaves together the storybook qualities of Ouimet’s triumph for a modern audience.

The movie-goer may not care (it’s already in development) but the historian, or even the careful reader, should know that a popular device is in play. Invented feelings and words are assigned to all concerned, including the stoic triumvirate. There is “A note on the Writing” following the acknowledgements; it should by all rights be up front. The “dramatist’s license” helps in advancing the story and also in tying loose ends together. Reality’s never so tidy. History sometimes takes a seat to scriptwriting, what they call nowadays literary nonfiction. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was wonderful, but less so after the author’s confession that well, the lines between credulity and creativity, were crossed.

It is hard for the skeptic to believe that Harry Vardon, a man by his own account “who kept quiet and never gave vent to his true feelings” held out paternal feelings for Ouimet, just the sort of embellishment Hollywood can’t seem to avoid, but who knows? Maybe he did see something of himself in the young Francis.

Quibbles aside, the research, as history always does, turns up entertainment value beyond the imagination, what ifs like: how things would be different if Vardon’s illness hadn’t prevented him from boarding the Titanic; or how golf history would’ve changed had the volatile Johnny McDermott kept his sanity. And isn’t it interesting that at the presentation ceremony Ouimet apologized on behalf of the fans for disrupting his British competitors? The more things change… Johnny McDermott, a tragic figure, fiercely committed to defeating the Brits, was just ahead of his time. In an age of petulant tennis prodigies, the War at the Shore and sack dances, he’d have been a national hero, and golf would’ve perhaps lost its virginity and perhaps even its soul just as it entered the Golden Age of Sport. Also, a fun discovery it was to come upon this wonderfully lyrical phrase from Ted Ray: that his ball wasn’t stuck behind a tree, but was, rather, “stymied by a monarch of the forest.”

This is the USGA’s International Book Award Winner and it deserves a wide audience. “Never despair,” was Vardon’s motto – incidentally his books are worth seeking out – and it is wonderful to see, even in this day and age, how the spirit of those competitors, including Vardon’s axiom for his game and life, and Ouimet’s modesty, remain ever in vogue. Let’s hope they find someone who has a decent swing – and grip! – to play Harry on the silver screen.

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