Golf’s Greatest Eighteen

September 26, 2008 by  
Filed under Golf Book Reviews

Jimmy Breslin was writing about the 1962 Mets when he observed that “Figures are notorious liars, which is why accountants have more fun than people think.”

Number crunchers dying to know what, say, Gene Sarazen would’ve made for winning two Long Island Opens in “new” money will enjoy the new math. Of course, money of any vintage is welcome, no doubt a comfort in old age, but what Hogan or Hagen made way back when converted to the present is far less riveting a currency exchange, I suspect for most, than what comes back from turning dollars into euros or pounds. Golf, can we agree, is about so much more than The Money?

It’s not that I don’t appreciate the effort and burned midnight oil by the calculator. But far more captivating is curling up with venerable members of the fellowship to hear tales worth retelling. And there are always entertaining tidbits, the sort of trivial detail that fills notebooks and can fill out personalities or debunk myths: Gene Sarazen unknowingly hitting on Bob Hope’s wife, Gary Player on the range when Ben Wright closed his hotel room blinds, and there again when he pulled them open the following morning, and just about anything with Trevino.