Wednesday, April 15, 2009

GOLF BOOK REVIEWS





The Greatest Game Ever Played

The book details the true story of Francis Ouimet and Harry Vardon during their duel at the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline in Massachusetts. Ouimet was a 20 year old amateur who grew up across the street from the course and caddied there. Vardon was the British champion who was the best in the world at the time.

The book discusses each of their lives as well as many other great characters of the game. The book provides a great background on both men, and describes how each reached that point in their lives. This is an unbelievable story and has also been turned into a movie starring Shia Labeouf and directed by Bill Paxton. I highly recommend this book.


Uneven Lies
Pete McDaniel

Uneven Lies provides historical content on the struggles of African Americans trying to make it professionally in golf. There are many interesting stories about players including Lee Elder, Charlie Sifford, Calvin Peete, Jim Dent, and many more. Tiger Woods provides the foreward. This is an excellent book with a lot of great information. Recently, the Uneven Lies documentary was on the golf channel.



Sudden Death
Michael Balkind

This a a fiction novel that combines golf and murder. Usually I'm not big on fiction novels but since this one involved golf, I thought I'd give it a try. This book revolves around Reid Clark, the #1 player on tour as he plays each tournament under heavy death threats. This book is good for beach reading or reading by the pool.