Need your help for my golf library !

[JakaB]

George...how bout listing those books currently in your stack...you tell me yours and I might even take the time to list the books that currently sit within arms reach of Barney...

[Dan Kelly]

George,

In all seriousness....Do you really read that crap and if you do....have you made any tee-shirts with clever Darwinisms I might be able to purchase...

I personally am waiting for nuclear winter to start reading my large collection of books....so I do think collecting this stuff is worthwhile....but I really am curious if anybody has time to read any of it...

You, yourself, have plenty of time to read that "crap." (Oh, yes, there's plenty of crap out there -- but I don't think you'll find any of it in Mr. Silverman's collection of Mr. Darwin's wonderful work.)

Let's do the math:

Since you last reset your post counter, you've had 1,098 posts. Let's suppose that, between thinking about them and composing them, they take five minutes apiece. That's 5,490 minutes -- or 91.5 hours ... enough to read "Bernard Darwin on Golf," in hardcover or paperback (due in at Amazon and your local bookstore, possibly, on Dec. 1), numerous times.

Like George, I bought "Bernard Darwin on Golf" and have very pleasantly read parts of it. At the moment, it's sitting on our dining-room table, awaiting the next few vacant moments when its siren calls me.

Then I'll have a really hard choice: gca.com, Bernard Darwin, or Mah-Jongg at candystand.com? Hmmm....

[George Pazin]

In the interest of maintaining our current non partisan holiday glow, I will send you my list via private message.

[Dave_Miller]

Hi,

I've read all the good golf books (few) in french language.

So now, as I can order books in US with amazon.com, I search for good golf books in english.

Can you give me advices on golf architecture books, and also on other golf books (biography, tournaments,...)? What are the golf books you love and others I can avoid ?

Hope the reading of english books will improve my english language   !!!

Thanks all.  

Sebastien:

The Greatest Game ever Played is an excellent golf book.  It is the story of Francis Ouimet's win in the 1913 US Open.  In addition to being a good story it is a fascinating account of the era and golf in the US and Great Britain.

Also - "A Good Walk Spoiled" by john Feinstein.  Follows three players through a year on the PGA Tour.  Excellent account of the Tour and behind the scenes look at many of the Tournaments including the Majors.

Best
Dave

[Agman]

George --

   Regardless of what anyone else on this site has ever said about you, you are clearly a man of discrimination, discernment, standards and taste. And if you ever do decide to whip up a Darwin T, I'll be first in line to buy one.

js

[Mike_Trenham]

"Harry Sprague" may also be one of the more collectable Wind titles.  I don't think it sold at the time.  Don't give it away!  
 

We are among friends here are we not?  Of course it is not sold today.  Is Ross still building courses?  This is why it is valuable.  Nothing is more humorous than Harry's letters when he is not helped by a stenographor...

[Jay Carstens]

We are among friends here are we not?  Of course it is not sold today.  Is Ross still building courses?  This is why it is valuable.

Mike
I was attempting to make you aware that your book (if you have a copy) is somewhat valuable.  It did not sell particularly well (as I understand) in 1960 and afterward, so with a author as respected as Wind, the value of this title has risen in recent years.  Sorry for the confusion, my friend.
Btw-I bought mine new and have no plans to sell.  
Jay  

[Dan Herrmann]

Give http://www.a9.com a try.  It's a pretty cool alternative to Google and you can find good books there.

[Phil_the_Author]

Dan,
 You wrote, "Give http://www.a9.com a try.  It's a pretty cool alternative to Google and you can find good books there."

I followed your advice & checked out A9.com. I though you might enjoy what was pasted at the bottom of a search I did -
"Search results enhanced by Google. Results also provided by A9.com and Alexa."

[Sébastien Dhaussy]

Thanks for all your advices.

I've ordered my first book : "The Golden Age of Golf Design" by Geoff Schackelford.
Some luck: it was the last on Amazon site  

Thanks again.

[Dan King]

Mike_Trenham writes:
Also for a great laugh see if you can find

"On Tour with Harry Sprague, Letters of golf pro to his sponsor" by Herbert Warren Wind.

These were articles published for Sports Illustrated in 1958, 1959 and 1960. The book is just a combination of all three articles. Sports Illustrated: Fifty Years of Great Writing was published this year and includes the first third of the book: On the Winter Tour with Harry Sprague

Dave_Miller writes:
The Greatest Game ever Played is an excellent golf book.  It is the story of Francis Ouimet's win in the 1913 US Open.

It is a fictionalized story of the 1913 U.S. Open. If you want to learn something about the 1913 U.S. Open do not rely on this book.

Many years ago this same question came up about starting a golf library this forum and I made a post of my favorite golf books. If I were to do the same thing today my list would be different, but this isn't a bad list of books to start a library with.

http://www.danking.org/books.html

If you are looking for the French involvement in the early days of golf check out:
Triple Baugé: Promenades in Medieval Golf by Fred Hawtree. Not the most exciting book, but still some cool info here.

It is my hope that when this evil electronic media meets the fate it deserves we who have horded large caches of the written word will stand at our doorsteps and read to the starving masses or simply frolic along the countryside giving out obscure books to young children and forgotten women asking for no more than a smile...and turning before we even know of payment.
--JakaB

[mikes1160]

Dan,

When you say "fictionalized", do you really mean that this is "new journalism", i.e. somewhat in the style of Tom Wolfe, where one takes a fiction approach (imagining the conversations between Francis O. and his caddy) to form a novel-like sounding piece, but with facts strewn about?  I haven't read the book, but it does contain factual parameters, doesn't it?

[Dan King]

mike1160 asks:
When you say "fictionalized", do you really mean that this is "new journalism", i.e. somewhat in the style of Tom Wolfe, where one takes a fiction approach (imagining the conversations between Francis O. and his caddy) to form a novel-like sounding piece, but with facts strewn about?  I haven't read the book, but it does contain factual parameters, doesn't it?

Francis Ouimet did win the 1913 U.S. Open so that is at least one factual parameter he got right.

At least Mr. Wolfe admits up front that he is making up stuff. As far as I know, Frost or at least his publisher calls this non-fiction. He doesn't admit he makes up stuff until you get to page four hundred and something. There he finally admits to making up some of the conversation.

I assume he thinks much of the rest is historical fact. I only read about the first 100 pages or so and there were so many little things wrong that I decided it wasn't worth continuing. The problem with such a book is I don't know when I'm learning something new or something that came from Frost's imagination or his shoddy research.

It's a shame so many people are accepting this book as gospel. Seems a lot of people who have reviewed the book have written how much they liked learning more about Ouimet and the Open. Who knows what he has done to Bobby Jones with his new book, The Grand Slam : Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf. Since more people are aware of Bobby Jones story perhaps more will recognize him as a sham.

Dan King

Beyond learning things for their own sake, the only satisfaction in reading deeply, really deeply, into the subject of golf -- its lore, its famous figures, its historical development, anything beyond curing your slice -- is a certain smugness in knowing something about the game that somebody else doesn't, or would be expected to, an advantage that comes in handy at the 19th hole after your have had your brains beaten out on the previous 18.
 --Charles Price

[Daniel_Wexler]

Dan King:

I could not agree more with your assessment of Frost's work.  I too bailed out after finding numerous factual errors in the first 75-100 pages, and I took particular offense at his painting of Willie Park, Jr. in a negative light (presumably to add a little spark to things) when numerous period accounts make such a characterization wholly unsupportable.  But why let the truth get in the way of a good story?

As Felix Unger once said:  "Dramatization based on rumor."

DW

[BCrosby]

If you want something French, look for a book by Arnaud Massey - winner of the 1907 Open. I forget the title, but you can find it at various used book web sites.

Dan/Dan -

I agree about Frost up to a point. I am about half way through his book on Bobby Jones. I am not finding egregious factual errors. But the false eye witness stuff can get overdone. Things like -

"Jones eyed Bob Gardner warily..."

"His face had lost its color from the strain..."

What intrigues me about Frost's book on Jones is not Jones (we've all heard the stories before) but O.B. Keeler, who is quoted extensively. What jumps off the page is that, first,  Keeler is a better writer than Frost. Second, he actually was an eye witness to the events. Third, Keeler is more insightful than Frost about things both golf and psychological.

O.B. Keeler is one of the most under-appeciated writers in the literature on golf. But more than that, there is something odd about a man with his obvious talents deciding to become Bobby Jones's Boswell. I plan to read more of his stuff.

Bob

 

[Mike Hendren]

An excerpt from Wind's Letters from Harry Sprague:


April 9, 1960

Mr. Amos A. Tabor
c/o Curacao Chamber of Commerce
Willemstad, Curacao
Dutch West Indies

Dear Mr. Tabor:

...This reminds me, Mr. Tabor, that Bob Jones and I had a little conversation this afternoon.  He was sitting in his golf cart there on the thirteenth when we spotted each other.  "Harry,"  Bob said to me, "I saw you execute several superb shots yesterday.  You will score this course better, I'm certain, once you get to know it better.  It takes quite a bit of knowing."

"Bob," I said to Bob, "I am not investing in any green blazer myself, since I am counting on your folks presenting me with one.   But if you don't mind a construction suggestion, when you make your changes next in the holes here, you must do something to this here number thirteen."

Bob is somewhat surprised by this because he says then, "That somewhat surprises me, Harry.  Most of us have always thought that this hole was perhaps the strongest on the course.  There are not many par 5s to my knowledge which set up a finer strategic challenge for a golfer:  whether or not to try to carry the creek before the green on the second shot."

"Bob," I said to him, "now that is where you and I are horses of a different color.  This hole is weak because a power-hitter has got no advantage.  Take my case, I am getting home in 2 with a 6-iron or maybe a 7, but what good does that do me when the other guys can press a 3-wood and also get home?  Do you catch my drift?"

"Harry," Bob says, "who is making your equipment? Some company at Cape Canaveral?"

We both had a good laugh at that one....

Yours from the back markers,

Harry Sprague
Playing Professional
Otter Lake C.C.


Extremely witty writing.  Dan Jenkins w/o the profanity.

Mike