Golf Forums - TSG Book Club...

Dear TSGers,

Had a thought whilst driving along yesterday...

Now I'm not really much of a bookworm but I have a read a few golfing books over the years and I wondered what other TSGers would recommend if they were invited to share their reading habits with a wider audience?

Here's a couple of my favourites (both novels rather than instructional):

Final Rounds: An autobiographical title which examines the relationship between a father and son as it has been forged through shared golf over a lifetime. The book tells of the author's last trip with his terminally ill father to the Scottish links of St Andrews and Muirfield where he discovers the meaning of family against a background of golf lore and legend. click here

Miracle on the 17th Green: Travis McKinley is an ordinary man living an ordinary life - he has a job that he despises, a marriage that has lost its passion, children from whom he feels disconnected, and, at age fifty, a sense that he has accomplished nothing of consequence with his life. But on Christmas Day, he goes out to play a round of golf, and for the first time, he finds himself in the 'zone'. He sees the putting line that has eluded him for years. Always a fairly good golfer, he finds himself playing like a pro and is so caught up in his excitement that he continues to play, sinking putt after putt, missing Christmas dinner with his wife and family. click here


What's your favourite golfing book?

Happy Golfing!

Ian & The TSG Team

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And my nomination is by Quintin Jardine, 'Skinners Round' a detective novel, here's a the Amazon blurb:

A four-day tournament involving the world's leading golfers is being staged to mark the opening of a new country club created on the Marquis of Kinture's East Lothian estate. But on the previous Sunday afternoon, one of Kinture's business partners is found dead in his private jacuzzi in the clubhouse - with his throat cut. The next day an anonymous letter is received by the local newspaper, containing a fragment of a legendary witches' curse upon anyone who desecrates their place of worship. When a second murder occurs, this time by water, ACC Bob Skinner finds himself facing the most challenging case of his career...

Bought for me just after starting to play golf, because my mum thought it would be a good 'golfing book'

jb

 Being as I read anything and everything I have just ordered the Miracle on the 17th Green. So it better be good!!

My recommendation is Seve's autobiography. 

 Here's my recommendation (OK recommendation is a strong word)...

Abe Mitchell - Essentials of Golf, Edited and Arranged by J. Martin... My version was dedicated to some guy Samuel Ryder (then captain of Verulam Golf Club (St Albans) some years ago.

The content is somewhat prosaic and the imagery is sepia tone.. this is an old style golf book, from grip to green and beyond... I don't think I have seen a 'straight' sentence but it is beautifully written in 'olde English'.

It has the same effect on me that Lord of the Rings did (I only ever got to page 232 before falling into torpor).

I do admit that my version is missing one picture page (which is why my own game is incomplete)...

Best Golf read though, John Daly -Golf My Own Damn way...

3 favourites on the golfing mind:

Extraordinary Golf by Fred Shoemaker (The Art of the Possible).
Zen Golf by Dr Joseph Parent  (Mastering the Mental Game).
Your 15th Club by Dr Bob Rotella (The Inner Secret to Great Golf).


3 favourite Golf guide/instruction books:

On the Other Hand by Steve Anderson, the only book ever written for Left handed golfers.
The Women's Golf Handbook by Vivien Saunders (this if my "golf bible").
A Girl's On-Course Survival Guide to Golf by Christina Ricci. (Good to keep in the handbag)

and my very 1st golf book  (the little pink book of Golf):

Feeling Naked on the First Tee by Ann Kelly (A Must for any Women new to Golf)).


  May I borrow "Miracle on the 17th Green" please.

I'm currently reading Darren Clarke's autobiography, An Open Book.   Golf came to be his escape from the troubles in Northern Ireland during his early years.

A car had crashed close to where he lived ..... he vividly describes the wrecked car, marked by gunshot, one occupant with a bullet hole in his head and blood covering the interior of the car.  This wasn't a shock, though - just one more incident during those sad times.......It's surprising what you sometimes read in a 'golf' book.

I've read several others including Monty's Manor (Colin Montgomerie), My Journey to The Open (Padraig Harrington) and Heroes All, which is Darren Clarke's account of the 2006 Ryder Cup at The K Club.   Also numerous instruction books searching for that miracle tip (haven't we all)?

I have requested 'Miracle on The 17th Green'  from my local library ..... should a new feature of the TSG Monthly Newsletter be  'Book of The Month?  .

Hi All, If you a to busy to read the book ! Why not watch the Film (Miracle on the 17th Green - Young Robert Urich) I liked it :-}

Any discussion of books on these pages should also include Golf Against Cancer - Trevor Sandford's very readable account of his 'Month of Madness on The M25'.

.....well, he did play at courses many of us know quite well and several TSGers get a mention too!

 Finished Miracle on the 17th last night.

its more of a short story than a book though but still very hard to put down. I am a fan of James Patterson anyway.

I wish I had saved it for my frequent long and boring train journeys around the country. 

Thoroughly enjoyable and an easy read.

BRING ME THE HEAD OF SERGIO GARCIA by Tom Cox
It's about Tom's quest to become a golf pro. Very funny and well written.

The Phantom of the Open: Maurice Flitcroft, The World's Worst Golfer. By Scott Murray
The official book discription say's,

When 46-year-old crane driver and former comedy stunt-diver Maurice Flitcroft chanced his way into the Open - having never before played a round of golf in his life - he ran up a record-worst score of 121. The sport's ruling classes went nuclear, and banned him for life.

Maurice didn't take it lying down. In a hilarious game of cat-and-mouse with The Man, he entered tournaments again - and again, and again - using increasingly ludicrous pseudonyms such as Gene Pacecki, Arnold Palmtree and Count Manfred von Hoffmanstel (more often than not disguised by a Zapata moustache soaked in food dye).

In doing so, he sent the authorities into apoplexy, and won the hearts of hackers from Muirfield to Michigan, becoming arguably the most popular - but certainly the bravest - sporting underdog the world has ever known.

you will not be able to put this down once you start. And yes this is a true story, he even appeared on This Morning to show off his skills with a putter, even though he had none.

I read this on holiday by the pool, very hard not to laugh out loud at his antics.

I'm a bit of a book junkie and have read quite a few of those mentioned. Here are a couple of suggestions:

4 iron in the soul
Proper British sarcasm, capturing the misery and humour of golf really well. Follows an unuccessful pro and his caddy to lots of low profile 90s golf tournaments across Europe.

Golfing Mongolia
My kind of golf fanatic - this guy decided to treat a large Central Asian nation as a golf course, to the bemusement of locals. The 18 holes measure 2 million yards, from Choybalsan to Khovd.

Another recommendation here for Four Iron in the Soul, an insight into the life of the touring pro below the level of private jet, houses across the world and guaranteed entry to their choice of tournaments!

My favourites are: The Greatest Game Ever Played by Mark Frost, the story of the 1913 US Open, when Harry Vardon and Ted Ray travelled to the US and the game was about to fully take off over there.

If you enjoy books about great players, Frost followed up with The Match, the retelling of a bet between two businessmen (one of them Francis Ouimet's caddie from the 1913 US Open) who pit an amateur pairing of Harvie Ward (a US Amateur champion) and Ken Venturi (future Masters winner) against possibly the greatest professional pairing of all time, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, set at Cypress Point on the Monterrey peninsula.

Tommy's Honour, by Kevin Cook is a great biography of Tommy ('Young Tom') Morris, his father, Old Tom, St Andrews, Prestwick and The Open.

Favourite instructional book is On Learning Golf by Percy Boomer - some great ways of visualising concepts coupled with amusing stories of various aristocratic nutters he came across. Deserves to be in everyone's golf library!

Seve book an absolute must, Golfing in Mongolia, brilliant. John Daly's books, how to have it all...and lose it, fantastic books.