10 golf books that should be in your bag
Golf is in the air, with the PGA Championship settling in for the week at Harding Park, another reminder that San Francisco has some of the finest courses in the world. With that in mind, here are 10 recommended books to help sustain the mood: “Jenkins at the Majors” (2010): Nobody ever wrote golf like the late Dan Jenkins, legendary for his work at Sports Illustrated and calling upon 60 years of intimate connections with players and courses. (His final tally of majors covered: 231.) Funny, irreverent and a scratch golfer himself with a keen eye for character, Jenkins offers some of his best work in this collection.
And when you’re done, go straight to Jenkins’ other golf books: “Dead Solid Perfect,” “Slim and None,” “The Dogged Victims of Inexorable Fate,” “His Ownself,” “The Franchise Babe,” “Fairways and Greens” and “Unplayable Lies.” It’s one thing to be prolific, but quite another to hit the long ball every time. “Arnie and Jack” (Ian O’Connor, 2009): A smart, gifted writer exploring the majesty of the Arnold PalmerJack Nicklaus rivalry. Palmer singlehandedly lifted golf into the national consciousness in the 1960s, and when Nicklaus began perfecting his game — well, there hasn’t been anything like it to this day. “Hogan” (Curt Sampson, 1997): Fellow players got the chills trying to explain the Hogan mystique, realizing there was so much more to know than his icy, clinical, oftenunbeatable approach to the game. This is a man who won six U.S. Opens, three of them following an auto accident that nearly killed him. Riveting stuff. “The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever” (Mark Frost, 2007): In 1956, a fourball match was arranged pitting two of the professional greats, Hogan and Byron Nelson, against the two best amateurs in the world, San Franciscoraised Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward, who became enamored with Bay Area courses and still holds the course record of 63 at San Francisco Golf Club. Over 18 holes, the four men produced 27 birdies and an eagle — but the storytelling is the real treasure. While you’re at it, don’t miss Frost’s “The
Greatest Game Ever Played,” about an entirely different era. “The Story of American Golf ” (Herbert Warren Wind, first published in 1948, updated several times): A golfing encyclopedia at the hands of a poet laureate. A chance to learn a great deal about the game’s history and savor the sweetness of literacy in one place. Cheers to Art Spander, himself a great golf writer, for recommending this one. “A Good Walk Spoiled” (John Feinstein, 1996): Tireless in his pursuit of telling the real story behind sporting endeavors, Feinstein delivers here with what some described as the most honest, endearing book ever written about the PGA Tour. “One week you’ve discovered the secret to the game,” Feinstein writes. “The next week, you never want to play again.” “Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias” (Don Van Natta, 2011): She’s probably the greatest female athlete who ever lived, and not nearly enough is known about Didrikson, who founded the LPGA Tour. Here a renowned investigative reporter explores the entire fascinating story. In a 2011 book review for the L.A. Times, Mike Downey wrote that as much as he admired the majesty of Jackie JoynerKersee, Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova, the Williams sisters, Florence GriffithJoyner, Janet Evans and Annika Sorenstam, “This woman was all of them rolled into one.” “Golf in the Kingdom” (Michael Murphy, 1971): From his days at Stanford to a spell in Big Sur to residence in Mill Valley, Murphy is a local treasure who hobnobbed with the greats of literature and felt quite at home. This novel is a mythical, whiskeyinspired account of a place Murphy called Burningbush, in Scotland, and a very memorable round of golf. To call it “inspired” is putting it mildly. Author John Updike called it “the best book on the sport in the 20th century.” “Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book” (1992): Penick coached golf with a master’s touch, but it was his understanding of the mental game that drew him to many of the game’s luminaries, including Ben Crenshaw, who served as a pallbearer at Penick’s 1995 funeral and teed off at the Masters’ first round the following day — a prelude to his winning the tournament. It’s a rare golfing library that finds this book absent. “The Golf Omnibus” (P.G. Wodehouse, 1990): Colleague Scott Ostler told me this list wouldn’t be complete without Wodehouse, and here’s a collection of charming short stories from the English author known as one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. Absolutely terrific. Nice call, Scott.