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While professional golf tournaments are traditionally held year round, it is not until Augusta National welcomes tour players to the Masters in early April, the first of the sport's four major professional championship events, that the attention level paid to golf begins to rise. In addition to its prestige, the Masters normally coincides with the coming of spring and the time when the majority of golfers in the United States begin another season on the links.
This year’s Masters also marked the 50th anniversary of golfing legend Arnold Palmer’s first major professional championship victory. Through his personality and hard-charging attitude towards the game and aided by the emerging medium of television, Palmer introduced countless sports fans to professional golf.
After Arnie came Jack Nicklaus and eventually Tiger Woods. The popularity of the game is at its all-time high, and despite this year's setback of a knee injury, Woods has two goals left to achieve on his golfing resume. He hopes to overcome Nicklaus as the all-time leader for victories in grand slam events, and he still maintains the hope that he will achieve the one-season grand slam --- Masters, U.S. Open, British Open and PGA --- a feat yet to be accomplished in professional golf. Without question, this would cement Tiger Woods's position as the greatest golfer ever.
The opening of the golf season each spring is also the time when publishers release a large crop of golf books, and 2008 is no exception. This year's selections fall into a wide range of interesting subjects, including instruction, biography, golf history, fiction and some that are difficult to categorize. These are outstanding titles for your personal reading or for that golfing acquaintance or relative who might be on your gift list.
 Arnold Palmer was the golfing hero of the game’s modern era. But his position as king of the game was soon challenged and ultimately usurped by Jack Nicklaus. In the early years of their rivalry, Nicklaus was the villain to the followers of Arnie’s Army. Nicklaus was not a fan favorite and seemed to do little to curry favor with the legions of Palmer supporters. ARNIE & JACK: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry by Ian O’Connor is the story of the rivalry between Nicklaus and Palmer, and the tenuous friendship that has grown between the two over the years.
O’Connor provides readers with an interesting biography of both players. By that mechanism, he shows the contrast between the two men and how it served to exemplify the rivalry played out at major championships during the ’60s. Palmer was the everyman golfer who learned the game from his greenskeeper father. His swing was slashing and attacking. He never played safe and always looked like he would be the man sitting next to you in the tavern. Nicklaus was full country club and received lessons starting at a young age. He was the technician and the tactician who developed a strategy for victory.
Nicklaus was by far the better golfer, but he never achieved the love that fans bestowed upon Palmer. Even when Nicklaus shed 40 pounds and grew his hair to a trendy length, Palmer was still the golfer’s favorite. ARNIE & JACK expands upon the relationship between the players and details how the rivalry grew into a respectful friendship. But even today, as the two men are golf’s iconic legends, there are still scars from their early battles. Those who recall those years and some of the head-to-head struggles will enjoy this biography.
 The television era of golf owed a substantial portion of its success to celebrities who often lent their names and presence to professional golf tournaments. Bing Crosby and Bob Hope are just two examples whose names have remained a part of the PGA Tour for decades. Many Hollywood golfers were drawn to the sport during the 1930s when it was limited to the higher economic classes of America. In that era most golf was played at private country clubs, and the allure of the game often manifested itself in celebrity exhibitions where well-known professional and amateur golfers might team with well-known celebrities. The golf hustler also became a staple of that era because a player could win more in private bets than he could on the professional tour. THE MYSTERIOUS MONTAGUE: A True Tale of Hollywood, Golf, and Armed Robbery by Leigh Montville is not only a vivid and entertaining portrayal of that era, it also adds the spice of a real-life crime saga to its narration.
John Montague was a mysterious fellow who appeared in California in the 1930s and soon endeared himself to many of the Hollywood luminaries. He was a unique individual; not only did he play a great game, he once played Bing Crosby in a round of golf using only a rake, shovel and bat. Readers can only speculate on the amount of money that changed hands as a result of that match. Montague fit right in with the Hollywood crowd. For a while he lived with Oliver Hardy; he would entertain Hardy and his friends by lifting the actor with one hand onto the bar of the Lakeside Golf Club.
Montague zealously guarded his privacy. His friends discovered why when a news photographer took a picture of the golfer and he was recognized by New York authorities as a fugitive wanted for armed robbery in New York State. His celebrity friends supported him against the allegations. Montville superbly recounts the details of Montague’s trial, and readers may well be reminded of other examples of celebrity justice. While THE MYSTERIOUS MONTAGUE may not be as much of a golf book as readers might expect, it is nonetheless an accurate and enjoyable portrait of America in the 1930s.
 The expanding popularity of golf throughout the years has created an increasing market for those who prefer fiction. Much of recent golf fiction follows a standard formula. Novels are generally set in the period between or shortly after the World Wars and feature golfing legends such as Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan and Walter Hagen. The books usually evoke memories of golf before big money and its influence changed the game. THE CADDIE WHO PLAYED WITH HICKORY by John Coyne follows that formula but adds a few new twists that readers will find charming and appealing.
The title character of Coyne’s novel is a young man named Tommy O’Shea, who works as a caddie at Midlothian Country Club near Chicago, Illinois. The Club is preparing for an exhibition by the golfing great Walter Hagen, whose appearance will commemorate his victory in the 1914 U.S. Open held at the Club. O’Shea is the best caddie at Midlothian and is hopeful that he will have the opportunity to carry Hagen’s bag on that auspicious day. But the story soon takes some interesting twists. One is the appearance of Harrison Cornella, a mysterious fellow who knew Hagen years ago. Second is the news that Hagen will play with the hickory shaft clubs he used to win the Open in 1914. Modern golfers can only attempt to comprehend what it was like to play with hickory shafts, which required superb timing and left little room for error. Today’s forgiving golf clubs and golf balls make the game far easier for those lacking good hand-eye coordination.
Along the way, mystery, romance and some very good golf writing make this an enjoyable tale. In addition, Coyne will probably introduce many readers to the legendary Charles “Chick” Evans, a golfing luminary who many may not know. Evans was the first American golfer to win the U.S. Open and U.S. Amateur in one year. Many Chicagoans will recognize the Evans name from college scholarships established by him for caddies in the Chicago area. The fictional Evans appears in THE CADDIE WHO PLAYED WITH HICKORY at a critical moment in the novel. Readers may well enjoy learning about a golfing legend whose career was overshadowed by many with far lesser accomplishments on the links.
 No discussion of golf books for the summer would be complete without an instruction book. THE PICTURE-PERFECT GOLF SWING: The Complete Guide to Golf Swing Video Analysis by Michael Breed is a truly unique effort in golf instruction. Modern technology and equipment have advanced not only the way we play golf, it has added incredible dimensions to how it is taught to the thousands of golfers at all skill levels. Immediately after Bobby Jones won his Grand Slam of Golf, he traveled to California and appeared in a series of golf instructional movies (which can still be purchased and are shown regularly on The Golf Channel). The years have diminished their value in teaching some aspects of the game, though they still offer important insights on basic golf fundamentals. But as a teaching mechanism, they are well outmoded. Today there are golf schools and teaching professionals across the land using modern machines that measure swing velocity, impact point, moment of inertia and countless other helpful pieces of information. I doubt that any teaching pro would be without a video camera to show students how they look as they swing the club.
THE PICTURE PERFECT GOLF SWING does two interesting things. First it shows how to film a swing. There is more to it than turning on the camera and recording. The camera’s location for both a down-the-line view and a face-on view are discussed, as is equipment. The book then goes on to help you with analysis of your swing and has many suggested drills for specific swing problems. There is much that can be learned here, and indeed some basic fundamentals can be addressed even without using a camera. But the purpose of this title is to allow golfers to actually see what their swing looks like and then to correct the flaws they observe. Patience is required and outside help also may be useful, but many committed and passionate golfers will find value in this worthy instructional guide.
 Ultimately the best way to improve your golf game is to work on the piece of equipment between your ears: your brain. Anyone who has ever watched golf knows there are few perfect swings. Indeed, on a Sunday afternoon watching the professionals, you see some swings that look worse than the ones you regularly observe at your home course during your weekend round. But professional golfers have a far better mental approach to the game. I have often observed that if I committed the same type of mental errors in my professional life as I do on the golf course, I would probably be out of a job. That observation applies as well to my golfing friends. Most amateur golfers cost themselves countless strokes by sheer stupidity and by failing to mentally adapt to conditions and events on the golf course.
Dr. Bob Rotella, a sports psychologist, has written extensively on the mental side of the game of golf. More telling perhaps are the legions of golf professionals who consult with Rotella on a regular basis. In his latest book, YOUR 15th CLUB: The Inner Secret to Great Golf, Rotella shares some of the important mental concepts that can be used by all golfers to improve their game. Through stories and anecdotes of tour players, Rotella seeks to move golfers beyond important concepts he introduced in some of his earlier books. Success on the golf course requires you to overcome the negative images created by past failures. Bad mental habits are as difficult to overcome as bad physical habits. Rotella offers insights into watching golf on television in order to learn --- watch from the eyes of a pro, not from the eyes of the announcer --- and offers tips on effective practice. Finally he suggests basic thoughts for confident golfers. Perhaps most telling about the book is that one promotional blurb on the jacket is from professional golfer Trevor Immelman, who apparently put Rotella’s teaching to good use this past April as he won his first major championship at The Masters.
 Curt Sampson is one of America’s greatest golf writers. In addition to his regular contributions to Sports Illustrated, he is the author of several books that should be included on any top ten list of golf books. In time for Father’s Day, he has written GOLF DADS: Fathers, Sons and the Greatest Game. One of the allures of golf is that fathers may play the game with their children. Sampson opens his narrative with reminiscences about golfing life with his own father. Along the way he covers well-known golfing fathers and sons, some lesser known, and father/daughter relationships. Not all of these relationships are idyllic, and indeed one --- the relationship between Byung Wook and Michelle Wie --- may have been downright destructive. GOLF DADS is one of those simple yet elegant books, touching in many ways, and would make the perfect gift for a father to his child or for child to father. Anyone who has ever had the joy of a round of golf with a parent will appreciate this slim but wonderful piece of writing.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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