OPEN: INSIDE THE ROPES AT BETHPAGE BLACK is a joy to read for anyone who has ever attended a golf event or even watched one on television. After reading what goes on outside the ropes, the actual play inside the ropes takes on an entirely new meaning.

Feinstein returns to the 2008 U.S. Open held at Torrey Pines in ARE YOU KIDDING ME?: The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle with Tiger Woods at the U.S. Open, an aptly titled saga of another major golf championship that leaves fans shaking their heads in amazement and incredulity. Had Feinstein written a novel instead of a factual narrative of the Open, most readers would have sloughed the book off as being impossible to believe. Instead, Feinstein reminds us all that in the world of sports, anything can, and often does, happen.

Along with the Masters, PGA and British Open, the U.S. Open is one of four major golf championships held annually. No writer has covered more of these tournaments in the modern era of sports reporting than Dan Jenkins. Writing for Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest, The Fort Worth Press  and The Dallas Times Herald,  Jenkins has covered nearly 200 major championships. In JENKINS AT THE MAJORS: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger, the author has chosen a sampling of his various writings for each decade beginning with the ’50s and continuing into a new century.

In FINAL ROUNDS, published in 1997, then-Golf Digest columnist James Dodson chronicled a golf trip to Scotland with his dying father. He later authored an outstanding biography of golfer Ben Hogan, BEN HOGAN: An American Life. He returns to the father-son relationship in A SON OF THE GAME: A Story of Golf, Going Home, and Sharing Life's Lessons, but now the relationship is viewed from a different perspective. Dodson is the father and through Jack, his teenage son, he hopes to reignite his passion for golf.

Think for a moment about Italy. Some may think of food, others of wine, and still others of beautiful churches and ancient culture. But very few will think of golf. In 2007, Roland Merullo, an avid golfer, decided to summer in Italy. Along with his wife and two young daughters, he brought his golf clubs to his rented villa near the shore of Lake Como. The result is THE ITALIAN SUMMER: Golf, Food, and Family at Lake Como, an exquisite adventure that makes me wish I had brought my golf clubs on my past visits to Italy.