Christmas is not just about mince pies and mistletoe, decorated trees and carols. It is also a time for books – to give them and to read them. Here are some that Global Golf Post received this year:
“Feherty: The Remarkable Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf’s David Feherty,” by John Feinstein (Hachette Books): An endlessly curious, restless author has written more than 30 books. His best-known one about golf, “A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour,” is among the best-selling non-instructional sports books of all time. This one is about David Feherty, the Northern Irishman now an American citizen, described by Feinstein as one of the most beloved people in golf who has an uncanny ability to make other people happy while not being happy himself. Feinstein was mentored on The Washington Post staff by Bob Woodward of Watergate fame. “Bob taught me always to ask one more question and that when you are interviewing someone you need to ask their business, not yours.” Thus from Feinstein’s reporting, which deserves to be described with a more powerful word than thorough, we learn just about everything about Feherty’s golf career, his failed first marriage, his struggles with alcoholism, his career as a golf commentator, his TV show “Feherty” and his move to LIV Golf’s broadcast booth. People don’t just like Feherty; they love him. While telling you an awful lot of other things about Feherty as well, this book tells you why.
“A Partridge on a Par Three: The Unexpurgated Letters of Mortimer Merriweather,” by Clive Agran (self-published): In an exchange of letters from an imaginary character named Mortimer Merriweather to some famous personalities, Agran delivers as one of golf’s funniest writers in an offering that is well up to scratch.
“The Great English Golf Boom 1864-1914: A History,” by Michael Morrison (self-published): This is an authoritative and scholarly work by one of the game’s real historians. If you want to know anything, anything at all, about the boom in golf course construction in England, this is where to start. History seeps out of its pages.
“Golf’s Most Astonishing Round: The Story of Ernie Foord, Somerset’s Unsung Genius of Golf,” by Anthony Gibson (Charlcombe Books): In 1912, Foord went ’round Burnham and Berrow’s doughty links in 73 using only a putter, a feat described by Bernard Darwin, the golf correspondent at London’s Times newspaper, as “a truly astonishing score.” Foord emigrated to the U.S. where as head professional at Oakland Hills he oversaw the 1924 U.S. Open.
“The Ball in the Air: A Golfing Adventure,” by Michael Bamberger (Avid Reader Press): The work is described as “Bamberger’s valentine to golf,” and how true. We should all be lucky enough to receive valentines as pleasurable as this one.
“More Than a Game: A History of How Sport Made Britain,” by David Horspool (John Murray): This sweeping look at all British sport includes a bracing analysis of golf’s early years that challenges cozy notions of Britain’s linksland being a “wilderness waiting to be put to use.” Rather, the author suggests, newly-formed clubs often ran roughshod over commoners’ rights to that very land (and the fact it was already a hive of activity). Many will be taken aback by this contrary view, but it’s actually rather invigorating. Noting the current (and future) threat of coastal erosion, Horspool concludes: “The perennial struggle for golfers over their hundred acres of land has undoubtedly entered a new phase.”
John Hopkins and Matt Cooper