Favorite golf related books?

I read quite a bit and these days it seems I seldom read anything that is not at least golf related. What are your favorite books? I break mine down into fiction, non-fiction and instructional.

In category of fiction, I think it can only be Dan Jenkin's book "Dead Solid Perfect." It's about as entertaining as any book I've ever read, golf related or not. I have not read any of his other books yet but I do have a couple of them in my stack waiting.

For non-fiction, I have several I really like. I recently read John Feinstein's "Caddy for Life" and loved it. Tom Watson has been my favorite golfer since I was a kid and this book is great. I love all of Feinstein's golf books (A Good Walk Spoiled, The Majors, Open and Tales from Q School - though I haven't read this last one yet). My second favorite from him so far is probably "Open" about the US Open at Beth Page Black.

Also in non-fiction, I really enjoyed "Golf in the Kingdom" by Michael Murphy. The way it combines golf and existential philosophy is great. I am currently reading the follow-up (written around 25 years later) called "In the Kingdom of Shivas Irons", which is also good and so far is keeping me very interested.

I could list a bunch of non-fiction books that I like, but I'll let others do that for me. One lesser known book I really enjoyed is "Blue Fairways" by Charles Slack. It's a book about the author's road trip down entire east coast playing golf.

For instructional books, I think my favorite is probably either "Harvey Penick's Little Read Book" or Hogan's "5 Lessons...". I am also a big fan of Stan Utley's "Art of the Short Game". I read less instructional books than the others simply because each one seems to have a completely different theory and it can get confusing. That's the good thing about Penick's book especially and Hogan's book as well. The concepts are simple and basic and do not conflict too much with other theories.

Some of my favotites are:

The Greatest Game Ever Played
Dew Sweepers
Final Rounds
In Tommy's Honor

For Golf Course Related :

Emerald Gems
Where Golf Is Great
Emerald Fairways and Foam Flecked Seas

Carl Hiaasen's The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport is a great read, at least to me. If you have ever read any of his other books, it will not be a surprise that he comes off as incredibly neurotic and obsessive. Just know, it's not fiction. As the description clearly states (contrary to what a number of obviously clueless people claim in Amazon review), it is personal stories from his return to golf after years away.

It's fun. That pretty well sums it up.

Golf in the Kingdom---Michael Murphy
Practical Golf---John Jacobs
Getting up and down---Tom Watson

Those are my top three. There are so many others that I have read, but I always go back to those three.

I'll check that out. Love Hiaasen!

Sick Puppy is an all-time fave!

Author - John Feinstein "The Open" about Bethpage Black
Author - Mark Frost - "The Match", "Greatest Game Ever Played"

Falling somewhere between Non-Fiction and Instructional.............. Bob Rotella's works, specifically "Golf Is Not A Game of Perfect" and "Putting Out of Your Mind", are well worth a read. JMO, but I think both should be considered musts for low and mid handicappers.

Personally I'm a non-fiction reader. At least when it comes to golf. I just don't think the game is interesting enough to read about some fictional player or situation. That being said I saw

Bagger Vance and thought that was very touching. But not really a subject I could sit down and read. As far as non-fiction goes I'll read any golfer's autobiography or instructional book I can get my hands on, granted I am a fan of that player. I've read Byron Nelson's, Arnold Palmer's and am reading Seve's autobiographies now. Have read Ben Hogan by James Dodson (biography). Along with Five Lessons and Power Golf by Hogan. I got the Payne Stewart biography, and The Bobby Jones Story , Win and Win Again by Curtis Strange, Tom Watson's Strategic Golf , The Elements of Scoring by Ray Floyd, Five Days to Golfing Excellence by Chuck Hogan (recommended to my by Duffy Waldorf, a member at my club) all for Christmas this year. And have read Deepak Chopra's Golf For Enlightenment and the two books below from Bob Rotella. Funny thing is, I never read a single book all through school. Couldn't stomach it. Now I find it very pleasurable. Age changes people in the weirdest ways.

I've read

Golf is A Game of Confidence and Putting Out of Your Mind . And you're right, good stuff.

A book called dream golf was a good read for me. Its about the making of Bandon Dunes.

I'm almost finished reading Eddie Merrins "playing a round with the little pro",its my first golf book to read aside from magazines and i am really enjoying it.I will be on the lookout for some other golf related books now.