Non-Instructional Golf Books

[sirhacksalot]

So i was going to start a new topic and then saw this one so i will paste what i had written below

I just ordered

Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry

O'Connor, Ian

from amazon after reading a lil of the preview.  This got me thinking that I have several golf instructional books, but I have few if any (there's probably a copy of "the legend of bagger vance" somewhere) non-instructional books.  

I need/want to read more and I feel like I am too invested in the instructional/positional/mechanical side of golf at the moment.  I would like to become more so invested in the outdoorsy/artful/peaceful/this is what you're doing for "fun" you big dummy side of it.

So what are your favorite non instructional golf book?

 

[krupa]

2 hours ago, sirhacksalot said:

 

So what are your favorite non instructional golf book?

 

The Grand Slam by Mark Frost is a good biography of Bobby Jones.

The Match also by Mark Frost is also good.  It's about Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson playing against  the amateurs Ken Venturi and Harvie Ward.  It's basically biographies of the 4 men with "the match" being a focal point.

Anything by John Feinstein.  I just finished Tales from Q School last night.   (non golf related, but if you like baseball, I highly recommend "Where Nobody Knows Your Name" by Feinstein.)

[imsys0042]

Am through the first few chapters of "A Tight Lie" by Don Dahler.  Very witty and wry writing.  Lot of humor, darker humor, but he seems to write distinctive and descriptive characters.   Looking forward to reading it this week.   Recommended from me.

[imsys0042]

Now reading Missing Links by Rick Rielly.   Very funny book with very funny characters.   They are over the top, but probably half of them will be extreme versions of people you know.  

[Runnin]

Hi everyone.  First post.

I've recently finished The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield, one of my favorite writers.  Much better than the movie.  The descriptions of Walter Hagen and Bobby Jones alone make the book worth the read.  Pressfield tells a good stroy and really does his research.  And it's laced with plenty of old school golf wisdom from the caddie Baggar Vance, a variation of Bhagavan, a name for Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

[iacas]

33 minutes ago, Runnin said:

Baggar Vance, a variation of Bhagavan, a name for Lord Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita.

I learned something new today.

[mcanadiens]

On 8/25/2016 at 10:13 AM, imsys0042 said:

Now reading Missing Links by Rick Rielly.   Very funny book with very funny characters.   They are over the top, but probably half of them will be extreme versions of people you know.  

I read that on vacation a couple years ago and liked it. Just the right kind of light reading to make a nine-hour drive to OBX go a bit faster. 

[MarvChamp]

Bobby Jones, Down the Fairway and the Bobby Jones Story by O.B. Keeler.  A fascinating look at golf in America and all the old, great names. -Marv

[Piz]

7 minutes ago, MarvChamp said:

Bobby Jones, Down the Fairway and the Bobby Jones Story by O.B. Keeler.  A fascinating look at golf in America and all the old, great names. -Marv

I would add Bobby Jones on Golf to the list.  As remote as the era is; the book is more a philosophical treatise than it is a golf instructional.  I will also recommend A Season in Dornoch.

[4right]

'The Forbidden Game' by Dan Washburn

My father-in-law recommended this book to me because the author is a distant relative. I started reading it and couldn't put it down. It shows how golf effected the lives of the Chinese as it proliferated China. Dan was and probably still is a writer for Sports Illustrated. He was sent to China to cover Tiger playing he first event there. He ventured off of the course and into a near by village and that's where the real story began. He follow the lives of these real people, villagers, course construction workers, and up and coming Chinese .....never before, Golf Pros. Did I mention that Golf is illegal in China!

The book follows the lives of a number of people and spans over 15 years. Great book. Well written. Memorable.     

[xrayvizhen]

Here's my list of non-instructional books in my library, most of them given to me by friends/relatives who think, just because it's about golf, I'll like it. I've got three winners here as well as two to avoid.

Maybe It Should Have Been a Three-Iron by Lawrence Donegan. The author spent a year on tour as the caddie for the 438th best golfer in the world, dealing with his trials and tribulations trying make a living playing tournament golf. Funny as well as poignant at times. Shows the ins & outs of caddying as well as the difficult times the guys way down at the bottom of the leader board have. Highly recommended.

Considerable Passions by Catherine Lewis. This is mostly a coffee table book showing old photos of Bobby Jones with a little bit of story about the creation of Augusta National. Don't buy it. It's not even worthwhile taking it out of the library if it's there, unless you're totally into everything related to Bobby Jones.

Quantum Golf by Kjell Enhagen. A lot of mystical crap about an unsympathetic rich slob who makes a pilgrimage to locate a hermit-like Hogan-esque instructor. It's only 118 pages but reads like War & Peace. On the cover, Jerry Pate is quoted; "An entertaining gem." I don't know how much he was paid to say that.

Arnie & Jack by Ian O'Connor. An excellent book describing the rise of first Palmer, then Nicklaus, their rivalry and eventual life-long friendship and the impact of both on the explosive growth of the game. O'Connor is a terrific writer and the book contains a lot of fascinating previously unknown tidbits about each.

The Match by Mark Frost. This is the same author as The Greatest Game Ever Played. Mini-bios of Ken Venturi, Harvie Ward (whom I had never heard of before reading this), Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan interspersed within a shot by shot description of a little known high-stakes best ball match between the two best amateur golfers in the world vs. the two best pros. A little sappy at times but all-in-all an excellent read.

 

[BallStriker]

On 1/6/2018 at 9:28 AM, xrayvizhen said:

Maybe It Should Have Been a Three-Iron by Lawrence Donegan. The author spent a year on tour as the caddie for the 438th best golfer in the world, dealing with his trials and tribulations trying make a living playing tournament golf. Funny as well as poignant at times. Shows the ins & outs of caddying as well as the difficult times the guys way down at the bottom of the leader board have. Highly recommended.

 

 

Thanks for the recommendation here, as I am on vacation and needed a great read -- these kind of books that are about the day to day life on tour are great -- like this one especially given the focus is the Euro PGA tour -- I would definitely also recommend

[NM Bruce]

David Feherty's novel A Nasty bit Of Rough is a fun read.

[saevel25]

I am currently listening to Range - Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein. 

The book is about how hyper specialization does not actually correlate to an advantage over someone who has a more generalized skill set. 

 The areas of learning music and sports is hit on heavily due to the assumption that you need to start them early on one instrument/sport to make them succeed. 

Example, they have found that the most successful students of music are those who learned 3-4 instruments growing up, not focused into one. Also, with athletes, multi-sports athletes tend to perform better than those who are focused in one area. I remember Urban Meyer saying he goes after kids who were multi-sport athletes to play at Ohio State.  

So far an interesting book. 

 

 

[birdie seeker]

The Feeling of Greatness; The Moe Norman Story by Tim O'Connor

[Bucki1968]

I think "The Match" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance" are my two favorite non-fiction golf books. Although "The Match" really isn't fiction. I also really like a couple of James Dodson's books although those are really not fiction. "Son of the Game" is good as well as "A Golfers Life", "Range Bucket List", and "Dewsweepers".  

[CNM]

I love Golf for Enlightment, by Deepak Chopra.