The Majors

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0316378054
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 534

Book Description
WHAT DOES IT TAKE to win a major championship and reach the absolute pinnacle of golf? Through a season of the four tournaments -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship -- known collectively as the majors, John Feinstein takes us where the television cameras never go, both off the links and "inside the ropes", as he reveals the special challenges and rituals, the frustrations and exhilaration, that mark the lives and careers of the world's greatest golfers.

Historical Dictionary of Golf

Author: Bill Mallon
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 0810874652
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 865

Book Description
Golf has been called the greatest of all games, but it has also been derided by none other than Mark Twain as nothing more than a good walk spoiled. Traditional teaching holds that golf originated in Scotland around the 15th century. However, there is historical evidence of games similar to golf being played in the low countries of Europe back in the 13th century. Over the many centuries of golf's evolution, the balls used have changed greatly, as have the clubs, the holes, the courses, and the entire game itself. The Historical Dictionary of Golf presents a comprehensive history of the game through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, photos, and over 300 cross-referenced dictionary entries on places, teams, terminology, and people, including Arnold Palmer, Greg Norman, Lee Trevino, Jack Nicklaus, Annika Sörenstam, Lorena Ochoa, Phil Mickelson, and, of course, Tiger Woods. Appendixes of the members of the World Golf Hall of Fame, the Major Championships of Golf, the International Team Events, and the Professional Tour Awards are also included.

Open

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0759527954
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
Tiger Woods has called the U.S. Open "the most difficult national championship." With Open, John Feinstein goes behind the scenes to tell for the first time the full story of how the 2002 U.S. Open Championship came into being-how a public course was transformed into one of the most difficult and surprising in the tournament's history, and how the greatest golfers in the world rose to its almost insurmountable challenges. The Black course at the public golf club in Bethpage, New York, has long had a mythic status among golfers. Designed by legendary course architect A. W. Tillinghast in 1936, it is known as a work of genius-with long fairways, gorgeous vistas, and roughs and bunkers that stymie all but the very best golfers. It is a course where any player can compete, but its cult reputation means that golfers often have to camp overnight in the parking lot to get a tee time the next day. The 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black was the first time in history that golf's greatest championship had been held at a true public course. Open is the full drama of that championship, from the moment that officials first considered holding it there until the last putt rolled in at dusk on Sunday. Along the way, John Feinstein reveals the full glory of golf as it's never been explored before. He digs deep to find out what it really takes to make golf's most famous event worthy of the champions who compete in it. He tells the remarkable story of the artisans who transformed the Black from a downtrodden and rough-around-the-edges public course to one that top pros hailed as "unbelievable" and "the toughest par-70 I've ever played in my life." He also tracks the drama of the masters who battled for supremacy at the Black-Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Maggert-to show how true champions respond to the toughest conditions. Open is the story of people who devote their entire lives to golf, both behind the scenes and inside the ropes. Their struggles and exhilarations as they master the monster known as Bethpage Black make for a story every golf lover will want to read again and again.

The Majors

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780316852074
Category : Golf
Languages : en
Pages : 480

Book Description
John Feinstein returns to his most popular subject - golf - and brings us the story behind 1998's most competitive, lucrative, and unfailingly dramatic contests. Each of the four major gold tournaments - the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA - has its own personality, level of competition, and drama. Here, John Feinstein follows such top stars as Mark O'Meara, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Fred Couples, and David Duval - together with lesser-known contenders - through the four tournaments. Readers are treated to a behind-the-scenes look at how big-name players orchestrate their seasons to be at peak form for these intense events. At the same time, Feinstein gives us the history and lore of the tournaments, showing how they became and remain the Majors. THE MAJORS sees Feinstein taking the themes of A GOOD WALK SPOILED to an even higher and more dramatic level; a great gift and another huge bestseller.

The Legends Club

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Anchor
ISBN: 0804173176
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 514

Book Description
On March 18, 1980, the Duke basketball program announced the hiring of Mike Krzyzewski, the man who would restore glory to the team. The only problem: no one knew who Krzyzewski was. Nine days later, Jim Valvano was hired by North Carolina State to be their new head coach. The hiring didn't raise as many eyebrows, but the two new coaches had a similar goal: to unseat North Carolina's Dean Smith as the king of college basketball. And just like that, the most sensational competitive decade in history was about to unfold. In the skillful hands of John Feinstein, The Legends Club captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition. Feinstein pulls back the curtain on the recruiting wars, the intensely personal competition that wasn't always friendly, the enormous pressure and national stakes, and the battle for the very soul of college basketball.

Tales from Q School

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0316005584
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 222

Book Description
From the author of Raise a Fist, Take a Knee and A Good Walk Spoiled, this "must-read" national bestseller takes you inside the dramatic world of the highest-pressure golf tournament in the world (Tampa Tribune). It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying for the 30 slots available. The grim reality: If you don't make it through Q school, you're not on the PGA tour. You're out. And those who make it to the six-day finals are the lucky ones: hundreds more players fail to get through the equally grueling first two stages of the event. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. With arresting accounts from the players, established winners, rising stars, the defeated, and the endlessly hopeful, America's favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour's brutal all-or-nothing competition.

Sarazen

Author: David Sowell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442265566
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 213

Book Description
Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods won their first majors at the age of 21. Jack Nicklaus and Jordan Spieth claimed their first majors at the age of 22. By the time he was 21, Gene Sarazen had won three. Considered one of the top golfers in the 1920s and ’30s, he is one of only a handful of golfers to win all the major championships—the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship, the Open Championship, and the Masters Tournament. Sarazen: The Story of a Golfing Legend and His Epic Moment details Sarazen’s life and storied career, from his days sweeping floors in a pro shop through his rise in the golfing world to become one of the country’s foremost players. Central to the story is Sarazen’s iconic moment in the sport, a long shot from 235 yards that somehow found the bottom of the cup at Augusta National—perhaps fitting for a man whose golfing career was once considered a long shot itself. It became the greatest shot in golf history and put the Augusta National Golf Club on the map. Sarazen offers an in-depth look at a golfing legend and provides a fascinating glimpse into the world of golf during a time when the game was still rising in prominence. Rich in detail and including many little-known anecdotes, this book will be enjoyed by golfing enthusiasts and historians across generations.

The Punch

Author: John Feinstein
Publisher: Little, Brown
ISBN: 0759527385
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 266

Book Description
When an on-court fight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the LA Lakers just before Christmas 1977, Rudy Tomjanovitch raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington's fist. This is the story of how one punch changed two lives, the NBA and how we think about basketball, forever.

Modern American Lives

Author: Blaine T. Browne
Publisher: M.E. Sharpe
ISBN: 0765629100
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
The individuals presented in these narrative biographies significantly, and sometimes decisively, impacted contemporary American life in a wide range of areas, including national politics, foreign policy, social and political activism, popular and literary culture, sports, and business. The combined biographical/thematic approach is designed to serve two purposes: to present more substantive biographical information, and to offer a fuller examination of key events and issues. The book is an ideal supplement for undergraduate courses on The United States Since 1945, as well as for courses on Modern America and 20th Century America.

Golf's Holy War

Author: Brett Cyrgalis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 147670760X
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
The world of golf is at a crossroads. As technological innovations displace traditional philosophies, the golfing community has splintered into two deeply combative factions: the old-school teachers and players who believe in feel, artistry, and imagination, and the technical minded who want to remake the game around data. In Golf's Holy War, Brett Cyrgalis takes readers inside the heated battle playing out from weekend hackers to PGA Tour pros. At the Titleist Performance Institute in Oceanside, California, golfers clad in full-body sensors target weaknesses in their biomechanics, while others take part in mental exercises designed to test their brain's psychological resilience. Meanwhile, coaches like Michael Hebron purge golfers of all technical information, tapping into the power of intuitive physical learning by playing rudimentary games. From historic St. Andrews to manicured Augusta, experimental communes in California to corporatized conferences in Orlando, William James to Ben Hogan to theoretical physics, the factions of the spiritual and technical push to redefine the boundaries of the game.