Golf

How I Play Golf

No athlete has changed his sport the way Tiger Woods has transformed the world of golf. The Tiger phenomenon has created a new legion of golfers, seduced by Woods's almost effortless mastery of this most difficult game. In How I Play Golf Woods reveals the many facets of his game and offers a plethora of tips and advice aimed at all levels of play. Unlike most golf guides, and perhaps somewhat surprising from a player best known for his long game, How I Play Golf begins with the short game--putting, chipping, and pitching--before moving onto swing mechanics and hitting off the tee. Produced in conjunction with the editors of Golf Digest, the book is lavishly photographed and illustrated and offers a gold mine of useful ideas and mental images Tiger has collected over the years. Throughout, Tiger recounts memorable shots from his relatively brief career; for example, his only "perfect" shot (a 3-wood on No. 14 at St. Andrews) and his first putt at the 1995 Masters (a 20-footer for birdie on No. 1 that missed and rolled off the green). How I Play Golf is not only a first-rate instructional guide, it also communicates a passion and respect for the game that beginners, hackers, and low handicappers should find inspiring. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

For the first time an instructional book that has been fully authorized and written by Tiger Woods himself, where he reveals secrets to his incredible success. The insights Tiger reveals in How I Play Golf are a combination of the physical, metaphysical, and psychological practices that Tiger uses daily to keep his game at the top. For fans and followers of Tiger, these secrets will become the gospel of how to improve one's own game.

The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport (Vintage)

Bestselling author Carl Hiaasen wisely quit golfing in 1973. But some ambitions refuse to die, and as the years passed and the memories of slices and hooks faded, it dawned on Carl that there might be one thing in life he could do better in middle age than he could as a youth. So gradually he ventured back to the rolling, frustrating green hills of the golf course, where he ultimately—and foolishly—agreed to compete in a country-club tournament against players who can actually hit the ball. Filled with harrowing divots, deadly doglegs, and excruciating sandtraps, The Downhill Lie is a hilarious chronicle of mis-adventure that will have you rolling with laughter.

Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine: The Curious Quest That Solved Golf

The remarkable, untold story of the unlikely genius whose lifelong quest to solve the secret of golf changed the game forever.

In 1939, a billiard hall fry cook from Tacoma named Homer Kelley played golf for the first time and scored 116. Frustrated, he did not play again for six months; then when he did he shot 77. Obsessively inquisitive with a mind for science, Kelley devoted the next 30 years to solving the science behind the perfect golf swing, self-publishing his findings in 1969 in a book titled The Golfing Machine.

Unlike the bestselling instruction books of the day that required golfers to conform their swings to the author's ideals, Homer Kelley configured swings to fit every golfer. The Golfing Machine was revolutionary but also intimidating: heavy on physics, geometry and scientific vernacular, Kelley's work was largely dismissed and seemed doomed to obscurity before visionary teacher Ben Doyle and his superstar prodigy Bobby Clampett brought Kelley's teachings to worldwide prominence--only to see Clampett suffer an inexplicable implosion and blow a seven stroke lead at the British Open.

Validation finally came 70 years after Homer Kelley's odyssey began, and 25 years after his death, in the unexpected form of a teenage girl when Morgan Pressel, a "Golfing Machine baby," became the youngest golfer ever to win a major championship.

With exclusive, first-ever access to Homer Kelley's archives, veteran journalist Scott Gummer delivers an enlightening look into the nuances of the game and paints a fascinating picture of the man behind the machine, the ultimate outsider and under appreciated genius who changed the game once and for all of us.

Greatest Game Ever Played, The Movie Tie-In Edition

The book that hits the sweet spot is now a major motion picture! Announcing the official movie tie-in edition of Mark Frost+s award-winning The Greatest Game Ever PlayedThe riveting tale of one of golf+s most defining moments comes to life on-screen this fall from Walt Disney Pictures+and is sure to spark renewed interest in Mark Frost+s sensational book of the same name.The movie The Greatest Game Ever Played is directed by Bill Paxton and stars Shia LaBeouf (I, Robot), Stephen Dillane (King Arthur, The Hours), Peter Firth (Pearl Harbor), Elias Koteas, and Peyton List. It will be released in September +05 from Walt Disney Pictures.

Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer's Quest to Play with the Pros

"Think country-club clinic meets Navy Seals training. I will pay any price, bear any burden, leave my home to follow the seasons, build my own swing studio in the basement, construct a practice green in my backyard. . . . Everything the big boys have access to, I want double." Like most amateur golfers, Tom Coyne had often wondered whether the pros won because they were more talented or because they were more obsessed. Overweight and burdened by a 14 handicap, he decided to find out for himself what it takes to play like a pro.

Charting his journey—which included hiring top golf gurus such as Dr. Jim Suttie—Paper Tiger takes readers from the Michelob tournament (a win for Tom) to the Australian Tour, where forty-mile-per-hour winds and a driving rain scare off his Japanese partners. With each chapter, he tracks his weight alongside his handicap, pursuing his dream with a reckless abandon that comes to involve hardcore diets, pricey technology, even psychologists. With echoes of Dead Solid Perfect and Who’s Your Caddy? Tom brings his uniquely edgy, deeply human perspective to a game that can simultaneously bring out the best and the worst in everyone who tries to master it.

My Life in and out of the Rough: The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me

Ever since his astonishing victory in the 1991 PGA Championship, John Daly, known affectionately on the PGA Tour as "Big 'Un," has enthralled fans with his big drives, bigger personality, and "Grip It and Rip It" approach to golf and to life. Long John, usually seen with a Marlboro Light dangling from his lip, is the unchained, unpredictable, unapologetic bad boy of professional golf. "The only rules I follow," JD likes to say, "are the Rules of Golf." Daly's play-it-as-it-lays approach drives My Life in and out of the Rough, a thrillingly -- and sometimes shockingly -- candid memoir of a larger-than-life athlete battling assorted addictions (alcohol, gambling, chocolate, sex), his weight, and, perhaps worst of all, divorce lawyers. (He's been married four times.) A two-time major winner before he turned thirty, John Daly is one of the most popular athletes in the world. Taking readers with him off the fairway and into his $1.5-million motor home for a rollicking ride through his life -- an ever-churning world of booze, burgers, casinos, country music, and breathtaking moonshots -- Daly reveals how a down-home Everyman from Arkansas managed to rise to the peak of the golf world, escape from the depths of abject depression, and, finally, take control of his life. Well, sort of.

A Son of the Game: A Story of Golf, Going Home, and Sharing Life's Lessons

When acclaimed golf writer James Dodson leaves his home in Maine to revisit Pinehurst, North Carolina, where his father first taught him the game that would shape his life and career, he’s at a point where he has lost direction. But once there, the curative power of the sandhills region not only helps him find a new career working for the local paper but also reignites his flagging passion for the game of golf. And, perhaps more significantly, it inspires him to try to pass along to his teenage son the same sense of joy and contentment he has found in the game, and to recall the many colorful and lifelong friends he has met on the links.

This wise memoir about finding new meaning through an old sport is filled with anecdotes about the history of the game and of Pinehurst, the home of American golf, where many larger-than-life legends played some of their greatest rounds. Dodson's bestselling memoir Final Rounds began in Pinehurst twenty-five years ago, and now A Son of the Game completes the circle as it follows his journey of discovery back to where his love of the game began—a love that he hopes to make a family legacy.

The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf

From the bestselling author of The Greatest Game Ever Played comes The Grand Slam, a riveting, in-depth look at the life and times of golf icon Bobby Jones. In the wake of the stock market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, Bobby Jones emerged as a ray of light. His abrupt disappearance from the public eye into a closely guarded private life helped create a mythological image of this hero from the Golden Age of sports, that endures to this day. This book brings it all to you - from the beginning to the legend!

Down the Fairway

A classic memoir from Bobby Jones, the only person to ever win the Grand Slam, on life and golf.

Freddie and Me: Life Lessons from Freddie Bennett, Augusta National's Legendary Caddie Master

A former Augusta National caddie recounts the invaluable life lessons he learned from the late Freddie Bennett, the fabled club’s legendary caddie master. Though he was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, home of fabled Augusta National and The Masters, as a child Tripp Bowden was too young and too removed from the game of golf to realize what Augusta National really was, what it meant to his town and the world and the sport; its history, nostalgia, prestige and secrecy. All the ten year old Bowden knew about golf was that it was a stupid game that took up too much of his father’s time, and that he’d much rather kick around a soccer ball or stay home and read a book. But all that changed once Bowden’s father, a renowned local doctor, introduced him to one of his patients, Freddie Bennett, the legendary Augusta National caddie master.

Though Bowden was a white child of considerable privilege and Bennett was an older black gentleman of more modest means, the two formed an unusual bond. It was Bennett who introduced Bowden to the game of golf, a sport that would one day earn him a Division 1 golf scholarship and lead him to the final stage of a British Open qualifier. But it was the lessons Bennett taught the young Bowden off the course that had their profoundest impact on his life. Through Freddie and his particular brand of homespun wisdom, the author learned invaluable lessons about personal responsibility, hard work, and respect for others regardless of age, race or religion. He also learned that there’s much more to life than just playing golf.

Like the bestsellers Tuesdays With Morrie and Seasons of Life before it, Freddie and Me is a heartwarming tale of two unlikely friends and their uncommon bond forged through sport. .