New Golf Books Index

Throughout the year, we'll be keeping you up to date on the golf books of 2011 — what's out, what's coming out, and what they're all about. Check below for 2010's books. 2011 AUGUST The 40 Toughest Shots in Golf: A Pro's Guide To Better Shot Making and Lower Scoring Authors: Todd Sones with John Montelone Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing OK, raise your hands if you look forward to deep rough, fried eggs, uneven lies, hardpan and threading the needle through the trees. Didn't think so. Still, they're the sorts of predicaments we find ourselves in all too often. By effectively assembling a bagful of well-illustrated plans for escaping from dozens of these situations, Sones, a Top 100 Teacher, may not change your outlook about getting into trouble, but he'll certainly bolster your confidence — and technique — for getting out. The Scratch Golfer's Ultimate Trivia Book Author: Don Wade Publisher: Sterling With its hundreds and hundreds of multiple-choice teasers clumped into categories from Bobby Jones to Tools of the Trade, if "Trivia's" not the most mind-numbing golf book of the year, it may well be the most addictive. What other volume reveals that Mark Rolfing was Dan Quayle's college roommate, that Frank Connor and Ellsworth Vines were the only gents to have competed in U.S. Opens in both golf and tennis, and that the 1930 greens fee for hotel guests at Pebble Beach was — get the defibrillator ready — $1.50? And there's more where that came from. Lots more. JULY The Swinger: A Novel Authors: Michael Bamberger and Alan Shipnuck Publisher: Simon & Schuster Consider the set-up: His real name is Herbert, but all call him Tree, and he's the greatest golfer in the history of the solar system. He's rich, he's famous, he's got a spectacular wife, adorable kids, and a yacht almost as big as his ... libido. You can guess the rest, right? Not so fast. With SI's own Bamberger and Shipnuck at the keyboards, the obvious isn't so obvious and it's ha-ha funnier than real life. Sure, the scandal's a hoot, the fall's titanic, and the players -- on and off the course -- identifiable without a scorecard, but this is still a novel, which means after the fall, there's even hope for redemption. Golf Course of Rhymes: Links Between Golf and Poetry Through the Ages Author: Leon S. White, Ph.D. Publisher: Golfiana Press Now for something completely different. White, a retired MIT professor, lets the big doggerel eat in an appealing collection that covers the fairways with reasonable rhymes from Poets Laureate (Britain's John Betjman and America's Billy Collins) to more familiarly versed in other genres, among them Rudyard Kipling, Arthur Conan Doyle, Grantland Rice, Ring Lardner, E.C. (as in Clerihew) Bentley, Robert Trent Jones, Jr., Chick Evans -- yes, that Chick Evans -- and the ubiqiutuos and always reliable Unknown. White seasons his mix with contributions from his own pen, and enjoyable commentary from end to end. Golf Fitness Author: Karen Palacios-Jansen and the editors of Golf Fitness Magazine Publisher: Taylor Trade There's not a swing tip in its pages, but "Fitness" can only improve your game -- and overall health. Filled with stretches, exercises, and full routines (including those of Masters champ Trevor Immelman and LPGA titleist Suzanne Peterson), "Fitness" extends itself to address nutrition, weight, pain and mental outlook. Gary Player pens the foreward. How fitting. Putter Perfection: The Groundbreaking Guide to Finding the Right Fit For Your Game Author: Sean Weir Publisher: Overspin Media So, which putter is hurting your game more, the one holding the stick or the flat stick itself? Weir contends the inanimate one is as organic to success on the greens as the one with DNA, and devotes just under 100 informative pages to what you need to know to assure that the putter and the putter holding it can coexist in peace and harmony. JUNE Wonder Girl: The Magnificent Sporting Life of Babe Didrickson Zaharias Author: Don Van Natta Jr. Publisher: Little, Brown and Company Like that other Babe, this one also casts a mighty shadow. Talented, audacious, and full of pizzazz, she was one of a kind, a tower of sporting achievement, and golf is forever fortunate she chose to embrace the game after mastering so many others. She didn't just promote golf, she barnstormed for it, making the cuts in several PGA events. Her presence alone jumpstarted the fledgeling LPGA, then her courageous return from colon cancer to win the 1954 Women's Open jumpstarted the national imagination. She was so Bunyonesque a character that it's easy to overlook the reality: like that other Babe, her life was just that, a life -- as fragile and flawed as it was fabulous. Van Natta rectifies the oversight. In his sweeping bio, her heart beats loudly on every page. Deane Beman: Golf's Driving Force Author: Adam Schupak Publisher: East Cottage Press In his 20 years as PGA commissioner, Beman's vision changed the face of tournament golf. He steered a collection of events into a juggernaut, built the charity base, lassoed sponsors, sowed the seeds of the Players Championship and the TPCs, shepherded the separation of the Tour from the PGA, fought insurrections, forged alliances, battled equipment makers, raised profiles, and made a lot of people a lot of money. Schupak's scrupulously researched chronicle does more than give Beman his overdue due; by telling Beman's story, he compellingly charts the behind-the-scenes maneuverings that transformed a not-so-simple game into billion-dollar enterprise. Let There Be Pebble: A Middle Handicapper's Year in America's Garden of Golf Author: Zachary Michael Jack Publisher: University of Nebraska Press Every golfer goes through some variation of the mid-life crisis. Not everyone gets to do it on the Monterrey Peninsula. Once the obvious envy is removed from the equation, what's left is an inviting escapade into discovering -- through a diverse cast from Michael Murphy and Clint Eastwood to the caddie corps and the author himself -- why Pebble and its high-rent environs are always so absorbing, especially in an Open season. MAY Four Days in July: Tom Watson, the 2009 Open Championship and a Tournament for the Ages Author: Jim Huber Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books The drama was heart-stoppingly rich in the moment, and remains heart-breakingly rich in retrospect. Watson. 59 years old. Turnberry. The Open. Huber, whose sterling commentaries grace CNN and TNT, carefully reconstructs the unforgettable week in a lively narrative filled with the recollections of those who lived it -- from participants like Watson, his caddie Neil Oxman, and eventual winner Stewart Cink to such interested and interesting parties as Nicklaus, Trevino, and Player. Huber's chronicle is elegant and detailed. It just doesn't change the ending. Championship Golf Courses of Great Britain and Ireland: The Essential Guide to 43 Major Courses Publisher: AA Publishing The British Automobile Association has always had a knack with drivers. In this lavishly illustrated tour guide fit for any golfer's coffee table, the venerable AA displays its mastery of several other parts of the game, not the least of which is inspiring golf dreams. The nearly four dozen included courses cover the waterfront, the parkland, and the heathland from Royals -- like St. George's, Dornoch, Porthcawl and County Down -- to the peerless: St. Andrews, Aberdovey, Ballybunion and Sunningdale. Each has its own pictorial spread and brief write-up. Even better, each arrives with 18 hole-by-hole drawings that amount to a set of tantalizing yardage books. Which should come as no surprise. If the AA can't map a journey, who can? The World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses and How They Are Played Editor: Mark Rowlinson Publisher: Hamlyn When first published in 1976, the "Atlas," now in its sixth incarnation, was a revelation, an instant cornerstone to any golf library. Focusing on the course itself -- as a cunning piece of craftsmanship, not just a destination or a battlefield -- it was big. It was brash. It was smart. It was colorful. It still is, thankfully. It still covers every continent. It's still full of analysis, insight, history, architecture, and advice. And it still comes with its marvelous defining feature: detailed overhead drawings of each of the 80 included courses (though, alas, given satellite photography not every routing is hand painted anymore.) But the original arrived with a murders' row of wordsmiths behind it -- the cosmopolitan foursome of Herbert Warren Wind, Pat Ward-Thomas, Charles Price and Peter Thomson -- and time has sadly erased their contributions and replaced their presence with lesser pens. Mesmerizing and addictive as the "Atlas" remains, nothing can replace the backbone and style of its Founding Fathers. The Art of the Swing: Short Game Swing-Sequencing Secrets That Will Improve Your Total Game in 30 Days Author: Stan Utley with Matthew Rudy Publisher: Gotham Short game guru Utley uses his sequencing concepts to -- well, the book's subtitle tells the story. What it doesn't tell is this: "Art" is the first instructional to incorporate Smartphone TagReader technology. So, in addition to photographs interspersed through the text, tags are sprinkled throughout; point your iPhone or Blackberry and click, and a video appropriate to the point Utley's making magically appears. If only sorting out the swing were that easy. Golf List Mania!: The Most Authoritative and Opinionated Rankings of the Best and Worst in the Game Authors: Leonard Shapiro and Ed Sherman Publisher: Running Press Nicklaus's own list of his five favorite victories? Certainly authoritative. Shapiro on the 10 Greatest Golf Traditions and Sherman on the 11 Greatest Shots of All Time? Opinionated, to be sure. There's much to digest and argue with in "Mania," but, then, what else are lists for? Guest lists contributed by Ian-Baker Finch, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer, Dan Jenkins, and even Errie Ball, the last survivor of the original Masters, add to the entertainment. Driving Lessons: A Father, Son, and the Healing Power of Golf Author: Steve Friedman Publisher: Rodale You can always tell when Father's Day's on the horizon; squint and you'll see subtitles like this one's. Though Friedman's short, mid-life memoir of reconnection hits the requisite shots of the genre -- lives in flux, father-son loose ends, renewal on the links -- Friedman's a skilled enough writer not to let the conventions sink him. When he was growing up, golf stood between him and his father. In middle-age, he finally ask his father to teach him how to play. Instead of spooning out the treacle, Friedman lets his story resonate with a deprecating wit he directs at himself. Golfing With Dad: The Game's Greatest Players Reflect on Their Fathers and the Game They Love Author: David Barrett Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing You can always tell when Father's Day's on the horizon ... but why sound like a broken record? When a gaggle of tour pros -- from Arnie, Jack and Phil to Peter Jacobson, Christina Kim, and J.J. Henry -- look back on the moments they shared on course with their fathers, expect the expected, and for the most part, that's what "Dad" delivers. There are a few different strokes here and there -- like Brittany Lincicome's dad, a scratch player, sacrifices his own Jones for the game to foster his daughter's -- just not enough to cut the sugar high. Science and Golf: Proceedings of the First World Scientific Congress of Golf Editor: A.J. Cochran Publisher: Routledge In 1990, golf-savvy scientists from around the globe convened for a conference at -- where else? -- the University of St. Andrews to present their research to other golf-savvy scientists. With titles such as "The Analysis of Time Series Decomposition Techniques to the Analysis of Golf Performance" and "The Effect of Sand Type on Ball Impacts, Angle of Repose and Stability of Footing in Golf Bunkers," this collection may not find its way to the bedside table, but some of the presenters have become household names in the game: Gary Wiren, Bob Rotella, and Dave Pelz. Even a quick delve into Rotella's co-written "A Closer Look at the Mind in Golf" can find the seed of several best-sellers planted within.