The Masters, held annually at Augusta National Golf Club in early April, is professional golf’s first grand slam of the year and is steeped in tradition. That tradition was on display this year in a poignant tribute to one of its champions, Arnold Palmer. Palmer’s victories at Augusta National in the late 1950s and early 1960s coincided with the first televising of major golf events. Palmer and the Masters were joined together as part of golf history. In recent years, the Masters began with Palmer (a four-time Masters winner), Jack Nicklaus (a five-time winner) and Gary Player (the first non-American golfer to win the event) each hitting opening tee shots at the first hole. Sadly, this year there was only an empty chair for Palmer draped with his green Masters jacket. A television camera showed Nicklaus and Player as they mourned their departed friend.

In the 1960s, this trio dominated professional golf, with each man playing a unique part in the rivalry. Palmer was the gambler, always going for broke; Nicklaus was the technician, barely showing emotion and always focused on his next shot; and Player was the world traveler, never reluctant to speak his mind. Player won 167 professional golf tournaments worldwide, including nine major championships and the career grand slam. During the 1960s, the South African Player would often face protests on the golf courses where he played and in the countries he would visit, but he never wavered from supporting his country while working behind the scenes to change its brutal apartheid policy. GARY PLAYER’S BLACK BOOK: 60 Tips on Golf, Business, and Life from the Black Knight is a handy guide to life, golf and business, covering a wide range of topics and problems that one might face both on and off the golf course.

Each section consists of simple questions, and then Player offers his views. One example in the Questions of Life section is “How do you handle criticism?” Player distinguishes between good and bad criticism, and offers examples from both his previously mentioned political dilemmas and the world of golf. His conclusion is insightful: “Criticism gets you thinking, which is good. See it in that light. And be strong enough to accept it when there is an element of truth in it.”

The golf section also provides great information. If you have never seen Player, find a picture of him. He is a fitness advocate, and although he is 81 years old, he looks 20 years younger. He answers a question about the best golf exercise by observing, “I could write a book on this alone.” And well he could. If you are a senior golfer as I am, Player’s thoughts on exercise make this book a must read. If you are a young golfer, it is never too early to start. GARY PLAYER’S BLACK BOOK is a joyful and enlightening summer read for golfers and non-golfers from a remarkable athlete and man of the world.

The only thing golfers enjoy almost as much as playing golf is looking for the key to playing better golf. For most, the search does not include actual practice or lessons from their local pro. Instead, it revolves around a new piece of equipment or a training-aid advertised in a golf magazine or infomercial. It may also include a golf instructional book. At your local bookstore or on Amazon, readers can find countless copies of these. Books by Ben Hogan and Tommy Armour, two golfers whose careers ended more than half a century ago, are classics and some of the finest instructional books golfers can read.

In recent years, David Leadbetter has become an instructor whose books are well-regarded. Instructional books are an important element in the quest for golf improvement. Each spring and early summer, new ones arrive. BE A PLAYER: A Breakthrough Approach to Playing Better on the Golf Course by Pia Nilsson and Lynn Marriott is a different golf instructional book because it seeks to combine the physical act of hitting the golf ball with the mental element of making the shot. The authors believe that success at golf comes not just on the lesson tee but in actual time on the golf course itself. Only on the course will you truly develop your skills, your game and yourself.

Nilsson and Marriott maintain correctly that during a round of golf, players spend relatively little time actually swinging the golf club --- 30-45 minutes during a four-hour round, to be exact. Between shots, what you do with your body, mind and emotions can either help or hinder your chance of creating a good performance state for each shot. Players need to do more than work on improving their swing. They must learn to master all of their human skills on the golf course and do the small things that are important to maintaining proper physical condition. Hydration and an occasional stretch between shots are just two examples. Even maintaining correct posture can be important. One golfer was advised that he spend most of his time on the course looking down at the ground. He was instructed to keep his chin and head up between shots. Following that advice, the golfer observed, “This one tip pretty much changed my golf game and my life. Not only do I literally see more on the golf course, I’m seeing things more positively.”

BE A PLAYER also advocates that golfers, regardless of skill level, begin each round with a specific game plan. It should be proactive and acknowledge variability. Naturally, it includes course strategy as well. In addition, golfers should be aware of the essential things they wish to pay attention to before, during and after a shot. Whatever it might be for you during the round, mental and emotional awareness are important.

No golf instructional book will turn a weekend golfer into a scratch player, but each book will offer significant insights that might help you improve your game. Nilsson and Marriott are two bright thinkers offering some fresh thoughts on how to improve your golf game. BE A PLAYER may certainly help you do just that.

Gene Sarazen may have the distinction of being the greatest golfer about whom no one ever speaks. His achievements in the sport occurred long before television changed the game and long before its popularity extended to the great middle class of the world. He was one of golf’s greatest television commentators, but many of his accomplishments in television occurred before golf exploded and acquired its own channel. Occasionally the Golf Channel will run episodes of “Shell’s Wonderful World of Golf,” a worldwide travelogue of international golfers playing at international venues. Sarazen, attired in his traditional knickers, was the host and commentator for this classic show that, decades after its presentations, has not lost one bit of its sports aura.

Was Sarazen one of golf’s greatest? Bobby Jones and Tiger Woods won their first major championships at age 21. Jack Nicklaus and Jordan Spieth were 22 when they accomplished this feat. By the time Sarazen was 21, he had won three majors and only failed to capture the fourth because it was not yet being played. In fact, Sarazen was the first golfer to win all four events of the professional grand slam, which went unnoticed because it took several decades for the four championships to even be recognized as the professional golf grand slam.

David Sowell’s SARAZEN: The Story of a Golfing Legend and His Epic Moment tells the story of Sarazen’s career through the lens of what many consider one of golf history’s iconic events: Sarazen’s double-eagle in the 1935 Masters. A double-eagle is a score of two on a par five hole. It is a rare event in golf, even rarer than a hole-in-one. And it occurred in the final round of the tournament when the Masters was not yet considered a major golf event.

Sportswriters regularly debate if golfers, who come in all shapes and sizes, are truly athletes. Sarazen was a small man, a little over 5’5” tall, yet during his prime was one of golf’s longest hitters. He was born Eugenio Saraceni in Harrison, New York, in 1902. The son of Sicilian immigrant parents, he had no fancy country club upbringing. He began caddying at age 10, was a self-taught golfer, and soon turned to playing golf for money during an era when professional golfers were second-class citizens to their golfing amateur counterparts, who were considered true gentlemen.

Sowell tells a wonderful story and vividly portrays the golfing world of the 1920s and ’30s. Professional golfers in that era did not have a PGA tour to stage events. They toured, played exhibitions for cash and often gambled on the side for some money. Sarazen won the U.S. Open and PGA Championship at age 20 and added the British Open to his championship stash in 1932. At that event he designed and built the modern sand wedge to help him play the sand bunkers at Prince’s Golf Club.

Setting the scene for the famous “shot heard round the world” at Augusta, Sowell portrays Sarazen’s golfing career in detail with a number of anecdotes about Sarazen and his golfing contemporaries. Sarazen did have many golfing accomplishments after the famous Masters double-eagle, but those get little coverage in this biography, which still manages to be readable and interesting.

Each spring, as I begin searching for the books that will be included in my essay that coincides with Father’s Day and the U.S. Open, there are familiar subjects and authors. James Dodson is a writer with 10 previous golf-themed books on his resume, including several that have been reviewed on Bookreporter.com. He is a two-time winner of the Herbert Warren Wind Award for best golf book of the year and has followed in Wind’s footsteps (or should I say divot?) as an eminent golf historian. His biography of Ben Hogan remains unsurpassed.

THE RANGE BUCKET LIST: The Golf Adventure of a Lifetime is exactly what the title suggests. At the age of 13, Dodson prepared a list of “Things to Do in Golf,” which included 11 items. Now in his 60s, Dodson came across this aspirational document and decided to finish what he had set out to achieve and add a few other goals. Of course, as an accomplished writer, Dodson has the luxury of turning this bucket list into a book. For those of us unable to achieve a lot of what appears on the list, the vicarious joy of reading about it is exhilarating.

One of the items added to the original 11 is to play a round of golf with John Updike. The great American writer was a golfer who often wrote about the game. Dodson met Updike at church, and they made numerous attempts to have a game. After many failed tee times, they finally went out on a cold April morning; while the golf was difficult, the conversation was a hole-in-one. Updike advised Dodson to find a golf group for a regular game: “It is cheaper and far more fun than group therapy in the church basement.” As the sun finally came out at the end of their weather-challenged round, Updike remarked, “I think you always learn something from a bad round, to keep going, if nothing else.”

Chapter after chapter is a joy for golfers. Dodson had a meeting with Donald Trump, which I will not recount here, except to observe that he met with Arnold Palmer afterwards. As a 13-year-old, Dodson’s first item on his original list was to meet Palmer. He did, and years later would co-author Palmer’s memoirs. Dodson shared with Palmer Trump’s observation that golf is a game for the “one percent.” Palmer’s response was firm: “The game of golf doesn’t know or care how much money you have or who you know or do business with. It’s a game that belongs to everyone.”

THE RANGE BUCKET LIST is a wonderful book by one of golf’s great writers. If you are looking for a book for a friend or family member who loves golf and enjoys reading about the game, this is the title you should select.
 

          --- Written by Stuart Shiffman