The easiest sports argument to start is to ask your friends to rank the best players of their favorite sport. It is a simple question to pose, but it can lead to long and heated discussions.

In the last few years, some of our finest sportswriters took it upon themselves to put their rankings on paper in the form of books. Joe Posnanski's THE BASEBALL 100, which came out in 2021, ranked the top 100 baseball players and weighed in at 869 pages. Football fans had their turn with the 2023 publication of The Athletic’s THE FOOTBALL 100, which was a slim 672 pages. Last year, The Athletic released THE BASKETBALL 100, which was 752 pages of basketball lore. All three of these books were major contributions to their respective sports. More than a ranking of players, they were loaded with history and biographical details of the world’s greatest athletes.

"If golf is your game, or if you know a golfer and are searching for a gift, THE GOLF 100 should be at the top of your list. If you just want to immerse yourself in some golf history, you could not pick a better book to read."

Now, award-winning sportswriter Michael Arkush has taken a swing at ranking the greats of golf in THE GOLF 100. He manages to accomplish this in only 357 pages, including an Afterword. Additionally, he has expanded the potential roster to include amateurs, women and international golfers. This is appropriate because amateurs and professionals often compete against each other. Men and women have gone head-to-head before, although such contests are rare.

Those who wrote the books mentioned above were completely subjective in their methodology. But Arkush chose a more objective process, awarding golfers points for winning major championships --- including The Masters, the PGA Championship, the U.S. Open, the British Open, the Women’s PGA Championship, the Amateur Championship, and other prestigious events. It is not as simple as one might think, and while point totals were certainly used, Arkush acknowledges in his introduction that quite a few other factors were applied to his calculations.

Each of the 100 articles discussing great careers offers enjoyable insights into golf legends and history. #100 is John McDermott, who may be the finest golfer you have never heard of. McDermott was the first American-born golfer to win the U.S. Open, but he had a tortured life that removed him from the public eye. Arkush tells the sad story of McDermott attending the U.S. Open in 1971 but being asked to leave the clubhouse. Arnold Palmer recognized him and brought him back.

Of course, many who rank highly in THE GOLF 100 are familiar names. You would expect to find Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Sam Snead, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones in the top 10. But you might be surprised to discover that Mickey Wright, perhaps the greatest female golfer of all time, is there as well. Wright won more golf tournaments and majors than any woman. Arkush includes three female golfers in his top 20 and places Annika Sörenstam at 26th.

I was most fascinated by those golfers from the early days. Old Tom Morris and Young Tom Morris appear in the top 100, even though their careers took place in the 19th century. The younger Morris had an unintended major impact on the world of golf. In 1870, he won his third consecutive British Open and was awarded a belt, which he was allowed to keep. So they had to come up with a new trophy to give the winners. They chose a silver claret jug, which is now the sport's oldest prize.

If golf is your game, or if you know a golfer and are searching for a gift, THE GOLF 100 should be at the top of your list. If you just want to immerse yourself in some golf history, you could not pick a better book to read.