Full Description
In a long, award-winning career writing about golf, Bill Fields has sought out the most interesting stories-not just those featuring big winners and losers, but the ones that get at the very character of the game. Collected here, his pieces offer an intriguing portrait of golf over the past century. The legends are here in vivid profiles of such familiar figures as Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Mickey Wright, and Tiger Woods. But so are lesser-known golfers like John Schlee, Billy Joe Patton, and Bert Yancey, whose tales are no less compelling.
The book is filled with colorful moments and perceptive observations about golf greats ranging from the first American-born U.S. Open champion, Johnny McDermott, to Seve Ballesteros, the Spaniard who led Europe's resurgence in the game in the late twentieth century. Fields gives us golf writing at its finest, capturing the game's larger dramas and finer details, its personalities and its enduring appeal.
Contents
Foreword by Ben Crenshaw Introduction
Part 1. Tall Shadows: The Greats1. Golf's Gray Ghost 2. He Came, He Won, He Died 3. The Trials of a Trailblazer 4. Man of the Century 5. A Place in Time 6. King of the Hill 7. A Golfer and a Gentleman 8. Simply the Best 9. Arnie, Now and Then 10. Seve: Portrait of an Artist
Part 2. Inside the Ropes: Courses and Competitions11. Changing the Course of History 12. The Streak 13. He Went Down Swinging 14. Homero Blancas's 55 15. Lost and Found 16. A Champion's Last Hurrah 17. Surround Sound 18. Devil's Island 19. Fortunate Son 20. Thoughts from Augusta
Part 3. More Than a Score: The Characters21. Shades of Greatness 22. A Fleck of History 23. The Gospel According to Joe Dey 24. The Mouth That Roared 25. The High Life and Hard Times of John Schlee 26. Taking a Stand 27. The Detour of a Phenom 28. The Journey of Jim Simons 29. Still Driven after All These Years 30. The Man Who Loved Golf to Death
Epilogue: The Tiger Era Acknowledgments
