John Updike wrote about the lure of golf for five decades, from the first time he teed off at the age of twenty-five until his final rounds at the age of seventy-six. Golf Dreams collects the most memorable of his golf pieces, high-spirited evidence of his learning, playing, and living for the game. The camaraderie of golf, the perils of its present boom, how to relate to caddies, and how to manage short putts are among the topics he addresses, sometimes in lyrical essays, sometimes in light verse, sometimes in wickedly comic fiction. All thirty pieces have the lilt of a love song, and the crispness of a firm chip stiff to the pin.
"Mike Keiser followed his instincts to build courses that speak to golf as a rugged adventure. Steve Goodwin's spirited book will speak to the golfing soul in you." —Lorne Rubenstein, columnist for The Globe and Mail (Canada) and author of A Season in Dornoch On a wild, windblown bluff high above the Pacific sits one of America’s premier golfing destinations, Bandon Dunes. Golf enthusiast Mike Keiser had the dream of building this British-style "links" course on a stretch of Oregon's rugged coast, and Dream Golf is the first all-inclusive account of how he turned his passion into a reality. Now, in this updated and expanded edition, golf writer Stephen Goodwin revisits Bandon Dunes and introduces readers to Keiser's latest effort there, a new course named Old Macdonald that will present golfers with a more rugged, untamed version of the game. This "new" approach to the sport is, in fact, a return to the game's origins, with a very deep bow to Charles Blair Macdonald (1856 –1939), the father of American golf course architecture and one of the founders of the U.S. Golf Association. This highly anticipated fourth course, designed by renowned golf course architect Tom Doak along with Jim Urbina — as detailed in Dream Golf — will further enhance Bandon Dunes' reputation as a place where golf really does seem to capture the ancient magic of the game.
'Golf appeals to the idiot in us and the child. Just how childlike golf players become is proven by their frequent inability to count past five.' As an earnest golfer for over forty years, John Updike wrote frequently about the game. In Golf Dreams, Updike directs his inimitable style, his humour and shrewd insights towards a sport that, in turns, enthralled and infuriated him. This gathering of his pieces covers everything from the peculiar charms of bad golf and the satisfactions of an essentially losing struggle to the camaraderie of good golf and its own attendant perils. Praise for Golf Dreams: 'John Updike has anatomized the greatness of golf with an eloquence only Wodehouse, in a lighter vein, has matched. It makes for a lyrical book which is also thought-provoking . . . his lowest handicap was 18, but, in this delightful book, he has not dropped a stroke' Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph 'A stylish celebration of golf's propensity to transmogrify perfectly normal people into gibbering wrecks; not just 28-handicap novices but superstars, too' Jeff Randall, Sunday Times 'There's a crafty pastiche of golf coaching manuals . . . and there's a delicious rumination on the dazzling green luxury of televised golf. There are high, arching flights of fancy concerning swing thoughts, the moral aspects of golf, the etiquette of the gimme . . . It is a treat both for Updike fans and for golf nuts' Robert Winder, Independent on Sunday John Updike's first novel, The Poorhouse Fair, was published in 1959. Other novels by Updike include, Marry Me, The Witches of Eastwick, the Rabbit series and Villages. He has also written a number of volumes of short stories such as My Father's Tears and Other Stories and a poetry collection entitled Endpoint and Other Poems. His criticism, essays and other non fiction appeared in magazines such as The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books. He died in January 2009.
Fifteen years ago, the average American male golfer's handicap was 16.2. The average female golfer's handicap was 29. Today, the average American male golfer's handicap is 16.2 and the average female golfer's is 29. American golfers have not gotten any better.World-renowned performance consultant and sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella, author of the best-selling booksGolf Is Not a Game of PerfectandGolf Is a Game of Confidence,has writtenThe Golf of Your Dreamsfor the golfer who is determined to get better but hasn't figured out how to go about it. Building on his success with golfers, Dr. Rotella now teaches and details a plan for lowering your handicap, ensuring your improvement if you follow his plan. His program for success in playing the golf of your dreams is based on strategies found to be successful with tour players such as Tom Kite, Brad Faxon, Pat Bradley, and Davis Love III, and is similar to approaches used by Rotella's other clients who are top athletes in a variety of different sports.WhereasGolf Is Not a Game of PerfectandGolf Is a Game of Confidencecovered the mental aspects of the game,The Golf of Your Dreamsoffers a programmatic guide for getting down to scratch or single digits. It is an approach that Dr. Rotella and his clients have tested for over twenty years, one that has been proven to work consistently with all levels of golfers.Dr. Rotella knows that if you want to play your best golf ever, you must admit to yourself that you want to be good and that you have the necessary talent to play well. But that's not all. You must commit yourself to a process that will improve your game. InThe Golf of Your DreamsDr. Rotella provides tips on how to:* Choose the fight teaching professional* Communicate your dreams and goals to your teacher* Get your teacher to teach you as a student serious about improving* Make a plan for improvement with your teacher and stay committed* Sustain and honor your commitment* Break old habits and develop new ones* Practice efficiently and effectively so you can take your learning from the practice area to the golf courseDr. Rotella also discusses a piece of very good news for any golfer: Great physical ability is not required in order to play exceptional golf. Rotella demonstrates how characteristics such as desire, patience, and persistence,more than physical talent,enable golfers to improve their performance dramatically. When these characteristics are combined with a proven plan for success, modest talent is more than enough.Dr. Rotella will reveal why, despite the billions of dollars they have spent on new golf clubs, balls, and lessons, average American golfers' skills are stagnant and their performance is lackluster year after year. Dr. Rotella knows, above all, that simply reading a book or watching a video will not make anyone a better golfer. But readingThe Golf of Your Dreamswill make you keenly aware of what you have to do in order to play the kind of golf you've always sensed you were capable of playing.
Dr Bob Rotella is one of the hottest golfing performance consultants in the world today. Unlike other performance consultants, Rotella goes beyond the usual mental aspects of the game and the reliance on specific techniques. In this extraordinary book, and with his clients, he creates an attitude and a mindset about all aspects of the golfer's game, from mental preparation to competition. And, as some of the world's greatest golfers will attest, the results are spectacular. Filled with charming and insightful stories about golf and the golfers Rotella works with, GOLF IS NOT A GAME OF PERFECT will improve the game of even the most casual weekend player.
Now available in paperback, Tin Cup Dreams is the remarkable odyssey of self-taught golfer Esteban Toledo, a former boxer who overcame poverty and the wrong side of the tracks to make it through Q School and a make-or-break season on the PGA Tour. With uncommon grit and determination, Toledo finally triumphs after a 12 year quest that took him to the depths of despair. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Michael D'Antonio gives a rare behind-the-scenes look at the PGA Tour while keeping readers on the edge of their seats with his chronicle of Toledo's struggles. Traditionally, golf was a dreamer's path to glory. Tin Cup Dreams shows that it still is.
Published just in time for Father's Day, this engagingly witty discourse takes readers along on Owen's golfing adventures--playing the Masters course in Augusta, touring Ireland's greatest greens, meeting the sport's real millionaires (the equipment manufacturers), and chatting with local duffers. Line drawings.
