In this inspiring novel, one ordinary man makes the pilgrimage to the mythical greens of St. Andrews—the birthplace of golf—on a search for greatness. If golf novels had a leaderboard, Miracle at St. Andrews would be at the top. Though nobody has ever identified a single secret—no universally accepted truth—to the sport, every real player searches for one. Travis McKinley is one such seeker. A former professional golfer who feels like he's an amateur at the rest of life, he makes a pilgrimage to the mythical greens at St. Andrews. On the course where golf was born, every link, hole, fairway—even the gorse—feels like sacred ground. Ground that can help an ordinary player, an ordinary man, achieve a higher plane.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, young English elites often spent years traveling around Europe to broaden their horizons in an experience known as the Grand Tour. In his book Searching for the Holy Grail, Brian Walters combines romance, humor, history, philosophy, and a sharp eye for the subtleties of culture to take the reader on a breathtaking modern-day Grand Tour of Western Europe. Join the author and his colorful compatriots as they gaze into the mouth of infamous Mt. Vesuvius, search for the Loch Ness Monster, explore lovely Vienna in a horse-drawn carriage, and dodge the jagged cliffs of Capri on the way to the Blue Grotto. Enjoy the trip as they drink sangria and party until dawn in Barcelona, wreck scooters in Nice, brave storms in the Adriatic Sea, drink liter beers in Munich, and narrowly survive the taxis in Rome. From the sun-drenched beaches of Greece to the windy highlands of Scotland, Brian Walters takes the reader on a spellbinding journey.
Alister MacKenzie was one of golf's greatest architects. He designed his courses so that players of all skill levels could enjoy the game while still creating fantastic challenges for the most experienced players. Several of MacKenzie's courses, such as Augusta National, Cypress Point, and Pasatiempo, remain in the top 100 today. In his "lost" 1933 manuscript, published for the first time in 1995 and now finally available in paperback, MacKenzie leads you through the evolution of golf--from St. Andrews to the modern-day golf course--and shares his insight on great golf holes, the swing, technology and equipment, putting tips, the USGA, the Royal & Ancient, and more. With fascinating stories about Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and many others, The Spirit of St. Andrews gives valuable lessons for all golfers as well as an intimate portrait of Alister MacKenzie, a true legend of the game.
Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Jude, Simon, Judas, and Matthias—what happened to the men who answered Jesus' call to follow him? What impact did they have on the world? Where did they go and what did they do after Jesus' resurrection and ascension? In these fascinating profiles, Dr. McBirnie offers readers a snapshot of the lives of each apostle. His information was compiled by traveling to places where the apostles lived and visited, by studying the Scriptures and biblical history, by listening to local traditions, and by engaging in his own original research. Picking up where the book of Acts leaves off, McBirnie brings these men to life as he explores the legends, traditions, and real lives of the Twelve as they built the foundation of Christianity.
'The Search for a Common Identity' explores the process by which Scottish Baptists came to recognize the need for a union of Baptist churches in Scotland prior to 1869. This book identifies the major leaders in each of the three main Baptist streams in the early nineteenth century and shows how they came to the conviction that it was important for them to establish a common identity. At the heart of their unity was an enthusiasm for evangelism. The Baptist Home Missionary Society was formed in 1827. Its early successes demonstrated the wisdom of cooperation between the different Baptist agencies in Scotland. There had been three attempts to form a union of churches that failed because differences of perspective could not be reconciled. The principal achievement of the 1869 Baptist Union was in enabling Baptists with different theological opinions to come together to promote common practical objectives. In short, a shared sense of purpose led to the growth and establishment of the Baptist Union of Scotland.
Tom Callahan has written the seminal book on golfing great Tiger Woods. Woods, who has gone out of his way to protect his privacy, has never allowed himself to get close enough to a writer to be properly examined on the page. And, as a consequence, his fans know relatively little about him except what’s divulged in quick tournament interviews or the scarce information parsed out on occasion by one of his handlers. Which is to say, we know next to nothing about one of the most famous people in the world. Callahan, commonly regarded as one of the best all-round sports writers in the country, has followed Tiger around the world of golf for more than seven years, enjoying a certain access to the man and his family. He even went so far as to travel to Vietnam to learn the fate of the South Vietnamese soldier who was Earl Wood’s best friend during the war—and his son’s namesake. Tiger is twenty years old when the book opens and twenty-seven when it closes. During those years, Callahan covered Woods at all the Majors, including the Masters, the U.S. Open, and the British Open, culminating in Tiger’s heart-stopping race to make history by clinching the string of Majors affectionately nicknamed the Tiger Slam. As the pulse of golf was measured by the curve of his swing, Tiger made everyone’s heart skip a beat as he attempted to win the Grand Slam a year later. Along the way, Tom Callahan hears from everyone who is anyone in the world of Tiger Woods, including Phil Mickelson, Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Butch Harmon, Ernie Els, and, of course, Tiger’s rather ubiquitous mother and father. As much as we learn about Tiger—how he sees himself in relation to the courses he plays on and the players he has learned from and competed with—we also enjoy a bird’s-eye view of golf as it is now with Tiger on the scene, and as it was for centuries before. In Search of Tiger catalogs and dissects moments and influences in Tiger’s guarded life and unprecedented career—moments that unveil him, his awesome drive, and his enormous talent. Tom Callahan has written a classic of its kind, a book to rank with the best in its genre. He has done what few have even attempted— he has found the real Tiger Woods.
In September 1939, life changed for everyone in England, and Roger Whitehead was no exception. And hours after war was declared with Germany, Roger's family erupted when he announced he had no intention of joining the military. Labeled a coward, he disappeared, leaving a short note and a postal box, where he could be contacted.Why did he refuse to fight? Was his defiance a camouflage for cowardice?Having signed a secrecy oath forbidding his disclosure of his whereabouts or his work, he joined the fight for England in the secret world of Bletchley Park. There he decoded secret communiqués sent by enemies of his country. Over time, his proficiency brought him an unorthodox assignment: to go underground in order to discover a dangerous mole undermining the critical work of so many radio operators located in England and abroad.Join Roger as he navigates through a world gone mad when, by chance, a stranger gives him a New Testament with the challenge to "find the Man behind the words." Enter the dark world of deceit and intrigue, suspicion and subterfuge, sabotage and subversion. Travel with Roger in his quest for truth and internal peace through love and loss. Discover how a secret love affair changes his life forever and how his search for honor reveals the Savior of the world.
This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Similarity Search and Applications, SISAP 2018, held in Lima, Peru, in October 2018. The 16 full papers presented together with 3 short papers and 1 demonstration paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 31 submissions. The papers deal with issues surrounding the theory, design, analysis, practice, and application of content-based and feature-based similarity search. They are organized in the following topical sections: metric search; visual search; nearest neighbor queries; clustering and outlier detection; graphs and applications; and shared session SISAP and SPIRE.
