“New Golf Books for 2010” plus 3 more |
- New Golf Books for 2010
- Golf in Cuba: Is the communist gov't really game?
- Ochoa Says Goodbye to Golf and Hello to the Rest of Her Life
- Bean, Lu grab lead at Legends of Golf
| Posted: 24 Apr 2010 12:03 PM PDT Throughout the year, we'll be keeping you up to date on the golf books of 2010 — what's out, what's coming out, and what they're all about. FEBRUARY Ever since "Golf in the Kingdom" turned us on to the game's latent mysticism, there's been a core corps of acolytes out there intent on lowering their handicaps by pondering a koan that goes something like this: "What Is the Sound of One Club Swinging?" Karp levitates the quest to a new extreme in this quirky memoir of his journey through Zen, meditation and a myriad of other methods — based in Eastern thought — all in hopes of coming out the other end a better golfer and a better man. "Straight Down the Middle" is thus, karmically, anything but. MARCH It's easy for Americans to understate the international scope of the game; the 2010 edition of the R&A Golfer's Handbook, one of golf's mind-bogglingly thorough and essential references, shreds that canard. At 943 pages, it's exhausive and exhausting — and fun from cover to cover. European tours, American tours, and every other tour on the planet — all here. So are amateur and team competitions. Numbers? Stats? Results? The book swarms with them. Nor is it shy about about piling on the trivia and arcana; short bios of current and historical golfing swells; Majors recaps; annual award winners, points and money leaders; schedules; a roster of thousands of clubs throughout Europe (with helpful contacts and info for visitors), a directory of international golfing associations, and essays on the year in review and some of the game's pressing issues by leading voices from the other side of the pond. Not enough? There are always the rules all 34 plus appendices. Whew! Private Lessons: The Best of the Best Instruction A staple in the back of Golf Magazine since about the time the first featherie was stuffed, these illustrated lessons — some 175 make up this greatest hits edition — do what too many golf instructionals can't seem to: keep it simple. Whether addressing address or confronting the sh ... sha ... — you know, the unspeakable — each lesson is reduced to its essential, digestible nugget through straightforward text and drawings. "Lessons" was originally published in 2006; much as been added for this second coming, but one thing, thankfully, hasn't changed: the quality of the paper remains a major upgrade from its pebbly recycled magazine antecedent, which makes the book more likely to last as long as it's needed, and for most golfers, that's a long time, indeed. Masters of Design: The Golf Courses of Colt, Mackenzie, Alison & Morrison Imagine a landscape untouched by these, well, masters, and you'd see a golf world without Augusta, Cypress Point, Lahinch — and so much more. Lavishly illustrated with contemporary and historical photos both, "Masters" is an architectural junkie's delight, but it's also an inviting coffee-table-book introduction to a fascinating craft and a quartet of its giants. The stories that Colt, Mackenzie, Alison and Morrison left behind — in their lives and on the land — continue to have much to teach golfers at every level. Think Like a Caddie, Play Like a Pro: Golf's Top Caddies Share Their Winning Secrets Who wouldn't appreciate a Bones or a Fluff or a Fanny on the bag? Short of that, the second opinions and second set of eyes that can spell the difference between delight and despair — from the range to 18th green — need to be self-supplied. Filled with a fair mix of prudent advice, calming thoughts, fascinating insights, and anecdotes from inside the ropes, "Think Like a Caddie" delivers gamely on the promise of the first half of its title. The second half may be a burden no looper should be forced to shoulder. To Win and Die in Dixie: The Birth of the Modern Swing and the Mysterious Death of Its Creator In the vein of Leigh Montville's splendid tale of "The Magnificent Montague," the reliable Eubanks has uncovered a spellbinding mystery in the life and untimely death of James Douglas Edgar. That the British-born pro lost in the final of the 1920 PGA, coached Bobby Jones and Alexa Sterling, and is credited with helping conceive the modern golf swing certainly makes him interesting. That he'd wind up dead in the middle of a Georgia road makes him compelling. The unravelling of the underlying threads to Edgar's precipitous rise and even more preciptous fall elevates one of the game's forgotten footnotes into a gripping and fast-paced narrative. APRIL Embracing the premise that "girls" (favored descriptive for the female of the species) don't have to approach the game the way "guys" (ditto for males) do, PR whiz and Golf Girl blogger Hannigan whips up a fluffy confection of advice, tips, hints and observations, complete with pink pages. If the tone is light and chatty, there's empowering substance beneath the icing, and the kind of good counsel — like obeying the rules, playing from the correct tees, learning to laugh at yourself, and why it's important to hole every putt — that more than a few, uh, guys could benefit from. Golf Courses of the World: 365 Days It's just as easy to overdose on eye candy as it is the real stuff; the trick is to know when enough is enough, and Sidorsky's format - a golf course a day, every day across a two-page spread with stunning photo and capsule write-up facing each other - at least tries to impose some discipline. An update of the 2005 original, the current edition adds some 200 venues — from Ballyhack and Bayonne to Castle Stuart and Barnbougle Dunes - to its globe-trotting rota. That good news has a flip side; 200 worthies no longer make the cut. The suggested way to get over that? One day at a time. The Last Putt: 2 Teams, One Dream & a Freshman Named Tiger While Tiger's never been just another golfer, his short career at Stanford'd been the rare patch of Woodsiana that hasn't been picked clean. No longer. Given the story of "The Last Putt" — and all that surrounded the 1995 NCAA championship faceoff between Oklahoma State and a Cardinal squad led by Woods, Notah Begay, and Casey Martin — the real surprise is that it wasn't told sooner. This is golf with lots of joy, lots of spirit, and lots of underlying racial and social subtext. And guess who stands over the crucial titular putt? The Power of Positive Idiocy: A Collection of Rants and Raves Feherty may be an acquired taste, but he's our acquired taste, ranting and raving regularly on the back page of Golf Magazine and this very website. In case you might have missed something that was on — and out of — his mind from 2004 into 2009, it's reprised in this collection: the columns, the mailbags, the random posts — all presented if not always accountable. As jester, Feherty shows no fear or mercy, and while his wit can cut to the heart of things, his real gift is just how much heart there can be to his wit. Dream On: One Hack Golfer's Challenge to Break Par in a Year Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, this chronicle of a quixotic quest achieved the near impossible: it climbed to the top of Amazon's golf book charts in England last year. Thanks to 70,000 range balls, 60-odd instructional volumes, 33 videos, a couple dozen mind-game cassettes, and the saintly patience of his wife, Richardson achieved the near impossible, too, dropping 33 strokes in 363 days. He celebrated with lobster and champagne. We can ponder his diverting memoir of obsession and perseverence with envy. Swinging From My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star
With Kim, what you see is what you get, and what you get leans to the bold, the brash and the uncensored. On the course, she punctuates her strokes with emotive body English. On the page, with an assist from SI's Shipnuck, she punctuates her roaring annal of the LPGA's 2009 campaign with signature gusto, as well. She's candid and intimate — about herself, her game and her struggles with both. She blows the doors off some LPGA secrets. And she slips us behind the scenes at the Solheim Cup, where she teamed so ebulliently with Michelle Wie. In a sports world where images are carefully manufactured and managed, Kim's willingness to be Kim is refreshing. Our backward beret is off to her. The Complete Golf Manual: All You Need To Play Like a Pro Once you dismiss his overreach in the subtitle, Newell, the former instruction editor at Golf World in the UK and the ghost behind Ernie Els's books and website, has assembled a comprehensive self-improvement guide that covers the basics and not-so-basics with minimal text and lots of how-to photo sequences. As interactive as a book can be, the "Manual" is filled with drills, constantly asks you to assess your own progress, then accompanies you to the course with primers on equipment, strategy, rules and etiquette. The Open: Golf's Oldest Major With the main text by player, writer, architect Steel; a forward by Arnie; and an afterward by R&A chief Peter Dawson, "The Open's" pedigree is impeccable. Still, the words are, at best, an afterthought to this photographically rich coffee-table celebration of the greatest gathering in the game in preparation of its 150th anniversary. Meticulously organized by venue, "The Open" leading off, fittingly, with St. Andrews, and a gorgeious two-page image of the Old Course at daybreak. And, like daybreak, it's just the beginning, for what follows is a long, fulfilling journey through an olio of images that stunningly capture historical faces and moments as well as the places themselves — in moody, contemporary, timeless focus, most through the lens of the nonpareil David Cannon. Golf Wales: Where to eat, play and stay Like Bernard Darwin, one of his predecessors as golfing correspondent at The Times, John Hopkins has deep roots in Wales, which well serve him through his amiable and enthusiastic guide to one of the game's still relatively untapped landscapes. (See it now, for it's likely to be less untapped come October after the brouhaha of the next Ryder Cup.) Each course in this nicely illustrated Baedeker comes complemented with expert recommendations on where to eat, where to stay, and what else besides golf to see and do in the neighborhood. A caution: After savoring the allure of the wild linksland dramas of Aberdovey, Royal St. David's, Pyle and Kenfig, Nefyn & District, and Royal Porthcawl, you might well wish the Cup were convening anywhere but the tamer resort that is Celtic Manor.
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| Golf in Cuba: Is the communist gov't really game? Posted: 24 Apr 2010 11:04 AM PDT VARADERO, Cuba (AP)—The two revolutionary icons were playing the gentlemen's game in fatigues and combat boots. And they weren't playing well. Che Guevara shot a 127, besting Fidel Castro's 150 on a par-70 golf course. Their 1961 round a month before the Bay of Pigs invasion was the beginning of the end for golf in Cuba—soon the communist government had eliminated the sport from the island almost entirely. Only one 18-hole course remains, the Varadero Golf Club in this beach resort 85 miles east of Havana. On Friday and Saturday it hosted two one-day pro-am tournaments featuring half a dozen Cuban golfers paired with wealthy foreigners. Organizers say the events are small steps in a campaign to bring golf back to Cuba, a country that is both the best and worst imaginable place to play. The Tourism Ministry says it would like to build 10 new courses around the country and attract high-rollers from Europe, Canada and even the United States should Washington ease its 48-year trade embargo. Investors in Europe and Canada have long clamored to build courses, presenting plans that include luxury hotels, apartments and health spas. But those proposals have remained stalled for years, with not even one foreign-financed project having broken ground. Cuba is "the sand trap from hell," said John Kavulich, senior policy analyst at the U.S. Economic Trade Council in New York. "The conflict is imagery versus profit," said Kavulich, whose group advises U.S. businesses on trade with Cuba. "Concerns about the image of golfers in the worker's paradise. And, if accepted, how does Granma (the Communist Party newspaper) explain the obese U.S. golfer with poor clothing color coordination, running about in their 'Caddyshack' like golf cart, betting one each hole?" It does indeed seem hard for Granma to stomach golf, with its refined decadence. But Antonio Zamora, a Miami attorney and expert on Cuban real estate, said the government has overcome old ideological concerns and sees the sport as a way to get foreigners to visit the countryside, rather than simply staying in Havana and other cities. The state-run tourism concern Palmares is developing golf, but Zamora said it has moved slowly because it plans to build courses in clusters of three or more, enticing players to stay in particular areas long enough to try all courses. "There's been a lot of work done. This is not just 'blah, blah, blah,"' Zamora said. Among those playing in Saturday's tournament was Canadian Graham Cooke, a top golf course architect. At a similar event last year, three-time major winner Ernie Els made an appearance to represent his development company. In June 2008, Britain's Esencia Hotels and Resorts announced the Tourism Ministry had approved construction of the Carbonera Country Club for around $300 million on a stretch of beach not far from Varadero. In addition to an 18-hole golf course, the development calls for 800 luxury apartments and 100 villas. Cuba does not recognize the right to buy or sell property and prohibits foreign ownership, but Esencia said it was hammering out a 75-year lease on the property. Construction was slated to begin in 2009, but has now been postponed indefinitely. On Friday, Esencia CEO Andrew Macdonald took a group of investors to the site where the Carbonera project would be built, offering a tour of a windy beach amid high reeds that faced a rocky and narrow blue lagoon. "It's spade ready," he told The Associated Press, offering a map showing that where he stood could one day be a small wooden pier in front of a luxury hotel. "We could go tomorrow." Macdonald said the proposal has been endorsed by Cuba's Tourism and Foreign Investment Ministries, but that more than 20 other government ministries have to approve the plan before it can go ahead. "If you haven't done anything for 50 years, you want to do it right," he said. "They're totally committed to this. It's just a timing issue." Macdonald said the golf course and some of the homes could be built in two years once the project is approved, but he is through speculating on when exactly that might come. Gilberto Avila, a Tourism Ministry promotional communications officer, said Cuba solicited foreign companies for proposals to build 10 golf courses across the island, and had received at least 11 such proposals since 2007—though he offered no explanation on why none has moved forward. Cuba's vacation industry set records for foreign visitors each of the last two years, despite the deep recession. In 2009, over 2.4 million tourists came, mostly from Europe and Canada. But many stayed fewer days than usual, and tour operators offered deep discounts to keep them coming, meaning revenues slumped nearly 12 percent. Golf could bring tourists ready to spend regardless of how dire the world economy looks. "You've got a cigar and you are playing golf with the beach right there," said Jose Tovar, general manager of the Varadero Golf Club. "It's perfect." There were about a dozen topflight Cuban courses before Castro came to power on New Year's Day 1959. The PGA Tour hosted an annual Havana tournament in the 1950s that attracted Arnold Palmer, among others. Castro and Che's round at Havana's Colinas de Villareal course was meant to thumb their noses at the Kennedy administration. Many claim Castro wanted to eradicate the game because he wasn't good at it, something his son Antonio has denied, saying his father liked trying all sports. The grounds of the Havana Country Club were converted into a music and dance academy, and another course, the Havana Biltmore Club, became a military zone where Castro now is believed to keep one of his many homes. Colinas de Villareal also became a military camp. Just one golf course survived in the capital, the nine-hole Havana Golf Club, located off the road to the airport. The course was originally the British-owned Rovers Athletic Club and was spared mostly so foreign diplomats could play, said Johan Vega, the local pro. Sticks and tree branches are used as flag poles on some holes and an antiquated irrigation system makes it difficult to keep the grass from turning brown. Vega was not invited to the Varadero tournaments. He doesn't believe golf is too capitalist for his country, but said he's not hopeful it will take off in Cuba because "there's no national golf culture." Things are far less bleak at Varadero, the only golf course built since Castro's revolution. It opened in 1999, after more than five years of construction and with the Cuban government financing all of its $20 million budget, said Tovar, the general manager. The course's clubhouse, high on a bluff, used to be "Xanadu," an 11-bedroom mansion built by U.S. chemical tycoon Irenee DuPont. There was a seven-hole golf course on the grounds—two holes were destroyed by a hurricane—until the Soviet Union disbanded, ending its billions of dollars in annual subsidies to Cuba and bringing the island's economy to its knees. Officials then embraced foreign tourism and built the full-size course to attract golf-hungry visitors. Varadero hosted qualifying tournaments for the European Tour in 1999 and 2000, but since has been unable to afford to stage more, and efforts to promote golf languished until pro-am tournaments this year and last. But Tovar said Cuba can no longer afford to not build more golf courses, given the sport's global popularity. "From a golf course, it's a different view of our country, maybe it's not so cultural," he said. "But it's still Cuba." Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Ochoa Says Goodbye to Golf and Hello to the Rest of Her Life Posted: 24 Apr 2010 11:14 AM PDT At 28, she left at the top, a place she reached via the high road. Of how many athletes can that be said? In a word: few. Just as she had planned all along, upon reaching her goals in the game she departed with the smile and the wave that had become her trademark. Ochoa has kept whatever conflicts there are in her life to herself. It has been said and written in Mexico that her parents, devout Roman Catholics like the daughter they raised, were not happy about her marriage in December to the airline executive Andrés Conesa, who is divorced. Ochoa said Friday that her father, her husband and her mother supported her decision. To have worked out such a peace, Ochoa must have negotiating skills that exceed her golf skills. As inevitable as they are, comparisons generally fall short. It has been written that Ochoa's exit calls to mind those of Sandy Koufax or Barry Sanders or, astoundingly, Jim Brown. All were athletes leaving in their prime. That would be the only similarity. The one comparison that might come close would be to the great Bob Jones, who quit competitive golf in 1930 at 28 after winning the Grand Slam. Like Ochoa in Mexico, Jones was beloved in the United States for his grace, his style and his golf skills. The order varied, but the combination is what earned him two ticker-tape parades in New York City. Mexico City officials might want to consider at least one for Ochoa. Putting aside her 27 tournament victories, including two majors, Ochoa has earned nothing but positive attention for her country, and has endeared herself internationally. So, what now for Ochoa? She has always talked about her desire to raise a family. The flamboyant L.P.G.A. player Christina Kim remarked on it in her inimitable fashion in a new book. She told the author, Alan Shipnuck, that Ochoa would retire soon, "eager to start popping out cute little Mexican babies." In keeping with her reserve, Ochoa did not announce any such plans Friday, but she did say she will proceed with plans to use her foundation to build schools and to help young Mexican children learn to play the game that gave her so many opportunities. "I do want to be remembered for the things outside the golf course," she said. "I'm going to work really hard, and this is the compromise I have to myself, a responsibility to give back in order to help others to make a change in their life. I'm going to work on that. That is my goal." As she has shown, she is very good at achieving the goals she sets. As for the game, to be sure, Ochoa lost the desire to travel the hard road of professional golf. She was candid in saying she had lost the drive required to remain No. 1, a position she occupied for the past three years. "Once you reach your goals, it's really hard to find that motivation," Ochoa said. "You need to be brave to see that. Just to really listen to your heart and your feelings and be able to see that and make a decision." So the decision is made and Ochoa will end her regular competitive career with the tournament this week in Morelia, near Mexico City. Whether she will one day return is something she did not rule out, but it is not something at the top of her list to consider, very much the way Annika Sorenstam described her thoughts when she retired last year. "Maybe I'm going to miss the game, you know, but I'm super happy where I am," she said. "Look at Annika, where she is right now. So it's one step at a time. I'll let you know for sure." For sure. Until then, Ochoa will focus her considerable skills and effort on helping others and her attention on her husband and family. This is her right, and few have thought about criticizing the decision, largely because of the enduring grace of the person who has made it. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Bean, Lu grab lead at Legends of Golf Posted: 24 Apr 2010 01:10 PM PDT SAVANNAH, Ga., April 24 (UPI) -- Andy Bean and Chien Soon Lu carded a 12-under 60 Saturday to take the lead after two rounds of the Legends of Golf event in Savannah, Ga. The pair, atop at the leaderboard at 19-under 125, got hot on the back nine to move up and post a one-stroke advantage over first-round leaders Mark O'Meara and Nick Price (64) as well as the team of Blaine McCallister and Bob Tway (63). Bean holed out from the 10th fairway using a nine-iron, notching an eagle, while Lu birdied a 10-foot putt on 11, followed by a 40-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole. Lu got another birdie on 13, and then on the 15th hole Bean got within a foot of the cup and tapped it in for a fourth straight birdie. Lu birdied the par-3 15th while Bean connected on a 15-foot birdie putt on 16 and a 6-footer for birdie at No. 17. Co-first round leaders John Cook and Joey Sindela fired a 7-under 65 Saturday, good for sole possession of fourth place at minus-17. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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