Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the first book in a four-book series, The Dave Pelz Scoring Game Series.  The next volume in the series will be Dave Pelz's Putting Bible.

"He who rules the short game collects the gold."
--Dave Pelz's Golden Rule of Golf

Fed up with trying to imitate the pros, buying the latest expensive equipment, and seeing your handicap stay the same? The first book by bestselling author and internationally revered golf instructor Dave Pelz since Putt Like the Pros, his bestselling classic, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible can show you the way to lower scores by improving your short game. The result of decades of scientific research studying thousands of golfers, Dave's philosophy is as simple as it is revolutionary and groundbreaking: Instead of practicing the wrong things the right way, or the right things the wrong way, Pelz shows you how to find your own personal weaknesses and how to improve them to efficiently lower your scores. Packed with all the knowledge, charts, and photos needed to learn from the master, Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is the essential book for every golfer who's looking to improve his or her game.

Dave's approach to golf is easy to understand: 80 percent of the strokes golfers lose to par are determined by their play within 100 yards of the green--the crucial scoring game. The most important and yet the least focused-on aspect of golf, your short game, can indeed make or break your entire game. And nobody teaches the short game like Dave Pelz. His renowned golf schools and clinics focus exclusively on putting and the short game, attracting top players like Tom Kite, Colin Montgomerie, two-time U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, reigning PGA champion Vijay Singh, Steve Elkington, Payne Stewart, Peter Jacobsen, and many LPGA players including Annika Sorenstam and Liselotte Neumann. The pros know, as you are about to learn, that while others teach golfers how to swing, Dave Pelz teaches golfers how to score . . .  and win.

A former physicist for NASA, Dave brings a scientific rigor to his research and instruction that has made him the top short-game expert in the world. Dave has observed and then taught thousands of golfers to improve their ability to score better. The years he has spent studying the short game, including chipping, lobs, pitches, distance wedges, and bunker play, have resulted in an unequaled expertise and a fascinating body of knowledge on golf, with the statistics and data to back it up. In this new book, Dave for the first time shares the understanding and techniques he has taught the pros, including a wide array of innovative tests and exercises for mastering those deceptive and high-pressure shots of the short game.

Dave Pelz's Short Game Bible is an essential book for golfers of all levels. Covering everything golfers need to know to improve their short game, Dave's system can--and will--help you to consistently shoot lower scores.

ELEVATE YOUR GAME If you have ever played golf in the Carolina Mountains, the pages inside will be a treasure. If you have wanted to play golf at a higher level, this will be your guide. You can learn about the best public and semi-private 18-hole courses to play. Or you can read about two of the nation's finest course architects, the late Donald Ross and the great Tom Fazio... our toughest 18 holes... where you can rent llamas as caddies or how to send used clubs to the military serving in the world's largest sand traps.

Yes, your golf ball will travel further on tee shots in the higher elevations. But the remarkable scenery will be a distraction.

Our courses include boulders larger than your vehicle, streams winding through many fairways, lots of ponds, the largest lake in the state in terms of shoreline, even a few flat spots for aiming at those undulating greens - usually above or below you. And gorgeous waterfalls.

Oh, don't forget to enjoy the views

Cover photo: By Ron Clark of First Tee Mountain Golf at Mount Mitchell Golf Club.

Cover design: By Mike Davis of Graphic Imprints - Asheville.

As football clubs have become luxury investments, their decisions increasingly mirror those of any other business organisation. Football supporters have been encouraged to express their club loyalty by thinking business - acting as consumers and generating money deemed necessary for their clubs to compete at the highest levels. In critical studies, supporters have been portrayed as passive or reluctant consumers who, imprisoned by enduring club loyalties, embody a fatalistic attitude to their own exploitation. As this book aims to show, however, such expressions of loyalty are far from hegemonic and often interface haphazardly with traditional ideas about what constitutes the loyal fan . While there is little doubt that professional football is experiencing commodification, the reality is that football clubs are not simply businesses, nor can they ever aspire to be organisations driven solely by expanding or protecting economic value. Rather, clubs hover uncertainly between being businesses and community assets."

Football Supporters and the Commercialisation of Football" explores the implications of this uncertainty for understanding supporter resistance to, and compromise with, commodification. Every club and its supporters exist in their own unique national and local contexts. In this respect, this book offers a Euro-wide comparison of supporter reactions to commercialisation and provides unique insight into how football supporters actively mediate regional, local and national contexts, as they intersect with the universalistic presumptions of commerce.

This book was previously published as a special issue of "Soccer and Society."

In 1919, members of the Chicago White Sox "threw" the World Series, intentionally losing to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money. Two years later, after a lengthy investigation, eight players, including the immortal "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, received lifetime bans for their part in the scandal. Debates have raged ever since about whether all of the eight banned players actively "threw" plays or games."Sorry Kid, I Don't Much Feel Like Playing Today" settles the debates once and for all by breaking down each player's contributions on a play-by-play basis. Section one addresses Chicago's pitching and fielding, while section two is all about the White Sox hitters; the final section analyzes the overall statistics. Each player is put under the microscope. Each play is dissected and analyzed. You will be the final judge. Journey back to the second decade of the twentieth century to relive the most famous World Series in baseball history.

To the ardent Major League baseball fan, statistics make the game. Base hits are exciting, but the rabid fan wants to know how a particular batter fares against a particular pitcher with a particular count with men on base. Or, who holds the record for the most grand slams hit against left-handed pitching after the fourth inning. Stats like these can be found in the team media guides or on team web sites.

But what about the other stats and records? For example, what U.S. president holds the record for most season opening ceremonial first pitches? Who are the only two players to be traded for themselves?

This is where "Moon Shots and Short Hops" comes in. For the sincere fan, it answers the questions he never thought to ask. It is a collection of facts and figures about the game that few people know and even fewer have ever thought about. Divided into chapters, each covering one aspect of the game, Moon Shots even has a collection of players who have the same names as rock stars.

Jammed with facts and figures, Moon Shots fills in the gaps that watching the game or listening to the commentary just can't provide.

Who were the greatest Minnesota Viking to have the played the game of football? There are certainly many excellent players to choose from, from Fran Tarkenton to Randy Moss on offense to defensive stalwarts like Alan Page and John Randle. Even the offensive linemen who quietly get the job done deserve ranking among the top 50-think Gary Zimmerman and Ron Yary. The possibilities are endless: players such as Ahmad Rashad, Adrian Peterson, Carl Eller, Daunte Culpepper and many more. In this book Robert Cohen takes on the daunting challenge of ranking the greatest Minnesoate Vikings ever from 1-50, with a number of honorable mentions

There are many books that detail the lone golfer's ever-failing battles with the golf course. While Fluffed Chips Shouldn't Count again shows how the courses, despite their different natures and settings, continue to triumph, it also shows there is much solace in the companionship of good friends who frequently suffer similar fates. Fluffed Chips Shouldn't Count traces the developing friendship of four aspiring golfers over a period of forty years when they met while working in Nassau in those idyllic Bahamian islands. Between the years of 1972 to 1980, they somehow scraped through (sometimes literally) a long initiation at the hands of the brutal Coral Harbour Golf Course (RIP) and became firm friends. In the late 1970s, they returned to their native lands and became involved in the chores of domesticity and fatherhood. But the friendships were strong and survived distance and time, and in 1994, with the obligations of family waning slightly, they met again to play golf in Scotland. Such was their enjoyment and renewed camaraderie that they made a commitment to meet and play every two years in different parts of the world. In that period, from 1994 to the present, they have played in England, Scotland, Ireland, Canada, America, and the Bahamas. They have aged and become more realistic about their golfing abilities, but they remain unbowed, and Chris still harbours hopes of turning pro.

The essential collection of activities and experiences for all Wildcats fanatics   Even the most die-hard Wildcats fans haven’t done everything there is to experience in and around Lexington. From ordering the infamous breadstick at Joe Bologna’s Restaurant to visiting the Joe Craft Center, this book provides ideas, recommendations, and insider tips for must-see places and can’t-miss activities near campus. But not every experience requires a trip to Lexington; long-distance Wildcats fans can cross some items off their list from the comfort of their own homes. Whether you’re attending every home game or supporting the Wildcats from afar, there’s something for every fan to do in The Kentucky Wildcat Fans’ Bucket List.

The game of golf has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, with powerful, big-hitting players dominating at the elite level. With limitation and regulation of equipment being mandated by the R&A, players are increasingly looking to alternative options to increase their physicality to improve likelihood of winning. This is an area in which adding strength and conditioning training to a golfer's training programme will help to benefit performance. However, many players and coaches lack confidence or knowledge to train with strength and conditioning techniques, which is where this book, focusing on strength and conditioning and its application in golf, will help. Strength and Conditioning for Golf provides golfers and coaches with the evidence and practical suggestions to ensure that the choices they make about their training are informed and objective. This new volume examines why strength and conditioning techniques and principles are important for modern golf, blending scientific principles with real-world, practical advice and tips. Strength and Conditioning for Golf is of interest to golfers and coaches of all levels, as well as being of interest to researchers, students and coaches in the fields of; strength and conditioning, fitness and training, performance analysis, skill acquisition and other related sport science disciplines.

Everyone's image of the ideal cricket ground will be a village field, fringed by trees, the outfield dappled with clovers and buttercups, swallows flitting above... And what of all the other wildlife associated with this most natural of sports? At the Oval these days, Test Match Special's commentators remark on the resident foxes as often as the traditional pigeons. At Teddington Town CC in London's Bushy Park matches are frequently interrupted by incursions of deer; at Lyndhurst in the New Forest by wild ponies. At Kirkby Lonsdale CC in Cumbria the local fungus group found 20 species of waxcap on the outfield. For some reason hoopoes, spectacular orange and black-crested birds from southern Europe, favour cricket grounds on their rare migrations to the UK. This unique, funny, delightful cricket book from left field explores the relationship between cricket grounds and the natural world, from wildlife records to the Edwardian cricket writings of Edmund Blunden, and in many remarkable photos.

The Complete Mental Game is a comprehensive instructional system to guide the baseball player --- at any competitive level---- to take chagre of the process of playing the game, on and off the baseball diamond. Through this book, the baseball player will learn to establish a consistent approach to their continuous development and improvement, not only as a player but also as a person. The book includes guidelines methods and procedures so that the baseball player will learn how to do the following:

* Understand their personality, core values, strong points and limitations--- the player as a Person

* Cope effectively with negative people, places, and things that can put them at risk, while developing a posituve support system---the player as a "Coper"

* Buy into something larger than the individal-- the player as a Teamnate

* Enage prodictively in preparing for each game,, take their preapration into the game, be an accurate self evalautor, and make effective adjustments -- the player as a Performer

First published in 1988, this book contains edited and revised papers presented at the first World Congress of Science and Football. Held under the auspices of the International Council of Sport, Science, and Physical Education, the Congress was a unique gathering of international scientists researching into football and practitioners professionally involved in the many football codes. American football, soccer, rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules, Gaelic football and national variations of these games are all covered in depth, in both amateur and professional systems. Nutrition, biomechanics, equipment, physiology, sociology, psychology, coaching, management, training, tactics, strategy are among the main subject areas the contributors cover. With over 22 countries represented and with players, managers and coaches involved as well as academics the book represents a truly international, comprehensive and practical picture of contemporary football.

Match Fit takes an in-depth look at mental health in football, from the Premier League down to five-a-side, in the hope of destigmatising this much-neglected topic, with candid contributions from the likes of Chris Kirkland, Paul Lambert and Marcus Bent. Subjects such as the issues facing footballers after retirement and the rise of social media are placed under the microscope, and we discover how being a football fan can benefit your mental health. Seasoned pros discuss the challenges they’ve faced in football, speaking openly about personal experiences most of us wouldn’t associate with the glamour of the beautiful game. From a grassroots perspective, there are uplifting stories of how people have learnt to manage their mental health, with football as a key tool to help them get through their day-to-day lives. If the interviewees – involved in a sport that has traditionally lauded masculinity and the absence of so-called weakness – can open up about their mental health, then so can anyone.

The remarkable biography of a small-town athlete who became one of the greatest players in NFL history. Bronislau "Bronko" Nagurski was a superstar for the NFL in the 1930s and one of the pioneer players of the league. He led the Chicago Bears to success on the gridiron as a larger-than-life personality, helping raise the popularity of the NFL during the Great Depression. In Bronko: The Legendary Story of the NFL's Greatest Two-Way Fullback, NFL Films historian Chris Willis tells the remarkable story of how Bronko became an NFL legend. Throughout his nine-year NFL career, Bronko's name became synonymous with power football. While the new league fought to gain respect and recognition, Bronko immediately captured the attention of sports fans in Chicago and across the country. The bruising fullback could do everything: run, block, tackle, and even throw the occasional pass. With the complete cooperation of the Nagurski family and unlimited access to personal letters, family scrapbooks, and photos, Bronko is the definitive biography of a true sports pioneer and NFL great.

Putco Mafani, from humble beginnings in Bhofolo in the Eastern Cape, has become household name in South Africa. From Radio Ciskei, he went to Umhlobo Wenene FM where he anchored the biggest breakfast show in the country. The former Kaizer Chiefs PRO and sought­after marketing consultant will soon be launching his own radio station.

Things have not always been smooth sailing for Putco. In this memoir, he writes about the hurdles he has had to overcome. He has been detained in solitary confinement, endured a traumatic divorce and found himself unemployed at one stage. He openly talks about some of the mistakes he made as a young person, and also shares his successes and moments of fame and what these taught him.

With contributions from a wide range of people who know and admire Putco, as well as take­home lessons called Putco's Padkos, this book tells an inspirational, authentically South African story.

This book examines the complex ways in which girls and women experience football cultures in Britain. It extends current debate surrounding women and football (namely, how gender has functioned to shape women 's experiences of playing the game), by focusing on organisational, administrative and coaching practices, alongside the particular issues surrounding sexuality, ethnicity and disability (not only gender).

The book analyses football and gender to reveal the subtle forms of discrimination that persist. It is important to highlight the many challenges and transformations made by girls and women but more importantly to consider the ways power continues to operate to devalue and undermine girls and women involved in the game. The UK-based authors make use of their recent research findings to offer critical debate on girls and women 's current experiences of British football cultures. Overall the book reveals the present day complexities of marginalisation and exclusion.

This book was published as a special issue of Sport and Society.

Although many Americans think of Jackie Robinson when considering the story of segregation in baseball, a long history of tragedies and triumphs precede Robinson's momentous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers. From the pioneering Cuban Giants (1885-1915) to the Negro Leagues (1920-1960), black baseball was a long-standing staple of African American communities. While many of its artifacts and statistics are lost, black baseball figured vibrantly in films, novels, plays, and poems. In Invisible Ball of Dreams: Literary Representations of Baseball behind the Color Line, author Emily Ruth Rutter examines wide-ranging representations of this history by William Brashler, Jerome Charyn, August Wilson, Gloria Naylor, Harmony Holiday, Kevin King, Kadir Nelson, and Denzel Washington, among others. Reading representations across the literary color line, Rutter opens a propitious space for exploring black cultural pride and residual frustrations with racial hypocrisies on the one hand and the benefits and limitations of white empathy on the other. Exploring these topics is necessary to the project of enriching the archives of segregated baseball in particular and African American cultural history more generally.

Over the past decade, European football has seen tremendous changes impacting upon its international framework as well as local traditions and national institutions. Processes of Europeanization in the fields of economy and politics provided the background for transformations of the production and consumption of football on a transnational scale. In the course of such rearrangements, football tournaments like the UEFA Championship or the European Champions League turned into mega-events and media spectacles attracting ever-growing audiences. The experience of participating in these events offers some of the very few occasions for the display and embodiment of identities within a European context. This volume takes the 2008 EUROs hosted by Austria and Switzerland as a case study to analyze the political and cultural significance of the tournament from a multidisciplinary angle. What are the special features and spatial arrangements of a UEFAesque Europe, in comparison to alternative possibilities of a Europe? Situating the sport tournament between interpretations of collective European ritual and European spectacle, the key research question will ask what kind of Europe was represented in the cultural, political and economic manifestations of the 2008 EUROs. This book was published as a special issue of Soccer and Society.