Review

"If you enjoy golf and you're looking for a light summer-feel good read, this book fits the bill. While the main story centers around golf, knowledge or a love of golf is not a prerequisite for enjoyment of this book."
"--Carl H., Goodreads review"

Book Description

Quirky Golf Fiction An offbeat tale with unexpected twists and turns

Ben Richards lives for the weekend when he can have fun with his eccentric friends at the golf course affectionately nicknamed Hackin' Oaks. The hapless hacker is miraculously transformed into a PGA-caliber golfer when struck on the head by a wayward ball. This incident changes the direction of his life, both on and off the course.

Now living every golf addict's fantasy as a pro, Ben is befriended by both the top-ranked player in the world and the most powerful man in the industry. Then tragedy strikes.

Forced to adapt to new challenges, he realizes there's more to life than just golf. Ben learns the true value of friendship, community, and the healing power of love before resuming his passionate affair with the game he treasures.

The Inspiration Behind "The Right Side of the Fairway: "

This book was written in homage to the greatest game of all. I salute all dedicated golfers, past and present--professionals, hackers, and those with skills somewhere in between.

Although the central theme revolves around golf, the book is also about eccentric personalities, finding love when it's least expected, and dealing with life-changing challenges. I hope that avid golfers and non-golfers alike will find the story to be interesting, unpredictable, and entertaining.

THE 18th HOLE: Stories from the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club San Francisco, California 1955, 1966, 1987, 1998 THE 18th HOLE: Stories from the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club, San Francisco, California, 1955, 1966, 1987, 1998 is a concise and riveting history of the U.S. Open Championship play conducted at San Francisco's Olympic Club. It is a book that will satisfy not only the avid golf enthusiast (that wants an insider's view of the challenging Lake Course) but also the history buff that wants a thorough analysis of the past four U.S. Open tournaments held at a Club which is steeped in rich history and tradition. This book offers a vivid peek at the world's ultimate golf event/s conducted at the oldest athletic club in America. Author Frank Doyle, a member of the Club for more than 50 years, provides his personal insights having attended all four U.S. Open's contested at the Olympic Club in 1955, 1966, 1987 and 1998. In this quick read, you will glean interesting details about the past four U.S. Opens at the Olympic Club. To begin, the Lake Course has challenged both professionals and amateurs alike with chilly wind bursts off the Pacific Ocean, narrow, tree-lined fairways and the small, well- bunkered greens. The Club hosted its first U.S. Open Championship in 1955 when Jack Fleck (a relative unknown from Iowa) defeated fan favorite, Ben Hogan, in a playoff. Of the seven, under-par rounds for the tournament, Fleck put up three. During the 1966 U.S. Open, Arnold Palmer dominated, leading by seven strokes with only nine holes left to play. Billy Casper tied him and then won the playoff. In 1987, nine players went into Sunday within three strokes of the lead. The favorite, Tom Watson, was defeated as Scott Simpson took the day, without the need for a playoff. In 1998, Payne Stewart went into Sunday with a four-stroke lead but the legacy of Hogan, Palmer and Watson loomed before him. He too, would falter, allowing Lee Janzen to make his way to the top. No player broke par for the tournament and only Janzen equaled it. The author's unique reflection on each of the four championships captures not only the strategic skills of each standout player but the often complex, emotional back-story of each competitor, too. With concise observations and notes, we learn the inside story of what Jack Fleck, Ben Hogan, Billy Casper, Scott Simpson, Tom Watson, Lee Jantzen and others--had to overcome in these challenging competitions. It's been said before, "The wrong guy always wins at Olympic." This story is compelling, read it.

Written by Dr Paul McCarthy (the first-ever resident Sport Psychologist at the home of golf - St Andrews Links) and leading golf consultant Dr Marc Jones, The Successful Golfer is designed to help address 50 of the most common faults that players experience; faults which hold you back. These include: hitting the self-destruct button when winning, nervousness on the first tee, lost confidence, failing to practise as you play, losing focus off poor drives, and many more. Each fault is remedied with a clear practical fix. You will learn to develop effective practice plans, build a dependable pre-shot routine, cope with the pressures of competitive golf, and deal with distractions.

In the second part of the book, lessons from 30 fascinating research studies on golf are presented to help keep you ahead of the field. They include research on putting, practice, choking, and overthinking. In the third and final part of the book, clear instructions are provided on developing a number of highly effective techniques that can be used across a wide variety of situations. These include: pre-shot routines, breathing exercises, goal setting, and how best to practice.

The Successful Golfer is a must-read addition to any golfer s bookshelf. Read it and fix those mental faults that stop you from playing your best golf.

Just some of what you will learn:

- Learn to play consistently on the golf course and win when it matters most

- Develop unshakeable confidence in all facets of your game

- Build a consistent pre-shot routine to concentrate effectively and manage distractions

- Boost your resilience and learn to cope with the demands of competitive golf

- Uncover the secrets of success from the world s best golfers "

Having used the methods described in this book showing hundreds of men, women, and youngsters how to score well consistently, I know that it will aid golfers in achieving skill in their favorite sport. The book presents a simple, practical summary of the natural fundamentals of learning and playing the game of golf in the best possible manner as demonstrated by American professional golfers. It isn't possible to name the many professionals who have made available to me, to their colleagues, and to all amateurs what they learned the hard way?trying to make good golf easy. I am, however, deeply indebted to them.

When learning Thomsen was writing Golf: Find Center, Enter the Circle, many had emphasized the diversity of golf due to its natural setting, and golf's natural setting was open to amateurs, professionals, and all ages also. Thomsen was quick to agree. "Golf can serve the needs of many. It's my job to open up to more and increase the standards within the art form-golf." Thomsen said. Some have asked, "Who do you think will read it, Jack?" "Few," came the reply. "Golfers mainly, and only the most obsessive of those. There's no popular market for this book. Materialism is too much in demand, and serving the spirit has become lost in the equation." That brief exchange reveals an unvarnished truth: golf is essentially caught in a materialistic grasp as an overview of the game, and yet as an art form, independent players function in it. The artist Vincent van Gogh had sold few of his paintings. Someone else had done that. Is the treasure the money or the art? Golf: Find Center, Enter the Circle's genesis from a personal journal's beginning had been imbued with a Joycean stream of consciousness that, in its intuitiveness, is likely to engage none but the determined reader. By way of contrast, however, the book's title forthrightly distills Thomsen's thesis. Golf, he asserts, can be a spiritual practice when done as an expression of the golfer's essential self and if engaged in it for the sheer love of golf's diversity, its wholeness, bringing on its transcendental nature. Accept Thomsen's invitation. Turn your attention inward, tap into the answers that are there, feel the resultant centering, the balance, and project that centering-enter the circle. "A liberated person possesses perfect senses and with perfect senses only can serve the sense proprietor," says the Bhagavad Gita.

A memoir about the uncommon world of the club caddy and the improbable journey it resulted in for one man. A candid and laugh-out-loud funny narrative, it captures a side of the service industry rarely glimpsed by the outside.

Hard-hitting Rory McIlroy was always destined to become a professional golfer, from the moment he recorded a 40-yard drive aged just two. His first hole-in-one came when he was nine, and he played in his first professional European tour event as a 16-year old in 2005. Despite high expectations, Rory keeps a cool head on his young shoulders and lets his golf do the talking. His maiden victory came in the nail-biting 2009 Dubai Desert Classic, and he has since gone on to win multiple titles around the world. After falling apart at the 2011 Masters, his breakthrough came in June 2011 when he won his first major, the US Open. An incredible 2012 followed, where he ended up ranked number one golfer in the world. But in 2013, despite high aspirations, Rory did not fare well in major tournaments until the end of the year, when he won the Australian Open by one stroke. This is the story of one of golf's greatest ever talents.

This is a new release of the original 1946 edition.

REAL GOLF is a rare book concerned with the wild and crazy game of amateur golf. It is not about professional golf or Tiger or Phil or Jack, etc. It deals with the characters, practices and fits that make up the game the vast majority of golfers play - amateur golf or REAL golf.

"Golf is not a game, it's a punishment." -David Feherty "If you're one of those people who think golf is a religion, prepare for some seriously funny blasphemy." --Troon McAllister, author of The Green Somewhere in Ireland, A Village is Missing an Idiot is a collection of Feherty's most popular Golf Magazine columns, intermingled with his most outrageous work from Golfonline.com. As an added bonus, readers will be treated to some notorious pieces from his work at the British publication Golf Monthly. Edited by and with a running commentary by Feherty, and accompanied by some of the priceless letters to the editor from readers across the country and around the globe complaining about Feherty's perversity, Somewhere in Ireland is the perfect Father's Day gift for the crankiest duffer in every family.

Former PGA Golf Professional and USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith walks you step-by-step, club-by-club from your car to the first tee and beyond in a laugh-out-loud style that not only teaches, but entertains. Any golfer recognizes the fears, the patterns, the downright horrors of the first shot of a round. Ever topped that first shot just off the front edge of the tee box? Or worse yet, whiffed it completely? Come on, admit it. It happened. Remember? The problems with that first shot don't start with the swing. Nope, the problems start in the parking lot. And this book will get you flawlessly from the parking lot, through the clubhouse, onto the driving range, over the putting green, and finally successfully off the first tee with a smile.