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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Ball games > Golf
In March 2004, Hank Haney received a call from Tiger Woods in which
the golf champion asked Haney to be his coach. It was a call that
would change both men’s lives. Tiger – only 28 at the time –
was by then already an icon, judged by the sporting press as not
only one of the best golfers ever, but possibly the best athlete
ever. But Tiger was always looking to improve, and he wanted
Hank’s help. Over the next six years of working together, the
supremely gifted Woods collected six major championships and
rewrote golf history. Hank was one of the very few people allowed
behind the curtain. Always haunting Tiger was his fear of ‘the
big miss’ – the wildly inaccurate golf shot that can ruin an
otherwise solid round – and it was because that type of blunder
was sometimes part of Tiger’s game that Hank carefully redesigned
his swing mechanics. Towards the end of their time together, the
champion’s laser-like focus began to blur and he became less
willing to put in punishing hours practicing. Hints that Tiger
hungered to reinvent himself were present in his bizarre
infatuation with elite military training, and – in a development
Hank didn’t see coming – in the scandal that would make
headlines in late 2009. It all added up to a big miss that Hank,
try as he might, couldn’t save Tiger from. There’s never been a
book about Tiger Woods that is as intimate and revealing – or one
so wise about what it takes to coach a superstar athlete.
Now the subject of a major film. Once or twice a generation, an
athlete transcends his sport - at last, here's Seve Ballesteros in
his own words There are golfers, and there are golfers. And then
there's Seve. Severiano Ballesteros was perhaps the most naturally
gifted golfer ever to have walked a fairway. From the moment his
brother Manuel gave him his first club he was unstoppable. A few
weeks before his seventeenth birthday he turned pro. Five years
later he won the Open. A genius had arrived. For the best part of
two decades Seve dominated the golfing landscape. He played shots
others could only dream of. With 94 wins as a professional
(including 5 majors) he was a phenomenon, an athlete who
transcended his sport. But Seve stood for more than simple
excellence. Almost single-handedly, Seve gave European golf
credibility; almost single-handedly, he made the Ryder Cup one of
the greatest contests in world sport. And when, as captain, he
finally lifted the trophy on home soil in 1997, a whole continent
rejoiced. His pride and passion have inspired millions, and we have
taken him to our hearts. Here, for the first time, Seve tells his
own story. From his humble beginnings right up to the present day,
here at last is the man behind the magic in his own words. Seve is
utterly entertaining, blazingly charismatic and unique. Severiano
"Seve" Ballesteros Sota was a Spanish professional golfer and a
leading sports figure. He won more than 90 international
tournaments in an illustrious career. He first caught the attention
of the sporting world in 1976, when at the age of 19 he finished
second at The Open. He played a leading role in the re-emergence of
European golf, helping the European Ryder Cup team to five wins
both as a player and captain. He won the World Match Play
Championship a record-tying five times. He is generally regarded as
the greatest Continental European golfer of all time and won a
record 50 times on the European Tour. Ballesteros died of brain
cancer on 7 May 2011, aged 54.
While golf has a popular following among casual fans, it has become
popular among another passionate yet unlikely group: scientists.
Beyond the caddies, carts, and clubs, the game of golf is an
applied science. The seemingly simple act of striking a golf ball
invokes a wide range of processes, including physics principles
such as energy transfer, kinetics, launch angles, spin, and
momentum. However, in spite of the growing interest in the
fledgling field of "golf science," few books thus far have provided
a comprehensive introduction of the subject. In The Science of the
Perfect Swing, mechanical engineer Peter Dewhurst offers a full
treatment of the science of modern golf. Based on three decades of
experience in the physics of golf, Dewhurst examines topics such as
the interaction between club face and ball, various aspects of
trajectory and impact, and the physics of putting. Rich in
illustrations, graphs, and charts, Dewhurst presents physics-based
discussions in an accessible format. Each chapter also contains a
substantial "Findings and Consequences" section, which draws
conclusions based on the science, and makes recommendations on
ball-striking and other facets of the game. From the mechanics of
club design to modeling the trajectory of the ball once it leaves
the club face, The Science of the Perfect Swing unravels some of
the elusive mysteries about what it takes to play a great game of
golf. Interesting and informative, The Science of the Perfect Swing
strikes a perfect balance between hard science and an accessible
tone that will appeal to golf enthusiasts, engineers, and general
readers of sports science.
In this riveting account of the 1975 Masters Tournament, acclaimed
golf television veteran Gil Capps of NBC Sports and Golf Channel
recaptures the thrilling excitement when three iconic
heavyweights,Jack Nicklaus, Johnny Miller, and Tom Weiskopf,battled
back and forth, riveting the sports world and dramatically
culminating in one of the greatest finishes in golf history.
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