A new book from New
York Times bestselling author John Feinstein is always a treat. He is a
sports journalist non pareil, as
erudite and knowledgeable – across a wide spectrum of sports, not just golf –
as he is prolific, and his latest “The
First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup” is his 28th non-fiction
sports book.
Feinstein has written about all the major sports that define
America’s sporting life, from pro tennis to NFL football. Even if you don’t
read sports books, you may know his work from his time at Sports Illustrated, or his current stints at the Washington Post and Golf Digest – or you may hear him on the radio on Sirius XM, or see
him on television on the Golf Channel. In fact, if you are an American sports
fan, of any stripe, this introductory paragraph is probably a waste of my time,
because you already know his work.
The upshot of this recitation of Feinstein’s bona fides is
that he is a sports journalist that professional athletes know and trust, and
getting the best stories, the inside dope, requires the ability to get athletes
to talk to you. John has that ability, and it certainly shows in his latest
effort.
The 2016 Ryder Cup, which was played at the self-styled Hazeltine National Golf Club, near Chaska, Minnesota – a suburb of Minneapolis, was a watershed moment in the history of
that storied event. It was the year that the United States stopped a European squad
that had dominated the event with three wins in a row, from 2010 through 2014 –
the third time in recent decades that the U.S. team had stopped a European run
of victories at three. The first time was in 1991, after European victories in
1985, 1987, and 1989; then again in 2008, after the Euro squad took top honors
in 2002, 2004, and 2006.
The 2016 event was notable for the wild swirl of events in
the world of golf that led up to it, not the least of which was the rancorous
atmosphere of the previous Ryder Cup, the 2014 event in which the venerable
elder statesman Tom Watson was brought back to try and repeat his 1993 success
as Ryder Cup skipper.
A clash of styles and a lack of communication – not to
mention something of an uprising in the ranks, led by another respected figure
in U.S. Ryder cup history, Phil Mickelson, doomed Watson’s leadership in 2014.
The U.S. golf establishment – meaning the PGA of America, which runs the event
for the red, white, and blue – wanted to wash away the bad taste that was left
by the 2014 loss, and to that end they formed a Ryder Cup “task force” – a
committee, widely derided by the European players and media – which was
supposed to solve the Americans’ Ryder Cup problems.
Feinstein lays out the background, both recent and
historical, that underpins the 2016 Ryder Cup, then digs into the personalities
and near-term events which defined that contest, including the task force, and
the selection of Davis Love III as U.S. captain, for a repeat performance after
his stint as U.S. skipper in the agonizing 2012 loss at Medinah, which was
controversial.
One headline-grabber was the social media clash between then-PGA
President Ted Bishop and Euro Ryder Cup stalwart Ian Poulter, a
schoolyard-worthy spat that resulted in Bishop’s unceremonious ouster for a
series of childish remarks leveled at Poulter; another, coming much closer to
the event, was the heated, and totally spontaneous, on-air spat between Golf Channel
analysts Brandel Chamblee and David Duval over the relative importance of
leadership and individual play.
During the event, one of the big stories was the play of
Patrick Reed, both as a partner with his temperamentally polar opposite Jordan
Spieth, and solo, as the man who took down the boisterous, and boastful, Rory
McIlroy of the Euro squad in Sunday singles.
Another social-media-based dust-up
occurring before and during play was the
attention-seeking U.S.-bashing promulgated by PJ Willett, the schoolteacher older
brother of then-reigning Master champion Danny Willett. The elder Willett
brother teed off on American fans in an article for a British sports
publication, and in a series of posts on Twitter, guaranteeing a raucous
reception by the bottom 10% of American fans.
*********************
The strength of Feinstein’s work, and this book is no
exception, is the time and effort he puts into interviews, and the wealth of
material he obtains by doing so. No sound bites or quickly tossed-off aphorisms
are to be found here – everyone involved in the event talked to him, some at
length (with one exception – U.S. vice
captain Tiger Woods. No surprise there.)
I will admit that I am not a huge fan of the Ryder Cup. It
has become, in my opinion, an overblown, over-amped biennial hype-fest, owing
its notoriety more to rancor than to great golf – but Feinstein’s writing
drew me in. His research is so thorough and his insights so telling and precise
that even though he was writing about an event which I have come to dislike over
the last few years, I couldn’t put the book down.
Reading closely with a critical eye will turn up errors and shortcomings in
almost any book, especially one on a subject in which I have an interest, and a
certain store of knowledge (if I say so
myself…)
I could have done without quite so much background on the head pro and superintendent of Hazeltine. They deserve to be mentioned, of course, but the pages of background on these two men started to wear thin – and to feel, frankly, like word-count padding.
More seriously, it was a little bit disappointing to see some pretty shocking errors in the text. First and foremost was a rather egregious
misquoting of Ben Crenshaw’s iconic, well-known, and oft-quoted conclusion to
his Saturday-night press conference at the 1999 Ryder Cup at The Country Club, Brookline, Massachusetts: “I’m gonna leave
y’all with one thought, them I’m gonna leave. I’m a big believer in fate. I
have a good feeling about this. That’s all I’m gonna tell ya.” – which Feinstein
styled as “I’m gonna leave y’all with this: I’m a big believer in fate. I have
a feeling about this.”
In a section about Davis Love II, the well-liked father of
2012/2016 Ryder Cup skipper Davis Love III, Feinstein casually mentions that
the elder Love had played with Harvey Penick, then dismissed Penick as the cowriter of what is considered one of
the game’s holy texts, Harvey Penick’s
Little Red Book, a rather glaring mischaracterization of one of American
golf’s most revered figures.
These two errors, along with a host of lesser faux pas that should have been caught by
a good copy editor, left a bit of tarnish on the otherwise gleaming aspect of
the book, and took a half-star off of my assessment.
Regardless, if you love golf, and good golf writing, this
book deserves a spot in your bookshelf. Buy it for yourself, or since the
holidays are upon us as of this writing, put it on your Christmas list, golf
lovers, and keep your fingers crossed.
