NorCal golf fans can be proud of our 2021 Solheim Cup rookies

Despite the fact that the American 2021 Solheim Cup squad went down to a narrow defeat at Inverness Golf Club over the Labor Day weekend, two NorCal players who were making their first Solheim Cup appearances put up performances to be proud of.

Yealimi Noh of Team USA plays her shot from the fifth tee during her Monday Singles match against Mel Reid of England. (photo credit: 2021 Getty Images)

Mina Harigae of Monterey, and Yealimi Noh of Concord—the first a relative veteran and the other early in her career as a professional golfer—acquitted themselves well against a European squad that came to the event in fine form. Harigae is a four-time California Women’s Amateur champion (2001–2004), and Noh won the 2018 USGA Girls’ Junior Championship at Poppy Hills Golf Club, the home of the Northern California Golf Association.

Harigae, who turned pro in 2009, racked up a 1-2-0 record in her first Solheim Cup appearance. She and partner Lexi Thompson dropped their Saturday Fourball match to a dominating performance by Anna Nordqvist and Matilda Castern, and Harigae fell to experienced Solheim Cup hand Céline Boutier (4-0-0 in 2019) in the Monday singles, 4 and 3.

Noh, who is in her second year as a professional, having turned down a golf scholarship to UCLA to go pro at 18, finished the weekend 2-1-0. She was blanked in the Saturday Fourballs when she and playing partner Brittany Altomare lost a close match to Britain’s Georgia Hall and Leona Maguire of Ireland. Maguire dominated the event and set a Solheim Cup record by putting 4-1/2 points on the board for the European team in five matches.

The Monday singles saw Noh pitted against veteran UK player Mel Reid, a pro since 2007 who has played on three Solheim Cup teams: 2011, 2015, and 2017, coming into this year’s event with a 4-6-2 record. The 20-year-old from Alameda ran up an early lead, winning the first four holes against Reid, and fought off a late rally by the 33-year-old from Derby, England, winning the match on the 18th hole.

Harigae and Noh, paired together for a Sunday Fourball match, scored a win against Sophia Popov of Germany and Céline Boutier. The rookie duo established an early lead over their opponents, and were three up at the turn. Boutier and Popov, the 2020 AIG Women’s Open (Women’s British Open) winner, battled back to square the match at the 13th hole, but eventually fell to a renewed onslaught by the NorCal duo, who put up birdies on three of the last four holes against the Euro pair’s run of pars.

The Solheim Cup will return in 2023 at the Finca Cortesín Golf Club in Casares, near Málaga, Spain before switching back to an even-years rotation in 2024 to avoid conflicts with the Ryder Cup. Venues beyond 2023 have not yet been set.

Tense times at the Solheim Cup after rules controversy

It just wouldn’t be a US–EU team competition, be it Ryder Cup or Solheim Cup, without a rules controversy. This stems in part from the heightened level of tension at these events—representing your country (or continent?) and all—and in part, I believe, from the participating players’ unfamiliarity with the rules of match play, which most of them rarely play.

The incident I am referring to occurred at the 13th hole of the Inverness Golf Club, during the afternoon four-ball match pitting Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing of the USA against Nanna Koerstz-Madsen and Madelene Sagström of the EU squad. Korda had an eagle putt to win the hole which curled up and stalled right at the edge of the hole. The American player sagged to her knees in disbelief, and before she even had time to get to her feet, Sagström rushed in and scooped up the ball, effectively conceding the tap-in birdie. Sounds straightforward, right? A no-brainer concession of a kick-in putt, right?

Wrong…

In accordance with a pre-match agreement between the two captains and rules officials, the official following each match has the right—and the responsibility—to step in and make a ruling even if not called in by a player, and that is exactly what happened. The official with the match felt that the ball was overhanging the lip of the hole, and invoked Rule 13.3a, which states that “…if any part of a player’s ball overhangs the lip of the hole, the player is allowed a reasonable time to reach the hole and ten more seconds to wait and see whether the ball will fall into the hole.”

The two Euro players contended that the ball was not overhanging the hole, and was obviously in a position such that it would not have fallen. Sagström was adamant that she would “…never pick up a putt that had a chance to go in.”

The problem is that whether or not it seemed obvious that the ball would not drop, since it was overhanging—which was confirmed by video review—Korda was entitled to the chance to get to the ball and wait 10 seconds just in case it did drop. Sagström deprived her of that chance, and in accordance with one of the quirkier rules of match play, the putt was considered holed for eagle. The win on the hole gave Korda and Ewing the lead in the match, which they never relinquished, going on to win 1-up over Sagström and Koerstz-Madsen.

Reactions to the controversy on social media, which broke mostly—but not exclusively—along lines of U.S. / European Union allegiance, included accusations of cheating; outrage that the American duo called in the official; and declarations that, in the interest of “fair play” and sportsmanship the Americans should have given back the point by conceding the next hole.

Let’s go through those reactions one by one:

Cheating

Who cheated?

The Americans? No—all Nelly did was to play her ball, and watch it narrowly miss dropping in for an eagle. Neither she nor her playing partner, Ally Ewing, called in the official—indeed, both of them were equal parts mystified and upset at the ruling.

The officials? No—the official with the match invoked a rule which, though perhaps somewhat obscure, is perfectly valid, and two other officials agreed that the ball had indeed been overhanging the lip of the hole, confirming the first official’s call.

The Europeans? Well… on the face of it, all that can be said of Madelene Sagström’s actions is that she unknowingly broke a rule by being so quick to pick up the ball in conceding the putt. Though Sagström contends that she picked the ball up in the certainty that it wasn’t going to fall, the glass-half-full crowd might say that she rushed in and picked up the ball so quickly because she was afraid that it would fall in for an eagle—whether in ignorance of the rule, or in the hope that no one else would recall the rule and apply it. That line of thinking is a little too conspiratorial for my taste; I think that she acted innocently, if in ignorance.

Outrage

This one is quickly put to bed, and would never have even been brought up by anyone who paid attention to the broadcast of the events. The match official acted on her own, in full accord with the pre-match agreement between the two team captains and the rules officials. The complainants who claim that this ruling would mean that you have to wait for any ball, anywhere on the green, to drop are both ignorant of the text of the rule and ridiculous. Those who claim that the ball clearly wasn’t overhanging are guilty of, at best, wishful thinking, and at worst, willful ignorance. The officials reviewed it, they ruled that the ball was overhanging the lip of the hole, and that therefore Sagström had broken Rule 13.3b when she picked up the ball—the result of which, in match play, is that the ball is treated as holed with the previous stroke, with no penalty to her opponent.

Concession

This is the most ingenuous reaction of them all—the contention, widely ballyhooed about, that Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing should have conceded the 14th hole in protest, or something, of the ruling on the 13th green.

Folks, the Solheim Cup is a competition—not a tea party, not a friendly weekend match among friends, but a serious competition between professional athletes, people whose raison d’être is winning. That is not to say that winning cannot be accomplished in a gracious, civilized manner—it can, and indeed should be—but there is no basis, even within the bounds of sportsmanship and fair play, to give a point back to your opponent which they lost through precipitate action in ignorance of the rules.

Pressing this point in social media discussions in the immediate aftermath of the ruling resulted in my being accused of being unsportsmanlike and having no sense of fair play. I was also told that I will never have another putt conceded to me for the rest of my life.

My response to all that is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

I don’t know if conceding the next hole would have been against the rules, but I am pretty sure that it would have earned Nelly Korda and Ally Ewing a stern talking-to from Captain Pat Hurst, and possibly from some of the co-captains, and the rest of the team. The ruling was odd, and unexpected, and possibly outside of the experience of the players involved, but it was correct.

To sum up…

The point of the rules of golf, even the complex, obtuse, or seemingly unnecessary ones, is to remove uncertainty. Many of the people who weighed in on this situation in the online discussions that I was witness to were adamant that Nelly Korda’s ball would never, never, have fallen in to the hole, and they are probably right. In the absence of a sudden wind gust, an earthquake, or an explosion nearby à la the closing scenes of Caddyshack, that ball would not have fallen into the hole for eagle.

But you can’t be absolutely, 100%, certain that it would not have fallen—and that’s where Rule 13.3a comes in. Nelly was allowed to take a reasonable time to get to the hole, wait ten seconds, and tap the ball in for birdie if it hadn’t fallen. Whether out of ignorance or malice, Madelene Sagström took that possibility, remote as it might have been, away from Nelly—and paid the price.

And I’ll bet she keeps her hands in her pockets, and away from her competitors’ golf balls, from now on…

Fortinet Championship: New kids on the block look forward to their spot on the PGA Tour calendar

It’s a fact of life in the world of corporate sponsorship of sporting events that sponsors come and go, and though not as regular as the changing of the seasons, it is as inevitable as the tide. The time has come, in that irregular cycle, for a much-loved Northern California event—the erstwhile Safeway Open, held at Napa’s Silverado Resort and Spa for the last four years, is turning over a new leaf to become the Fortinet Championship.

The Mansion at Silverado Resort and Spa, on the east side of the Napa Valley, once the home of United States Senator John Miller. (photo courtesy Silverado Resort and Spa)

Fortinet is not a name that you will necessarily be familiar with unless you are a commercial IT professional; they are a 20-year-old Silicon Valley company, headquartered in Sunnyvale, that provides enterprise security services to businesses, and educational and government institutions. The $4 billion company stepped in to take up the sponsorship of the season-opening PGA Tour event when Safeway ended a four-year run as title sponsor in 2020.

Fortinet has committed to a six-year run as title sponsor of the event, with an option for a seventh. Asked during a media day press conference last week if the company is committed to keeping the event at the Napa Valley venue, Fortinet’s Chief Marketing Officer John Maddison said that while they are not contractually obligated to the Silverado Resort and Spa, they consider it an ideal location for the event for their purposes.

The new title sponsor will be conducting a cyber-security symposium during tournament week along with partners IBM and CDW, among others, but while the IT executives and professionals are schmoozing and networking, golf fans who are just looking for a nice day out on a beautiful golf course will still get to enjoy good food, drink, and post-round entertainment, along with some golf competition on the Johnny Miller-designed North Course at Silverado Resort and Spa.

The full list of competitors for the 2021 event isn’t known yet, but Phil Mickelson, who stepped into the role of tournament spokesperson during the Safeway Open period (I’m going to miss those big cardboard Phil cutouts at my local Safeway…) through his association with sports-marketing firm Lagardére is continuing his commitment to the event. The 2019 winner, Cameron Champ, a NorCal local from Sacramento, is also committed to the tournament. Champ’s non-profit, the Cameron Champ Foundation, will hold a pro-am and a charity golf tournament on the Monday of tournament week, September 13th.

More information on the event, including parking, food and drink, volunteer and sponsorship opportunities, ticket sales and the lineup for the Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night live music concerts can be found online at https://www.fortinetchampionship.com

Equipment Review: Edge EX irons from Ben Hogan Golf ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

August 5th, 2022: I felt that I should post an update to this article to share some sad news – the Ben Hogan Golf Equipment Company is no more. I wrote about it here.

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Let’s get this out of the way right from the start—I am a big fan of everything Ben Hogan. Though I first got my hands on a golf club in junior high school, I didn’t really get interested in golf until about 18 years later, when I was introduced to the golf writing of the legendary sportswriter Dan Jenkins.

Jenkins, like Hogan a native of Fort Worth, Texas, started covering Hogan’s career as a college freshman writing for the old Fort Worth Press. His admiration for Ben Hogan rubbed off on me through my reading, and my interest in all things Hogan eventually extended to the golf clubs manufactured by the company Hogan founded in the early 1950s, Ben Hogan Golf.

Over the years I have acquired four sets of Hogan irons of various vintages (most recently a nice 3–PW set of Hogan Apex Plus cavity-back irons with the rare Apex 4 graphite shafts), so it was with much interest that I followed the revival of Ben Hogan Golf as an equipment manufacturer back in 2016. I tested and reviewed their original Fort Worth irons back then, and was very impressed by their design, build quality, and performance, even though I felt that their use of loft numbering rather than traditional club-numbering designations was a bit odd.

Jump forward five years to 2021 and we find the reboot of the Ben Hogan Golf Company going strong, having defined the direct-to-consumer business model for golf clubs. I have been keeping my eye on the company’s offerings since 2016, and a couple of months ago I took advantage of their demo program to try (and buy) my first new driver in more years than I care to admit. When I first saw the new Edge EX irons I knew I would have to try them, too.

Why the Edge EX?

I was drawn to the Edge EX, Ben Hogan Golf’s new entry in the “Game-Improvement Irons” category, by their resemblance to the Apex Edge irons of the original Ben Hogan Golf Company (of which I own a pair: new-old-stock 5-iron and 6-iron with Apex 4 graphite shafts), and by the fact that though they are labeled “game improvement” they don’t have that “shovels for duffers” look that is so common to many entries in the category.

The hybrid cavity/muscle-back “Open Cavity” design, which the Edge EX has in common with the Apex Edge of 20 years ago, is a proven way of combining the low/rearward mass placement that is instru-mental in helping get a ball up in the air with the (moderately) wide sole that helps make these clubs friendly in the hands of mid-to-high handicappers.

The open-cavity back and perimeter weighting of the new Ben Hogan Edge EX irons combine for its high-launch characteristics and forgiveness on mishits. (Photo by author)

Speaking of the sole, the Ben Hogan V-Sole design, which combines a high-bounce leading edge with a low-bounce trailing edge, is a big contributor to the player-friendliness of the Edge EX, easing turf inter-action across a wide range of conditions.

The dual-camber Hogan V-Sole design helps the Edge EX irons work smoothly through a wide range of turf conditions. (Photo by author)

The thickish topline of the Edge EX, while a feature that is disparaged by aficionados of butter-knife blades, is evidence of yet another “friendliness factor” design feature: the perimeter weighting which increases forgiveness on mishits.

While some may not care much for the topline view of the Ben Hogan Edge EX irons, the perimeter weighting that it represents increases forgiveness on mishits. (Photo by author)

Other features I like are the lofts and gapping which are employed in the Edge EX design. The people at Ben Hogan Golf believe in con-sistent gapping—all of their iron sets use 4º loft increments—and the Edge EX irons use lofts that are two degrees stronger than their Icon and PTx Pro irons for that little bit of extra help, distance-wise, for the players for whom these clubs are designed. (It is worth noting, how-ever, that the Edge EX lofts are two to three degrees weaker than offerings in the same category from most other manufacturers.)

Personally, I think that a high launch is more desirable than the potential distance gain from jacked-up iron lofts, and higher-lofted irons are easier to hit, so Edge EX lofts that are only a couple of degrees stronger than Hogan’s player’s irons seem a reasonable compromise to me.

Demo-ing the Edge EX

I took advantage of Ben Hogan Golf’s demo program to try out the Edge EX for myself. As part of the tryout I did a bit of a comparison test against the 7-iron from my current gamers, the Sub70 Golf 639 CB irons with stiff KBS Tour-V 90 shafts, as well as the 7-irons from three of my sets of vintage Hogan irons: Apex Plus with Apex 4 (stiff) steel shaft, Apex Plus with Apex 4 graphite shaft, and Edge CFT with Apex 3 (regular flex) graphite shaft. My demo Edge EX 7-iron was fitted with the KBS Tour 90 S-flex shaft.

I chose to play off the Edge CFT, a lesser-known offering from the old Hogan Company, against the Edge EX because it is a similar open-cavity design, but with a Compression Forged Titanium (ergo “CFT”) face brazed into a stainless-steel body. The use of strong, lightweight titanium for the face, in conjunction with the open cavity back and perimeter-weighted design, maximized forgiveness in these clubs which were, in my estimation, ahead of their time and never fully appreciated for their playing qualities.

In two range sessions with the Edge EX and my lineup of comparison clubs I particularly noted the similarity in feel and ball flight between the Edge EX and the Edge CFT, which I attribute to the similarities in design shared by the two. Both feature a high, controllable ball flight and a smooth feel at impact (even if you’re not wearing a nickel-sized bald spot into the center of the club face.)

The loft of the Edge EX 7-iron, at 32º, was two degrees stronger than the clubs I was comparing it to, and relying on eyeball evaluation of ball flight alone I judged it be similar in distance, with higher ball flight (in my hands), especially compared to the older Apex Plus irons, regardless of shaft material. The V-Sole design of the Edge EX allowed the club to work smoothly through even the less-than-ideal turf conditions at the range where I was testing the club (they move the ropes on Mondays, but I was only able to get to the range on weekends—because I still have a day job—so the hitting areas were generally a bit chewed up.)

Despite its standard lie and regular-sized grip, rather than the 1º flat and midsize grip that is my preferred setup, I found the demo Edge EX to be a comfortable, consistent club to play with, and even in the hands of this high-handicapper (slightly higher than average, I admit—I need to get out and play more golf) it is workable, right and left, if you feel the need to play with ball-flight shape.

The bottom-line result of my club testing of the Edge EX—two range sessions, comparing shots to some vintage Hogan irons and my current Sub70 gamers—is that slightly more than a year after buying the Sub70s, I am contemplating the purchase of another new set of irons.

To be honest, if the folks at Ben Hogan Golf were to combine the updated open-cavity design of the Edge EX with the titanium face technology of the 2003-vintage Edge CFT, I wouldn’t be thinking twice about that purchase.

Book Review: “The Murder of Marion Miley”, by Beverly Bell ⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆

Given that The Murder of Marion Miley is about the murder of a talented and in her time, well-known, American amateur golfer, I debated whether to place this review in my golf-related blog, Will o'the Glen on Golf, or my book-review blog, Will o'the Glen on Books. Solomon-like, I decided to have it both ways and post it in both.

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Though this book reads like fiction, Marion Miley was a real person, and the broader outline of events described in the book actually happened: 27-year-old Marion and her mother, Elsie, were shot and killed during a late-night break-in and robbery at the Lexington, Kentucky, country club where they shared an upstairs apartment. Marion’s father, Fred Miley, formerly employed at the Lexington Country Club, was still married to her mother, but had taken a job at another golf club, in Cincinnati, Ohio, and lived apart from his wife and daughter.

Marion was a well known amateur golfer who competed against, and often defeated, such legends of the women’s game as Glenna Collett Vare, Babe Didrikson, and Patty Berg. Amateur golf being a much more glamorous and high-profile game at the time, Marion was a well-known name, and rubbed elbows with such famous personalities as Bing Crosby, and the former British king, Edward VIII, and his wife, the twice-divorced American socialite Wallis Simpson.

The timing of the events recounted in the book, just over two months before America’s entry into the Second World War on December 7, 1941, meant that this story has largely been relegated to a footnote in history. Beverly Bell’s efforts to bring the story of Marion’s death to the attention of the public 80 years after the fact are well intentioned, but, in my assessment, fall short of the mark.

The novelization of true events is a problematic task, even when preceded, as was done in this case, with an author’s note disclaimer that “(a)ll dialogue and journal writings are imagined.” Given the amount of the text that is given over to such imagined entities, the imaginary content seriously overtakes the factual, and I couldn’t help but think, after closing the cover on the final pages of the book, that this was a case of a strong magazine article being teased out to book length, and doing a disservice to the story in the process.

I found the book’s structure problematic, opening as it did with a clinical—and not for the squeamish—description of Marion’s injuries from the two bullets that took her life; even more problematic were the subsequent random meanderings of the narrative voice between a variety of points-of-view: the police investigating the crime; Marion’s father, as he attempts to deal with the loss of both his wife and daughter at one stroke; Marion’s best friend, Frances “Fritz” Laval; and the perpetrators of the murders. The constantly changing voice was confusing, and made it difficult to keep track of both events and characters—some of whom, it turns out, were fabricated from the whole cloth by the author.

Given the fact that the publisher, South Limestone Books, is an imprint of the University of Kentucky Press, I was also surprised by instances of clumsy phrasing and sentence structure which an attentive and competent copy editor would have caught and corrected. Such matters detract from the overall impression of a book, more so perhaps for technically savvy readers than for others, but they can be like little trip-stones that interrupt one’s reading by interjecting a jarring sense of discord into the flow of the story.

I will stop short of a full dismissal of this book, but I cannot, in conscience, give it a strong recommendation. Marion Miley’s life and tragic death is a story that was worth the telling, and it’s unfortunate that this effort falls so far short of what the story of her life deserved, because given its relatively minor status in the larger scheme of the events of the time, even within the confines of the game of golf, it is unlikely that there will be another attempt.

Book Review: “Palm Springs Golf”, by Larry Bohannan – Local history book with widespread appeal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Local histories are often charming, well-written – and only of interest to residents of the local area about which they are written. But when the local area being written about is a world-renowned golf destination, not to mention a well-known playground of stars from the worlds of entertainment and politics, and the book is authored by a longtime area newsman possessed of a deep knowledge of the game of golf and a keen interest in local history, the book takes on a wider appeal.

The 2015 release Palm Springs Golf – A History of Coachella Valley Legends and Fairways is just such a book. Authored by Larry Bohannan, the award-winning golf writer and columnist for the Coachella Valley region’s Desert Sun newspaper, Palm Springs Golf is a complete history of the evolution of the Palm Springs, California, region from sleepy desert hideaway to dynamic vacation destination – all through the power of the game of golf.

Bohannan’s prose, fashioned by a writer who has been honing his craft since 1982, brings the history of the Coachella Valley alive for the reader. From the first chapter, in which the reader will learn a bit of the earliest history of the Coachella Valley; to the last, in which the state of the region’s world-famous golf resorts and renowned professional tournaments, in the present day and beyond, is detailed, the author faithfully chronicles the people, places, and events that made the region what it is today.

It is the presence of high-quality resort golf and top-level professional and amateur golf competition which has, in large part, forged the region’s identity as a wintertime resort destination. Television coverage of golf competitions being played under sunny skies in shirt-sleeve conditions while much of the rest of the country is shivering in frigid temperatures and shoveling snow off the doorstep has for decades been some of the best advertisement the business and development communities in the Palm Springs area could hope for. 

Even before the advent of televised sports coverage, the ability to play golf in sunny conditions in wintertime was a draw the Coachella Valley business leaders exploited. From nine-hole courses associated with the early resorts such as the Hotel La Quinta and the Desert Inn of the 1920s, to the full 18-hole courses of the 1950s built at the Thunderbird  Country Club (the first in the area, in 1951), Tamarisk, Indian Wells, and many, many others, golf and the beautiful winter weather brought everyone from movie stars to presidents to the desert.

Golf competitions are a big part of the Palm Springs story which Bohannan relates in the book. Early amateur competitions were draws for top golfers (and enthusiastic vacationing golf fans) and professional competitions followed. The Coachella Valley’s best-known pro tournament was for years the star-studded Bob Hope Desert Classic (known by different names over the years as sponsorship changed) and it was joined by a variety of smaller, shorter-lived made-for-TV events such as the CBS Matchplay Classic and The Skins Game.

And not only was golf good for the desert, the desert was good for golf—two visits to the Palm Springs area by the international Ryder Cup competition, in 1955 and 1959, were instrumental in raising the profile of that event from that of an obscure USA vs GBI trophy event to the important position in the international sporting calendar which it now enjoys.

Women’s golf has long been a part of the desert scene, and author Bohannan gives the distaff game its fair share of attention in the book. The Colgate Dinah Shore Classic, played at Mission Hills Country Club, became a major event on the LPGA schedule, and remains so to this day in its current incarnation as the ANA Inspiration.

From early settlers and quaint, practically home-made courses built alongside the early resort hotels to the present day’s numerous resort and country club courses carpeting the valley floor; from everyday folks looking for a respite from the crowding of the Los Angeles Basin or the frigid wintertime conditions of the East and Midwest to the movie stars and political figures (including presidents from Eisenhower to Obama) who added a tinge of glamour to Palm Springs, the story of the Coachella Valley golf scene is more than just a local success story. Larry Bohannan’s book lays out the fascinating history of this world-famous golf destination in a diligently researched, well-written account that every golf fan who has ever visited the area (or dreamed of it while shivering through a frigid East Coast winter) will want to read.

Palm Springs Golf is available online at Amazon in paperback and Kindle editions; at Barnes & Noble, also in paperback and an electronic ‘Nook’ edition; from your local independent bookseller (of course…)—and if you are lucky enough to be visiting the region already, at pro shops in the area.

Book Review: “Arnie, Seve, and a Fleck of Golf History”, by Bill Fields ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

If you have an interest in the history of the game of golf beyond the current headlines of the PGA Tour, one of the people whose work you should read is Bill Fields. Fields, a former senior writer at Golf World magazine, is a four-time winner of the Golf Writers Association of America’s annual writing contest whose work has also appeared in Golf Digest and the New York Times.

Fields’ 2014 book, Arnie, Seve, and a Fleck of Golf History, is a condensed master course in “How to write about golf”. Of course, the best golf writing isn’t about the score or who won, or what clubs they used—it’s about the people in the game, winners or also-rans, and their journeys to achievement. Fields is a master at identifying and illuminating the essence of the story he’s telling, with tremendous empathy for the people involved, and he has a poetic flair for a well-turned phrase that makes his prose a joy to read.

Drawn from his 30-year body of work, the individual articles which make up the book are segregated into sections on the greats of the game—individual men and women who stand tall in the annals of golf; great championships—competitions that defined turning points or significant moments in golf history; and underdogs—characters from the rich history of golf, some champions, some just obscure names in the agate, who are nevertheless part of the rich weave of the tapestry that is the history of the greatest game.

Some of the people you’ll read about in this book are Harry Vardon, the great English champion to whom 95% of the golfers in the world pay homage every time they pick up a club—he invented (or at least popularized) the overlapping grip; John J. McDermott, still the youngest man ever to win the United States Open, in 1911, at the age of 19 years, 10 months—a great champion who repeated the win the following year, becoming the first to complete the tournament under par, and who faded away into mental illness and obscurity; and Glenna Collett Vare—one of the great champions of the early years of women’s golf in the United States, a woman who combined marriage and motherhood with the accomplishments of a champion golfer.

Fields writes with compassion and understanding, whatever the subject, from well-known incidents like Arnold Palmer’s well-known meltdown in the 1966 U. S. Open at the Olympic Club in San Francisco, to footnotes in golf history such as the first 55 recorded in an eighteen-hole round of golf—and still the only one in a competitive round—a 16-under carded by a little-known Texas pro named Homero Blancas, on an oilfield course in the flatlands of east Texas.

With a foreword by a man who is simultaneously a great champion of the game, and an avid student of its history, Ben Crenshaw, Arnie, Seve, and a Fleck of Golf History is a must-read for anyone with an interest in the history of the people and events of the game of golf.