Sports Golf

Revered as the most prestigious tournament in golf, the Masters commands international attention, even among nongolfers. David Sowell returns to Augusta now with the third edition of The Masters, adding more history and updating each hole with additional stories of greatness and tales of woe for a new generation of golfers led by Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy, and Patrick Reed, as well as from an older guard represented by Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, and Sergio Garcia. The legends of the Masters are in full force in this lively look at America's golf classic.

Coming into 2016, the Americans had lost an astounding six out of the last seven Ryder Cup matches, and tensions were running high for the showdown that took place in October 2016 in Hazeltine, Minnesota, just days after American legend Arnold Palmer had died. What resulted was one of the most raucous and heated three days in the cup's long history. Award-winning author John Feinstein takes listeners behind the scenes, providing an inside view of the dramatic stories as they unfolded.

It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. America's favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour's brutal all-or-nothing competition.

Rick Reilly has been a senior sports writer for Sports Illustrated for the past 17 years, and has been named "Sports Writer of The Year" seven times. Now, he pokes his nose into the world of golf. How does he do it? By caddying ("looping") for top players, celebrities, and some really bad run-of-the-mill golfers, Reilly gains insight into the minds of golfers, their winning or less-than-winning ways, and what they actually mutter when they're in the middle of play.

Written in clear, simple terms, this guide explains golf 's rules and etiquette by taking listeners through a round of golf. From dressing properly to putting the final ball on the 18th green, Jim Corbett (nationally recognized as "Mr. Golf Etiquette") covers all the do's and don'ts - and even lets listeners know which rules are safe to bend when playing with friends.

Seven years ago, my soulmate got married—to someone else. Fraser Farmer broke me, made me incapable of loving again. Seven years later, he's back, whispering, "I love you." He's gorgeous, magnetic, successful, and an athlete at the peak of his game. But behind his picture-perfect life and family lies a precarious path of deceit and anguish and a vicious sports agent on the warpath to destroy him. He's a prisoner in his own life, held captive. He still belongs to someone else. Can I help set him free? Can he be the one to uncage and heal my dying heart?

Surprisingly, one of sport’s most contentious, complex, and defining clashes played out not in the boxing ring or at the line of scrimmage but on the genteel green fairways of the world’s finest golf courses. Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their 50-year duel, in both the clubhouse and the boardroom, propelled each to the status of American icon and pushed modern golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys today. Yet for all the ink that has been spilled on these two essential golf figures individually, no one has ever examined their relationship in this way.

Who knows a golfer best? Who’s with them every minute of every round, hears their muttering, knows whether they cheat? Their caddies, of course. So, sportswriter Rick Reilly figured that he could learn a lot about the players and their games by caddying, even though he had absolutely no idea how to do it. Amazingly, some of the best golfers in the world - including Jack Nicklaus, David Duval, Tom Lehman, John Daly, Casey Martin, and Jill McGill - agreed to let Reilly carry their bags at actual PGA and LPGA Tour events.

The Augusta National Golf Club in eastern Georgia is an American icon shrouded in intrigue. It is every bit as exclusive as its prestigious Masters Tournament. Behind the wondrous scenes and memorable tournament play, however, resides a secretive and clannish club with a gentlemen-only membership of 300. Their shared legacy is an institution co-founded by the unlikely partnership of Bobby Jones, unparalleled amateur golfer, and Clifford Roberts, a tight-lipped Wall Street investment broker.

In 2003, after winning six of the 12 majors from 2000 to 2002, Tiger Woods struggled with his swing, leaving him lagging behind the field at both the U.S. Open and the PGA Championship. With Woods out of the picture, the stage was set for a newcomer to claim the top position. Nobody expected that four virtually unknown players would rise to become first-time champions.

Tiger Woods’ long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods’ DUI arrest that night came on the heels of a desperate spinal surgery, just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again. The former paragon of discipline now found himself hopelessly lost and out of control, exposed for all the world to see. That episode could have marked the beginning of Tiger’s end. It proved to be the opposite.

Arnold Palmer changed golf - and sports - forever. The winner of more than 90 tournaments, including four Masters, the numbers on his resume don't do justice to the greatness of his achievements. Because Palmer wasn't just a golfer in the golden age of the sport, knocking heads with other greats like Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player - he also was one of the first sportsmen to understand the marketing possibilities of his, and all, sports.

Though nobody has ever identified a single secret - no universally accepted truth - to the sport, every real player searches for one. Travis McKinley is one such seeker. A former professional golfer who feels like he's an amateur at the rest of life, he makes a pilgrimage to the mythical greens at St. Andrews. On the course where golf was born, every link, hole, fairway - even the gorse - feels like sacred ground. Ground that can help an ordinary player, an ordinary man, achieve a higher plane.

When Sean Zak arrived in St. Andrews, Scotland—the mecca of golf—he was determined to spend his summer in search of the game's true essence. He found it everywhere. At every turn he also found LIV Golf, the Saudi-backed entity which descended on the professional circuit during that summer of the 150th Open Championship. Zak's personal pilgrimage offered him a front-row seat at a cultural reckoning, one which pitted the game's longstanding customs against a divisive new force.

Meet John Richardson, a typical weekend golfer who enjoys the game but can’t break 100. But Richardson differs from the average 24-handicapper in one crucial way. He’s determined to break par within a year at the local golf course while working in a demanding full-time job and trying his best to remain a good husband and father. Famed Scottish golfer/commentator Sam Torrance advises John to “dream on” and PGA Tour pro Darren Clarke tells him that three years would be a more realistic time frame.

Going Low teaches tour-proven strategies so you can break through your individual scoring barrier - whether it's 100, 90, 80, or 70 - for the first time and continue to shoot low golf scores. Drawing heavily from the experience of top professionals and his own work, author Patrick Cohn provides specific instructions that will guide you, lesson by lesson, toward your dreamed-about scoring target. With this book, you will learn how to unlock your self-imposed limits and develop confidence in your play.

Golf is for rich, pretentious jerks who need something to do while they gossip. That’s always been my opinion. So when my best friend lands me an interview with Miles Day—the youngest golfer to ever win the Masters—I almost say no. But the six-figure salary attached to the position is too good to pass up. Miles gives me the job as his assistant with one caveat—don’t fall in love with him. Easy. So easy that I laugh in his face when he so much as suggests the possibility. Except… the more time I spend with Miles, the harder it is to resist his charming smile and glittering green eyes.

In 1997 Tiger Woods was already among the most-watched and closely examined athletes in history. But it wasn't until the Masters Tournament that his career would definitively change forever. Woods, then only 21, won the Masters by a historic 12 shots, which remains the widest margin of victory in the tournament's history, making it an iconic moment for him and sports.

Seventeen-year-old Frank Baker is a golfing sensation. He’s set to earn a full-ride scholarship to play at the university of his choice, but his single dad wants him to skip college and turn pro - golf has taken its toll on the family bank account, and his dad is eager to start cashing in on his son’s prowess. Frank knows he isn’t ready for life on the pro tour - regardless of the potential riches - so his swing coach enlists a professional golfer turned journalist to be Frank’s secret adviser.

Bernhard von Limburger (1901-1981) war ein erfolgreicher Amateurspieler, Golfplatzarchitekt und Deutschlands erster Golf-Schriftsteller. Diese Sammlung seiner Essays erschien 1956 unter dem Titel "Geliebtes Golf". Die innersten Gefühle, die seltsamsten Situationen, die unglaublichsten Mitspieler und die sensationellsten Schläge - nichts entgeht Limmys Erzählfreude. Für ihn ist Golf nicht einfach nur ein Spiel oder ein Sport, sondern eine Lebensweise: "Des Golfers Leben ist stets ein Ringen mit sich selbst.