Golf

This groundbreaking history of African Americans and golf explores the role of race, class, and public space in golf course development, the stories of individual black golfers during the age of segregation, the legal battle to integrate public golf courses, and the little-known history of the United Golfers Association (UGA)--a black golf tour that operated from 1925 to 1975. Lane Demas charts how African Americans nationwide organized social campaigns, filed lawsuits, and went to jail in order to desegregate courses; he also provides dramatic stories of golfers who boldly confronted wider segregation more broadly in their local communities.

For the first time, questions are answered about the relative abilities of the greatest players in the history of professional golf.   In The Hole Truth Bill Felber provides a relativistic approach for evaluating and comparing the performance of golfers while acknowledging the game's changing nature. The Hole Truth analyzes the performances of players relative to their peers, creating an index of exceptionality that automatically factors the changing nature of the game through time. That index is based on the standard deviation of the performances of players in golf's recognized major championships dating back to 1860. More than two hundred players are rated in comparison with one another, more than sixty of them in detail with profiles providing context on their ranking. For the dedicated golf fan, The Hole Truth is an engaging way to see in the numbers where their favorite golfers rank across eras and where current players like Rory McIlroy and Inbee Park compare to the game's greats.

This book takes the reader on a ride through the author's unusual professional career and what he discovered in the most revealing settings and scenes of the golf industry at its awkward and colorful best. Most of the events and incidents appearing here are firsthand accounts portraying a host of famous and colorful characters in both golf and the business world. The central characters in this book are Ben Hogan, one of the five best players of all time and a highly successful golf-equipment executive; Deane Beman, a star amateur and successful professional golfer who became the commissioner and invented the modern-day PGA Tour; and Minoru Isutani, a wealthy Japanese entrepreneur who is probably best known for having lost $350 million on the purchase and sale of Pebble Beach. Some of the other costars include Jack Nicklaus, Karsten Solheim (Ping Golf Company), Greg Norman, and Ely Callaway--all names you have seen etched on a wood, an iron, or a putter, among other places.

Peter Thomson won five golf Open Championships. He is only the third golfer to have won five or more, behind the great Harry Vardon, who won six. It is a feat unlikely to be repeated in the modern era and puts him in the legendary league of sports players like Don Bradman, Rod Laver, Margaret Court and Dawn Fraser.