Mass Golf has created a new program for Mass Golf Members. The all-new Mass Golf Book Club is intended to be a resource for members looking to get their “golf fix” during a time when watching live golf or playing the game might not be possible. The Book Club will be updated regularly with interesting reads about the game of golf.
Title: A Course Called Ireland
Author: Tom Coyne
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: A Course Called Ireland is the story of a walking-averse golfer who treks his way around an entire country, spending 16 weeks playing every seaside hole in Ireland. Along the way, he searches out his family’s roots, discovers that a once-poor country has been transformed by an economic boom, and finds that the only thing tougher to escape than Irish sand traps are Irish pubs.
Bonus: Mass Golf joined author Tom Coyne during his recent project, “A Course Called America”, which captured his journey across the United States. Coyne played golf in all 50 states and visited every U.S. Open venue along the way. His travels, experiences and course reactions will be documented in the book, which is set to be published in 2021. Read: Mass Golf’s Behind The Scenes With Tom Coyne
Title: Golf in the Kingdom
Author: Michael Murphy
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: Since its first publication, Golf in the Kingdom has been recognized as a classic work on the deeper mysteries of golf—a gospel of those who suspect, or know, that golf is more than a mere pastime. A young man en route to India stops in Scotland to play at the legendary Burningbush golf club and in 24 hours, his life is transformed. Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, he is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by true gravity.
Title: An American Caddie in St. Andrews
Author: Oliver Horovitz
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: In the middle of Oliver Horovitz’s high school graduation ceremony, his cell phone rang: It was Harvard. He’d been accepted, but he couldn’t start for another year. A caddie since he was twelve and a golfer sporting a 1.8 handicap, Ollie decides to spend his gap year in St. Andrews, Scotland—a town with the U.K.’s highest number of pubs per capita, and home to the Old Course, golf ’s most famous eighteen holes—where he enrolls in the St. Andrews Links Trust caddie trainee program. Initially, the notoriously brusque veteran caddies treat Ollie like a bug. But after a year of waking up at 4:30 A.M. every morning and looping two rounds a day, Ollie earns their grudging respect— only to have to pack up and leave for Harvard.
Title: Cracking the Code: The Winning Ryder Cup Strategy
Author: Paul Azinger, Dr. Ron Braund
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: With only three wins in twenty-five years for the United States Ryder Cup team, 2008 captain Paul Azinger employed a management style that focused on building strong relationships among the players. The resulting team won with the largest U.S. margin of victory in almost three decades. In Cracking the Code, Azinger and management consultant Ron Braund share the team-building philosophy that helped win the Ryder Cup and can work for you.
Title: The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever
Author: Mark Frost
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: In 1956, a casual bet between two millionaires eventually pitted two of the greatest golfers of the era — Byron Nelson and Ben Hogan — against top amateurs Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi.
The year: 1956. Decades have passed since Eddie Lowery came to fame as the ten-year-old caddie to U.S. Open Champion Francis Ouimet. Now a wealthy car dealer and avid supporter of amateur golf, Lowery has just made a bet with fellow millionaire George Coleman. Lowery claims that two of his employees, amateur golfers Harvie Ward and Ken Venturi, cannot be beaten in a best-ball match, and challenges Coleman to bring any two golfers of his choice to the course at 10 a.m. the next day to settle the issue. Coleman accepts the challenge and shows up with his own power team: Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, the game’s greatest living professionals, with fourteen major championships between them.
Title: The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf
Author: Mark Frost
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: The story of Francis Ouimet and Harry Vardon, who in pursuit of their passion for a game that captivated them as children, broke down rigid social barriers that made their sport accessible to everyone on both sides of the Atlantic and beyond, positioning golf as one of the most widely played games in the world. Ouimet and Vardon were two men from different generations and vastly different corners of the world whose lives, unbeknownst to them at the time, bore remarkable similarities, setting them on parallel paths that led with a kind of fated inevitability to their epic battle at Brookline years in the future. This collision resulted in the ‘big bang’ that gave rise to the sport of golf as we know it today.
Title: The Majors: In Pursuit of Golf’s Holy Grail
Author: John Feinstein
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: What does it take to win a major championship and reach the absolute pinnacle of golf? Through a season of the four tournaments — the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship — known collectively as the majors, John Feinstein takes us where the television cameras never go, both off the links and “inside the ropes”, as he reveals the special challenges and rituals, the frustrations and exhilaration, that mark the lives and careers of the world’s greatest golfers.
Title: Loopers: A Caddie’s Twenty-Year Golf Odyssey
Author: John Dunn
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: John Dunn never expected that his summer job as a caddie at the local course in Connecticut might turn into something more. The lifers who plied the loops were an ensemble of misfits and degenerates who made the caddie yard look more like a gambling hall than a country club. But Dunn came of age in those yards and on those courses, and the magnetism of the game and the lifestyle proved irresistible. One adventure after another kept him coming back summer after summer, until he found himself migrating with the seasons, looping at some of the most exquisite and exclusive golf locations in the world.
Title: Final Rounds: A Father, A Son, The Golf Journey Of A Lifetime
Author: James Dodson
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: James Dodson always felt closest to his father while they were on the links. So it seemed only appropriate when his father learned he had two months to live that they would set off on the golf journey of their dreams to play the most famous courses in the world. Final Rounds takes us to the historic courses of Royal Lytham and Royal Birkdale, to the windswept undulations of Carnoustie, where Hogan played peerlessly in ’53, and the legendary St. Andrews, whose hallowed course reveals something of the eternal secret of the game’s mysterious allure over pros and hackers alike. Throughout their poignant journey, the Dodsons humorously reminisce and reaffirm their love for each other, as the younger Dodson finds out what it means to have his father also be his best friend. Final Rounds is a book never to be forgotten, a book about fathers and sons, long-held secrets, and the lessons a middle-aged man can still learn from his dad about life, love, and family.
Title: The Caddy’s Cookbook: Remembering Favorite Recipes from the Caddy House to the Clubhouse of Augusta National Golf Club
Author: Tripp Bowden
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: Bowden shares forty of his favorite recipes inspired by his life spent behind-the-scenes at Augusta. Complete with full-color photos, this book—certainly not standard by any cookbook terms—features surprising spins on a variety of delicious table-friendly, comfort food classics: honey baked ham butter beans, caddy house gumbo, collard greens and pot liquor, deep fried pork chop sandwiches, New England clam chowder, clubhouse ice cream, toasted pound cake (also known as Mr. Roberts’s Dessert, and dozens more! Along the way, Bowden contextualizes how and when he enjoyed some of these unexpected culinary delights as he details his unique caddy experiences and the lifelong friendships forged through food and golf. In doing so, he creates a real treat for golf lovers and food enthusiasts alike, with elements of unscripted humor reminiscent of the classic Caddyshack sprinkled and dashed throughout!
Title: The Ultimate Book of Golf Trivia: 600 Questions and Answers
Author: Ryan Hannable (A Mass Golfer)
Where To Find It: Amazon
About the Book: The Ultimate Book of Golf Trivia tests and expands your knowledge of golf—covering the sport from the 1970s (and earlier) up to the present day. In this collection of six hundred questions, seasoned sports writer Ryan Hannable tests your level of expertise on all things golf. Superstars of the past and present are represented, from Walter Hagen to Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer to Jason Day, Gary Player to Brooks Koepka, Ben Hogan to Phil Mickelson and everyone in between. The book also includes a special section on the rules of the game.
Title: 18 in America: A Young Golfer’s Epic Journey to Find the Essence of the Game
Author: Dylan Dethier (A Mass Golfer)
Where To Find It: Amazon | Walmart
About the Book: Shortly before his freshman year of college was set to begin, seventeen-year-old Dylan Dethier—hungry for an adventure beyond his small town—deferred his admission and, “like Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey before him, packed his used car and meager life savings and set off to see and write about America”. His goal: play a round of golf in each of the lower forty-eight states. From a gritty municipal course in Flint, Michigan, to rubbing elbows with Phil Mickelson at Quail Hollow, Dylan would spend a remarkable year exploring the astonishing variety of the nation’s golf courses—and its people.
Title: The Ten Commandments of Golf Etiquette: How to Make the Game More Enjoyable for Yourself and for Everyone Else on the Course
Author: Roland Merullo (A Mass Golfer from Williamsburg)
Where To Find It: Amazon or IndieBound
About the Book: The Ten Commandments of Golf Etiquette is a book for people new to the game. It offers no advice on technique; instead, it is a primer on how to behave on the golf course: how to be safe, be considerate of others, play at a good pace, and how to understand the complex etiquette and unwritten code involved in a round of golf with others. There are also brief descriptions of the most commonly-encountered rules, a list of necessary equipment, and a glossary of golf terms. This small book is designed so that the new player will step onto the course and feel immediately at home.
More About the Author: Roland Merullo born in Boston, raised in Revere and currently resides in Western Massachusetts. He is a golf enthusiast and has written numerous books about the game. When he heard about the newly-formed Mass Golf Book Club, he generously donated books to be used as giveaways to readers.
More From the Author: Roland’s Website & Newsletter Sign-up
Golf Digest Articles by Roland Merullo: Golf Digest
Do you have a book that you suggest we add? Please contact Stephen Hanjack (shanjack@massgolf.org) with any book suggestions.
