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Sunday, June 18th marks not only Father's Day, but also the final round of one of golf's major championships, the United States Open, held this year at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. The confluence of these two events undoubtedly will result in special mention this year due to the recent death of Earl Woods, mentor and father of the game's greatest contemporary golfer, Tiger Woods. The relationship between father and son was clearly of great significance in molding the career of Woods into a golfing legend at the age of 30. This year has been a struggle for Tiger as his father's ultimate unsuccessful battle with cancer diverted the golfer from giving full attention to his game through the first half of 2006. Should Woods be in contention during the final round of the U.S. Open, references to Earl Woods and Father's Day will be in great abundance.
One of the unique aspects of golf comes from the fact that it is one of the few sports that allows a father and child to compete against each other in a full tilt match. Parents and children can toss a baseball or football, perhaps even shoot baskets or kick a soccer ball together. Golf is unique, however, because a round of golf between a father and son or daughter can be a bona fide athletic contest. Many great golfers remember with pride the first time they bested their father on the golf course; many not-so-great golfers also share that memory. The ability for a generational contest is one of the magical aspects of the great game of golf.
Each year, between professional golf's first two major championships, the Masters and the U.S. Open, publishers present avid golfers and equally avid readers with a broad panoply of books --- instructional, inspirational, educational and sometimes simply enjoyable. This season's range of books offers any enthusiastic golfer many noteworthy volumes for vacation and travel reading.
 Your vacation trip this summer may be to one of America's great golf courses. In recent years, majestic golf courses have sprouted across the land. From Kohler, Wisconsin, to the Robert Trent Jones Trail in Alabama and to Bandon Dunes, Oregon, courses have been constructed that allow the general public to golf on championship quality courses. Those courses, however, unlike the natural links courses of Scotland, had to be designed and constructed. DREAM GOLF: The Making of Bandon Dunes by Stephen Goodwin is the story of how a golf course that now ranks with legendary venues such as Pebble Beach and St. Andrews came to the Oregon coast.
The father of Bandon Dunes is Chicagoan Mike Keiser. The successful founder of Recycled Paper Greetings, Keiser had purchased a getaway home on the shore of Lake Michigan near his Chicago residence. An enthusiastic golfer, Keiser wanted to construct a nine-hole golf course near his vacation home. From that small project grew the greater goal of a full links course comparable to the legendary links courses of the British Isles. DREAM GOLF tells the story of how Oregon became the location for such a magnificent course. From a simple dream to the selection of architects to construction and to the ultimate creation of three golf courses that rank among the finest handiwork of modern golf, the saga of Bandon Dunes is recounted in superb and absorbing detail. Anyone who has played the courses of Bandon Dunes will find DREAM GOLF a wonderful remembrance of the journey. Those planning a trip to the Dunes will be equally enthralled by this inspiring tale of hope, hard work and the love of golf. Even if you have never heard of Bandon Dunes or thought about playing the course, this is a terrific book that will remind those who love the game that modern golf courses do not magically appear; they are designed and created by others who love the game.
 If Bandon Dunes is a modern shrine, then the Old Course at St. Andrews is the ultimate hallowed ground of golf. In 1983, golf writer George Peper, while on vacation in Scotland, purchased a stone townhouse nestled along the 18th hole at St. Andrews. For the next 20 years the residence was sporadically used by the Peper family and occupied as well by other guests and tenants. In 2003, Peper retired from his work as editor-in-chief of Golf magazine. He and his wife elected to sell their house in New York and move to Scotland to refurbish their golf course townhouse. TWO YEARS IN ST. ANDREWS is a jaunty and entertaining saga that combines Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House with a golfing adventure in what surely must be golf's greatest retirement community.
Just like most males, Peper left the detail work for renovating the townhouse to his wife while he played golf. While one goal was to make the residence attractive, Peper's real aim was to shoot or break par at the Old Course. Along the way he begins to understand the Scottish mind that occupies the village of St. Andrews. He also shares with readers golfing experiences that many will understand. One morning Peper decides to make an early visit to the St. Andrews complex for a solo round of golf. It is an experience that many recognize. Golf with your friends is always enjoyable as is golfing on a vacation course with new friends who you meet on the first tee. But the experience of an early morning solo round of golf is one that can never be duplicated. You play at your own speed in blissful solitude. It is often the time when one plays brilliantly. Peper's description of his early morning round drives home the joy of solo golf with beautiful writing.
Adventure after adventure makes TWO YEARS IN ST. ANDREWS an outstanding book. Golf across the Atlantic Ocean is a far different game than the game played in America. Whether it is different for better or for worse will be left for others to debate. Many of us will never have the once in a lifetime opportunity to play St. Andrews. George Peper's book may be the next best thing. Indeed it may even be superior to a single round because TWO YEARS IN ST. ANDREWS captures the flavor and spirit of a community and a country, something a single round of golf may not be able to duplicate.
 In 1992, golfers around the world were introduced to Harvey Pennick, a venerable teaching golf professional from Texas. His LITTLE RED BOOK became a bestseller. It was a mixture of golf reminiscences and instruction. The successful formula has become a staple for golf books. THE PRO: Lessons from My Father About Golf and Life by Claude "Butch" Harmon, Jr. with Steve Eubanks and PLAYING A ROUND WITH THE LITTLE PRO by Eddie Merrins with Mike Purkey follow this formula for two instructive and enjoyable golf books that will entertain readers and may help improve your game by a few strokes.
 Butch Harmon is perhaps best known as Tiger Woods's golf instructor during Tiger's first successful stretch of victories when he held titles for all four of professional golf's major championships. Subsequently he and Tiger parted ways and Woods's game slumped. The Harmon family may be to golf what the Kennedy and Bush families are to politics. Claude Harmon, Sr. was a skilled professional golfer, instructor and innovator of the game. While the son has not attained his father's personal and professional accomplishments, Butch remains one of the most respected teachers of contemporary professional golfers, with students including Adam Scott, Fred Couples and Natalie Gulbis. Each chapter of this book combines lessons from Harmon's life coupled with important playing tips. My favorite chapter was "If You Aim at Nothing, You're Always Going to Hit It." I took that advice to the course, began focusing on targets and saw substantial improvement in my game.
Eddie Merrins is a familiar face for those viewers of golf infomercials. As the head pro of the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles, Merrins can claim many Hollywood stars as pupils. He also served as golf coach for UCLA and numbers many golfing greats among his friends, including golfing legend Byron Nelson. Merrins advocates swinging a golf club in the same fashion as a tennis racket. Most golfers, however, swing the golf club differently because they attempt too much hand action. Swing the club like a racket, advocates Merrins, for success.
Many of Merrins's pupils are spotlighted in this anecdotally filled biography. Golfers will be refreshed to learn that famous Hollywood celebrities and sports figures are also slicers and hookers who have problems with their short games. Misery sometimes loves company, and Eddie Merrins's work with golfers of all skill levels may help readers with their games.
 One common theme in all sports is the debate over records and breaking records. Whenever records in any game are surpassed, the generational debate begins. In 1945, golfer Byron Nelson won 18 PGA tour events, 11 of them in succession. Since that time no professional golfer has won more than six consecutive events or more than 13 championships in one year. Many, however, argue that Nelson's accomplishment is tarnished by a lack of quality in the professional golf field of 1945. Several of Nelson's chief competitors were in the military during Nelson's streak. BYRON NELSON: The Most Remarkable Year in the History of Golf by John Companiotte chronicles Nelson's accomplishments from tournament to tournament, including exhibitions to support the war effort.
Companiotte magnificently captures the spirit of professional golf during a markedly different era than contemporary golf. In the Nelson era golf professionals spent part of the year in competition but also maintained full-time jobs at country clubs. Tournament money was not only far less than the millions paid out presently, it was also generally limited to golfers who finished in the top ten of the tournament. Golfers traveled from city to city by automobile, and no one envisaged the modern life of private jets, rental homes and frequent breaks from the tour. Nelson expected to play each week and indeed needed to play.
This book is a great piece of golf history. As mentioned, many golf historians have diminished Nelson's accomplishments. As the years pass and professional golf changes, many have begun to realize the great accomplishment of Byron Nelson. It now seems that Nelson's record probably will never be broken. In that respect BYRON NELSON becomes an important piece of golf history. It reminds us of an era that we may never see again.
 Another great of the Nelson era is chronicled in SAM: The One and Only Sam Snead. Veteran golf writer Al Barkow focuses on the professional golfer who even today has a swing that many contend is the finest ever in the game. For some reason, Snead has never quite received the attention of other great golfers of his generation. Far more attention is paid to Ben Hogan, although Snead won seven major championships, is the all-time professional tour victory leader with 82 championships, and at the age of 52 is the oldest man to win a PGA. Even well into his 70s, Snead had a picturesque golf swing that others seek to emulate but cannot duplicate.
SAM: The One and Only Sam Snead is not an exhaustive biography, but offers new insight into this golfing life along with wonderful photographs that bring back to mind an era of golf too sadly forgotten. Sports Media Group has begun publishing a vast and varied assortment of golf books (almost enough to require a separate review devoted to their publications). Hopefully their work will continue for the benefit of all golfers.
 THE FLAT STICK: The History, Romance, and Heartbreak of the Putter by Noah Liberman will probably not improve your game or help you start making some tricky putts. However, it will make you laugh and more importantly make you more comfortable with that enigmatic club that some days you want to frame and place over your mantle and other days you want to break over your knee. Through humor, history and superb writing, Liberman makes it very clear that all of us are deservedly crazy when it comes to putting. The book has beautiful illustrations and is just flat out fun to read. This is a great book for that airplane ride to your next golf trip. When you arrive your golfing soul will be cleansed and your psyche improved. Who knows? You may even putt better.
 No collection of golf books is complete without one work of fiction. I do not know if there is an afterlife, but if one exists, Ben Hogan and Bobby Jones are sitting in a grill somewhere in heaven comparing notes about the various fictional tomes that feature the two golfing greats as mythical characters. THE CADDIE WHO KNEW BEN HOGAN by John Coyne is this summer's entry into the Jones/Hogan milieu. It is a great novel on the golf side but a little lacking in its non-golf plot. Jack Handley is the narrator of this saga, returning to the Midwest to speak at the anniversary of the Chicago Open. Handley recounts the story of meeting and caddying for golfing legend Ben Hogan. He passes on the opportunity to tote Hogan's bag during the Open because he has committed to carrying the bag of Matt Alexander, the young assistant pro at the site of the Open.
Young Handley meets Hogan, who is at the course for a practice round. Alexander joins them for the back nine of the practice round. Along the way Hogan shares some important lessons about both golf and life that Handley takes to heart.
Young Alexander has his golf life complicated by his romance with Sarah Dupree, the club president's daughter. Sarah's father, Dr. Dupree, views his daughter's romance with disapproval. Young Handley finds himself in the middle of the relationship when all he wants to do is tote a golf bag. THE CADDIE WHO KNEW BEN HOGAN is a birdie on the golf side but a bogey on the romantic subplot. Still, it is a pleasing novel for those who find golf fiction enjoyable.
--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman
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More Golf Roundups by Stuart Shiffman:
• 2005 SUMMER GOLF BOOKS
• 2005 SPRING GOLF BOOKS
• 2004 SPRING GOLF BOOKS
• 2003 SPRING GOLF BOOKS
• 2002 SUMMER GOLF READING
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