Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Tiger Woods' Comeback & Pressfield's The Legend of Bagger Vance


From yesterday's BBC article "Tiger Woods back as world number one after Bay Hill win:"
Tiger Woods returned to the top of the world rankings for the first time since October 2010 after winning the Arnold Palmer Invitational by two strokes. The 37-year-old...first became world number one in June 1997 following his maiden major victory at the Masters, aged 22. He topped the rankings for 264 weeks from August 1999 to September 2004 and 281 weeks from June 2005 to October 2010. But a five-month lay-off in late 2009 after an infamous scandal in his private life, a string of injuries, including four knee operations and an Achilles problem, and problems getting to grips with a new swing all contributed to his fall down the rankings.
Want a good golf novel? Try The Legend of Bagger Vance by Steven Pressfield:
In the Depression year of 1931, on the golf links at Krewe Island off Savannah's windswept shore, two legends of the game, Bobby Jones and Walter Hagen, meet for a mesmerizing thirty-six-hole showdown. Another golfer will also compete -- a troubled local war hero, once a champion, who comes with his mentor and caddie, the mysterious Bagger Vance. And he alone can show his protege the way back to glory.
The following two golf novels can be safely avoided:
  • Missing Links by Rick Reilly: too many cheap gags, not enough substance. 
  • Miracle on the 17th Green by James Patterson: reads like a cross between a Hallmark card and a story told by Grandpa Simpson. Excerpt:
Our kids, to use one of Noah's current favorite words, are "the bomb." That's good, by the way. They are also sensitive, caring, beautiful, and brilliant."

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