Genre: Nonfiction—Golf
Completed: 16 April 2012
Summary & Review:
Scott Martin offers a guide
to enjoying, understanding, and loving the game of golf. In this book he
presents dozens of golf destinations that every “Intelligent Golfer” should strive
visit, along with tips about golf etiquette, dress, and rules.
This
book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting. On the cover it advertises this book
as “The essential guide to succeeding on the world’s finest courses” including
rules, etiquette, dressing for the game, and surviving difficult lies. While
all these elements are technically included in the book, most of them are
essentially glossed over with only a paragraph devoted to them. The huge majority of
the book, over one hundred seventy pages, is spent discussing various golf
courses and resorts. Even though I was expecting more about rules and etiquette,
I enjoyed the author’s descriptions of some of the best courses in the world,
and he made me add a few of the courses to my wish list of places to play (such
as Pinehurst, the Old Course at St. Andrew's, and Bandon Dunes).
My only
real complaint is the way Martin would write sometimes about these courses,
their design and architecture, and their setting. It reminded me of how those
people who are obsessed with wine talk about wine. They analyze the nitrogen
content of the soil the grapes were grown in, remark about the warmth of the
taste, the hints of nuttiness, blah blah blah. Martin ventured a little too far
down that obsessive, flowery prose at times and I wanted to tell him, “Shesh.
Get a room.”
Rating: 6.5
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