My Greatest Day in Golf: The Legends of Golf Recount Their Greatest Moments

Nothing bores a golfer more than listening to another golfer relate his greatest round, shot by shot. Sports journalist and author McCullough (My Greatest Day in Baseball, 1946-1997; My Greatest Day in NASCAR) has recorded the recollections of 25 of the best from the last half-century of the game, including Tommy Bolt, Lee Elder, Ray Floyd, Steve Melnyk, Arnold Palmer and Calvin Peete but even the greatest golfers do not make the best raconteurs. Often, the golfers fail to remember all the details (and as editor, McCullough disappointingly fails to fill in the gaps). A lot of the drama is lost, and the stories fall flat. A stellar exception is Jack Nicklaus's vivid retelling of his win at the 1986 Masters (excerpted from his autobiography). Avid golfers who are also careful readers may pick up tips to improve their game strategy, but much depends on their familiarity with a particular course, as Nick Price demonstrates with his recollection of playing the 16th at Ternberry, the hole that won him the 1982 British Open: ""I hit a good driver down the middle of the fairway, and I had about eighty-eight yards, and the pin was in a very, very, very precarious placement. It was just over on the left-hand side, and it was just over a berm. I don't know how familiar you are with the hole, but there's a berm, and anything that is short would just roll back into the berm, and that was a five, maybe even a six."" The most satisfying parts of the book are the champions' thoughts on the state of the game. Lee Elder comments on blacks in golf then and now, Hale Irwin talks about golfers' changing attitudes, Steve Melnyk considers the hacker versus the pro and all of them reflect on being treated differently after winning a big tournament. (Apr. 23)