cover image A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour

A Good Walk Spoiled: Days and Nights on the PGA Tour

John Feinstein. Little, Brown and Company Inc, $23.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-316-27720-4

To Mark Twain, golf was ``a good walk spoiled,'' but to the 200 or so top professional players, it is a sometimes lucrative but always nerve-wracking career in which this week's hero can be next week's bum, and in which athletes have only themselves to blame if they fail. Feinstein's (A Season on the Brink) lively and anecdotal style makes for an interesting read but cannot overcome the 1990s' objection to the sport--that there is no superstar of the stature of Arnold Palmer or Jack Nicklaus to capture the public's fancy. So although there are media favorites such as Greg Norman, there are many outstanding players (Davis Love III, Paul Azinger) whom Feinstein brings to life here but who fail to generate the excitement of the greats. Feinstein, kind and upbeat, also points out that, almost without exception, golfers share a political viewpoint that is far to the right of Rush Limbaugh, with much self-pity for the taxes they have to pay on their six-and seven-figure incomes. Photos not seen by PW. (June)