Diamonds in the Rough: Championship Golf on the Senior PGA Tour

Except for Tiger Woods and Greg Norman, all the most exciting golfers of the past half century, from Sam Snead, who is 84, to Johnny Miller, 50, are now playing on the Senior PGA Tour. They include Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Lee Trevino, Gary Player, Raymond Floyd, Hale Irwin and six dozen others who won a total of 75 major championships before turning 50. Thus one can predict enormous interest in this book by the author of Nicklaus, all the more so because of Shaw's talent for the telling anecdote and his genuine affection for most of the athletes on the 1997 tour, which he followed from January to November. There was drama aplenty as Hale Irwin and Gil Morgan fought down to the last day, and when Irwin lost a skirmish but won the battle as the Senior PGA Tour Player of the Year. A pall was cast over the season, however, when Palmer announced he had cancer and when it became clear that Nicklaus's hip and back were still troubling him. But the ailing superstars had a productive season, with prize money totaling $40 million and lots of keen rivalries. Photos not seen by PW. (June)