Editorial Reviews:
Golf is sometimes referred to as "the wicked game" because it is fiendishly difficult to play well. Yet in the parlance of the Tiger Woods generation, it's also a wickedly good game -- rich, glamorous, and more popular than ever. When we think about golf -- as it is played at its highest level -- we think of three names: Tiger Woods, the most famous sports figure in the world today, Arnold Palmer, the father of modern golf, and Jack Nicklaus, the game's greatest champion. In this penetrating, forty-year history of men's professional golf, acclaimed author Howard Sounes tells the story of the modern game through the lives of its greatest icons. With unprecedented access to players and their closest associates, Sounes reveals the personal lives, rivalries, wealth, and business dealings of these remarkable men, as well as the murky history of a game that has been marred by racism and sex discrimination. Among the many revelations, the complete and true story of Tiger Woods and his family background is untangled, uncovering surprising new details that inspire the golfer's father to exclaim, "Hell, you taught me some things about my life I never knew about!" Earl Woods and other members of Tiger Woods's family, his friends, girlfriends, caddies, coaches, and business associates were among the 150 people interviewed over two years of research. Others included Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, fellow champions such as Ernie Els, Gary Player, Tony Jacklin, and Tom Watson, and golf moguls such as Mark H. McCormack, billionaire founder of the sports agency IMG. The Wicked Game is a compelling story of talent, fame, wealth, and power. Entertaining for dedicated golfers, and accessible to those who only follow the game on television, this may be the most original and exciting sports book of the year.
Customer Reviews:
Displaying 1 to 5 of 7 total reviews (Page 1 of 2):
 Tarnishing the Trophies
A generally quick and easy-reading overview of the lives of Palmer, Nicklaus, and Woods is ruined by the author's insistence of sticking racism and sexism in your face.
Sounes uses a self-important journalistic style dripping with preconceptions. And this: A player uses a masturbatory grip on a golf club. Please ...
Sounes is hip and investigative - OK, I got it. No wonder personalities in the limelight avoid characters like Sounes posing as authors who demand their time, then produce drivel like this.  Only One Knows
Only a racist can so incorrectly evaluate racism in golf and only a true sexist can incorrectly evaluate sexism in modern golf. Shame on Mr. Sounes for attempting to sully a great game with contrived evidence.  I get it.....
The game of golf is racist and sexist. I get it. In fact, I got it after the first twenty times Sounes whines about it.  A good overview of a socially stratified pastime
Tartly written, well researched, and consistently entertaining, I can't believe this book ranks so low on Amazon's list right now. I've been a casual golf fan for a very long time and played golf as a kid on the course Tiger Woods grew up on (Meadowlark, in Huntington Beach), and I found Sounes' book well worth the read. As a Tiger "fan" myself, being almost a hometown boy, I found the book to have a great deal of verisimilitude and accuracy. In fact, I have a lot less respect for Tiger now than I did before. Then again, I can't imagine what it's like to have such celebrity thrust upon you before you've even had a chance to mature as a person.
Sounes really has the tart, dry British reporting style mastered. He is blunt and direct (humorous at times - check out the "heavily bosomed" comment about Phil Mickelson) and holds consistently to a theme in this book, which is that golf is truly a hidebound cultural phenomenon marked by a grimly maintained tradition of racism and elitism - and not just in America. Sounes marshals a large battery of evidence to buttress this view, and some of the information he unearths about golf clubs in the American South is just astounding. He also manages to cover pretty much every key golf event in the last 50 years in a compelling and entertaining manner. This is a remarkable achievement in his limited page count.
The book focuses on three primary personalities - Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger. The first two made themselves very available during the course of the book; in some ways they may regret having done so, as Sounes is not unsparing in his analysis and criticism. But surprisingly enough, Sounes saves his most stinging commentary for Tiger, and to some extent for his father, Earl Woods. Palmer and Nicklaus, despite their credentials as rock-ribbed Republicans, still come off as human beings. Tiger decidedly does not.
I won't go much further to avoid spoiling the book, but any open-minded golf fan really must read it. It's a minor classic. I feel that it's one of the few of its kind that actually comes from the real world, instead of being a hagiography. He sounds a little bit like Edward Gibbon, another English writer with a tart tongue regarding his subjects. A page-turning history of golf that stays with you
The story of men's professional golf since the 1950s is laid out in an easy-to-read, highly enjoyable style. The chapters are well-crafted, and lively and fun. The stories of the classic major tournaments are re-told in a fresh way, based on new interviews. But the heart of the book is what we don't usually learn about the likes of Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods (also Gary Player, Lee Trevino, Byron Nelson et al): the business deals, the politics, the personal lives. And some of these golfing heroes have feet of clay. Criticism is well-balanced and fair-minded, however, unless you happen to think pro' golf already has an open-handed attitude to women and ethnic minorities. Sounes obviously has a low opinion of the golf establishment, bodies like the PGA and PGA of America. But at the same time there is real affection here for the great tournaments and genuine appreciation of big characters like Arnie Palmer who are, whatever their faults, interesting men who have lived rich lives. Now I know exactly how rich. More Customer Reviews:
Next Page
|
(7 reviews)
