The Ramblings of Gary McCord

I recently completed reading Just a Range Ball in a Box of Titleists, On and Off the Tour with Gary McCord. First published 10 years ago, the book was the second written by Gary McCord, the CBS golf commentator and part-time Champions Tour player. His first, Golf for Dummies, was co-authored with former Golf Digest Senior Editor John Huggan.

At just over 200 words, the book is more a collection of short essays, with each chapter written in much the same way McCord commentates during CBS golf broadcasts. Some give an insightful, witty look into McCord's playing days, his early tour sponsorship by Lawrence Welk, his start in broadcasting, being banned from The Masters telecast, working with Kevin Costner on the movie Tin Cup, the difference between the U.S. and British Opens, and the golf games of celebrities such as Alice Cooper, Hootie & the Blowfish, Clint Eastwood, Eddie Van Halen and Charles Barkley. He also delves into his life off the tour; playing at San Luis Rey Downs Golf and Country Club with his compadres Fairway Louie, Willie "Brain Damage" Rains, Unemployed Lloyd, Mad Max and Lock & Load; playing in their nine-hole worst-ball scramble with their ex-spouses, affectionately known as "The Ex-Wives Conflict."

But McCord also waxes poetic about climbing inside a golf ball as it flies down the faiway, the idiosyncrasies of the golf swing, getting a lesson at night in the dark, filming a FootJoy commercial underwater, a tournament ending written as a Shakespeare play and other stuff that just makes you scratch your head and hope the next chapter will be better.

If you love listening to McCord on the weekends, you'll love this book. I enjoyed it, but not as much as some of the other golf books I have read over the past few years. But if, like Tom Watson, you believe McCord is over-the-top and disrespectful to the traditions of the game, then I recommend you read something else.