Book Review: Breaking the Slump

The the way my game has gone this year compared to last, I decided to read the new book Breaking the Slump, How Great Players Survived Their Darkest Moments in Golf--And What You Can Learn From Them. Written by Jimmy Roberts of NBC Sports, the book looks at 16 golfers, plus former President George H.W. Bush (41) and Olympic athlete Dan Jansen, and tries to unlock the secrets of how they dealt with adversity in the golf games as well as their lives. Among the golfers featured are Paul Azinger, Jack Nicklaus, Scott Verplank, David Duval, Justin Rose, Greg Norman, Phil Mickelson, Ben Crenshaw, Johnny Miller, Davis Love III, Justin Leonard, Arnold Palmer, Dottie Pepper, Tom Watson, Steve Stricker and Hal Sutton. Roberts spends a chapter on each, interviewing the players about the severe down times in their games and what they did to get back to the highest level. While all of them suffered a slump in a different, their advice was pretty universal: don't panic, don't try so hard and go back to basics. The best quote in the book is from Bobby Jones, as repeated by Crenshaw: "The hardest course of all is only five inches long--the one between your ears." Another interesting observation came from Tom Watson, citing Harvey Penick: "If you have one bad round of golf, just forget about it. If you have two straight bad rounds, you might want to start thinking about it. A third consecutive bad round of golf, and it's time to get some help." While I'm not sure Breaking the Slump will get your golf game back on track, it is a very good, entertaining and easy read.

An Eternally Good Read

The Eternal Summer

Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan in 1960,
Golf's Golden Year

I have recently finished reading The Eternal Summer, an excellent book by Curt Sampson, the bestselling author of Hogan and The Masters. The book chronicles the unique set of circumstances that occurred in golf during the your 1960. Sampson calls it "the golden year" because it was a time when golf was finding its way into our living and consciousness through the magic of that emerging technology: television. It was also a time in which a golfer from Western Pennsylvania, Arnold Palmer, was capturing the hearts and minds of the public via the black and white imagines on the television screens. It was also the year in which a golfing legend, Ben Hogan, was making one final attempt at greatness, while a future legend, Jack Nicklaus, was slowing making a name for himself as an up-and-coming amateur from Ohio.

Sampson takes through the year: from Palmer's heroic wins at The Masters and U.S. Open, to his near miss at The Open Championship at St. Andrew's--which put the British Open back on the map for American golfers--to Nicklaus' near miss at the U.S. Open, to Hogan's last hurrahs at the U.S. Open and PGA Championship. Only 233 pages, it is a short, but very entertaining read which I highly recommend for anyone who is interested in the history of golf as well as professional golf.

A Wickedly Good Read

The Wicked Game: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and the Story of Modern Golf is a must read for any golf fan. Wonderfully entertaining, author Howard Sounes chronicles the rise of golf through three of modern golf's most prominent players--Palmer Nicklaus and Woods--as well as their impact on the professional game as we know it today. From Palmer's humble beginnings as the son of a course superintendent in Western Pennsylvania, to Nicklaus' Country Club education, to the training of Woods by an overzealous father, the book gives some fascinating behind the scenes views of how these three have impacted the game, as well as their successes and shortcomings.

Palmer, who became the first truly marketed golf superstar by Mark McCormack, and was used Palmer to build International Management Group, perhaps the most influential agency in sports. Nicklaus, who, while surpassing Palmer on the golf course, remained envious of his success off the course and nearly went bankrupt trying to maintain a lifestyle similar to Palmer's. And of course Woods, who has become the most recognized golfer, and perhaps athlete, of all time, yet remains a mystery to most.

The book also looks at how racism has long been a hallmark of golf and how these three leading golfers have done little to open the top echelons of the sport to minorities and women. It also paints a very revealing portrait of Tiger's late father, Earl Woods, who long held that he was a constant victim of racism, abandoned his first wife and children for Tiger's mother and believes he was chosen by God to raise Tiger and nurture his special talent.

Although a short read at 260+ pages, it is well worth it and I highly recommend it if you want a better understanding of the figures who have shaped the game we love.