Reading a good book at any time of year is a very profitable way to pass some time. If the volume/paperback/text/chronicle/novel you’re enjoying was chosen carefully and hits all the right notes, you’ll either increase your knowledge, develop a far better understanding of the world, or laugh/smile considerably more often than you typically do. Whatever the primary reason for enjoying the book, though, you are mentally broadening your horizons and removing yourself, albeit temporarily, from the rigors and hindrances of life.
Devour that book on a gorgeous, endless mid-summer’s day while lounging beside the pool, sunning yourself on the beach, or lying in a hammock in the backyard while sipping on your favorite chilled beverage, and the satisfaction rises to a whole other level. As the great Danny Zuko once said (maybe), “Summer reading, had me a blast.” Sandy Olsson was right, though, it happens so fast. Too fast. You’ve got to make your summer reading time count. Whether you read one, two, three, or more books while the days are long, hot, and lazy, you must make it/them worthwhile.
Here’s half a dozen golf-related books we think you’ll happily get lost in.
The Golf 100—Michael Arkush
Besides his best-selling biographies of Scottie Pippin, Phil Jackson, and Sugar Ray Leonard, former Los Angeles Times writer Michael Arkush has told the story of Ali and Frazier’s first meeting at Madison Square Garden in The Fight of the Century and written a poignant tribute to Payne Stewart, I Remember, as well as 11 other books.
The Golf 100 is Arkush’s ranking of the top 100 golfers of all time (post Allan Robertson)—male and female, amateur and professional. His writing ability and knack for unearthing details makes what, on the face of it, might seem like a rather dry and predictable project—something you might see in a monthly golf publication—an absorbing and very enjoyable read.
To arrive at his top 100, Arkush devised a points system he felt awarded and rescinded points in all the right places. Of course, this system gives weight to achievements and factors that you won’t necessarily agree with, meaning it’s open to debate and some players won’t be in the same position you have them—not even closely in many cases. How, for instance, does Francis Ouimet come before Nick Faldo or Willie Anderson before Brooks Koepka? One of the measures to which Arkush lends a lot of weight is a player’s impact on the game. How, then, do so many players (45) come before Old Tom Morris?
Read the book and you’ll discover why the author places each player where he does and, of course, who gets the nod between Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods.
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Playing Dirty—Joel Beall
It seems odd, perhaps, that some of golf’s very best writing has come out of one its absolute worst developments. The abysmal, fan-abandoning antics of the professional tours in recent years—grotesque misconduct rooted in greed and an almost Ripley’s-Believe-It-or-Not-sized gluttony, has been unfortunate to say the least, but if this black and toxic cloud does have a silver lining, it’s that books like this have coincided with the slide.
Beall is one of a handful of commentators who’ve contrasted the sorry side of pro golf with the comparatively singular beauty of everyday golf in Scotland and, though he’s not the first to make the comparison, he may have done it best.
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The Unconquerable Game—Ely Callaway
Much as Alister MacKenzie’s Spirit of St. Andrews was written, lost, found, and finally published 61 years after the course architect’s death, so The Unconquerable Game was written by Ely Callaway in the 1990s but went unpublished before the clubmaker’s passing.
Callaway built successful wine and textiles companies before buying a small company called Hickory Stick USA at the age of 63 and transforming it, within 10 years, into the world’s largest golf equipment manufacturer and the first to be traded on the New York Stock Exchange. He’d intended to share his business secrets as well as his thoughts on life and why golf was so compelling, but it has taken 24 years for his memoir, edited and completed by his son Nicholas, to come to light.
And whether you were a fan of the mega-headed titanium drivers he developed in the mid-1990s or not, his is a life worth reading about.
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Rory Land—Timothy Gay
Though we may never see quite as many books about Rory McIlroy as we have Tiger Woods, the Northern Irishman will certainly get his share of ink over the coming years. And if the literature devoted to this talented, popular, and complex character portrays him half as thoroughly as Gay’s biography does, it will be to the reader’s immense profit.
A Pulitzer Prize-nominated author whose previous books have focused on military and baseball history, Gay tells McIlroy’s unlikely but enthralling story from his schooldays in a humble and Troubles-impacted part of County Down, to his Britishness and Irishness (Gay says he is part of neither country and both at the same time, but mostly confined to a small and unique fictional place called “Rory Land” where he is a “little world unto himself”), to everything in between with a genuine appreciation for the man and golfer he is.
Digital formats and future print editions will include an additional chapter on McIlroy’s memorable win at the 2025 Masters, the career Grand Slam-earning victory that happened after Gay’s deadline had passed—an inconvenience he surely suffered and celebrated in equal measure.
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King of Clubs—Roger McStravick/Bill Williams
One or two of the other books here may take up a week or two of your summer. Full of detail, color, and discussion-worthy topics though they may be, they are, for the most part, speedy reads you’ll consume relatively quickly and move on. The King of Clubs, an exceptional and long-awaited biography of Allan Robertson—the master golfer whose death precipitated the Open Championship—is, on the other hand, a scholarly behemoth that might not fit the description of “light summer read.” It may well overwhelm you long past August, in fact, and be something you refer to again and again for years to come.
You’d expect nothing less from double Herbert Warren Wind Book Award winner Roger McStravick, who took over writing this important addition to golf’s library from Bill Williams. Author of two books on Harry Vardon and another on Ted Ray, Williams died in 2020 shortly after beginning his research on this project. Suffice to say he would be hugely impressed, and proud, of what became of his original idea.
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Together We Roared—Evin Priest with Steve Williams
Several excellent, prodigiously researched Tiger Woods bios have been published in recent years, but the bookshelves were missing an important component—memories, opinions, and anecdotes from someone who spent a lot of time alone with Woods. This book fills the gap with Australian golf writer, Evin Priest, collecting a dozen years’ worth of flashbacks and recollections from Steve Williams, Woods’s caddie from 1999 to 2011.
Last year’s Rainmaker by Woods’s agent, Hughes Norton (written by LINKS editor George Peper), was an absorbing and insightful perspective from another very important figure in Woods’s professional life. And Kevin Cook’s superb The Tiger Slam had you turning pages like rarely before, even if you were familiar with all the voices and knew the outcome. But in Together We Roared, Priest speaks with someone who was with Woods for six hours a day, five or six days a week, and 15–20 weeks of the year.
This book isn’t going to change your opinion of Woods, or Williams for that matter. The New Zealander isn’t out to retaliate, dish dirt, or get his own back for some long-held grievance. But it does add another interesting and very credible voice to the Tiger Woods story.
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What other golf books do you plan to read this summer?
