BOSTON, Mass – Not a day goes by when I don’t dream about pulling the cover off my Tour Edge Exotics Driver, stepping between two yardage markers, place a spanking-new PRO V1 on a tee and swinging as hard as I can only to see a drive go 225-yards… sideways!
Yes, that’s my idea of fun and I know that day is coming soon and I can’t wait. Never has the compulsion to make a double-bogey been so enticing. Here in golf-starved Massachusetts, where there’s been a ban on golf since March 23rd, there is only one person stopping me and 50,000 other golfers in the Bay State from doing what we love to do, particularly starting on Masters weekend!
The temptation to call Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker a few choice names is problematic so I’ll vent by submitting this missive to Morning Read, which is my daily choice of golf news in these uncertain times of the coronavirus crisis.
Lately, I’ve been spending way too much time in my golf man-cave! The room has a big screen TV, a few trophies, golf memorabilia, 3 hole-in-one plaques, goofy golf sayings like “I Golf…Therefore I Am Not Here” and my treasured library collection of over 300 golf books.
My book collection holds great value to me even though I rarely review them only until recently when time marches slowly and until the “all-clear-to-golf” signal is permitted.
In preferential order here are my 10 all-time favorite golf books:
(1) “Who’s Your Caddy” by Rick Reilly (2003)
(2) “Good Bounces & Bad Lies” by Ben Wright (1999)
(3) “The Golf Secrets of the Big-Money Pros” by Jerry Heard (1992)
(4) “Dave Peltz’s Putting Bible” (2000)
(5) “Sam – The One and Only Sam Snead” by Al Barkow (2010)
(6) “Final Rounds” by Jim Dodson (1996)
(7) “Golf Resorts of the World” by Golf Magazine
(8) “Masters: Golf, Money and Power in Augusta, Georgia” by Curt Sampson (1998)
(9) “Unconscious Putting” by Dave Stockton (2011)
(10) “The Game for a Lifetime” by Harvey Penick (1996).
Finally, one book in my collection jumped out at me this week. Vaguely, I remember buying it in 2001 because I knew the author was a lighweight based on the title. The man’s name is Craig Bass, a financial consultant by day and part-time writer hailing from Plymouth, Michigan.
His book is titled “How to QUIT Golf – A 12-step Program.” At the time I was so offended by the premise and the imitation of the Alcoholic Anonymous 12-step program, I called Bass for an explanation. In retrospect, as one who has a lifelong addition to golf, I’ll share a passage from page 15 of the book, which enlightens me during this golf abstinence.
“The issue at hand isn’t the desire to quit, but the ability to quit. First of all, nobody needs to play golf. Secondly, everybody who plays golf knows they don’t need to play golf. The problem is nobody knows how to quit. Golf has a beginning, a middle, but no end. The game has no exit strategy.”
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