Vardon in America

Vardon in America PDF Author: Bill Williams
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514453738
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book Here

Book Description
The objective of this book is to illustrate how golf became such a popular pastime in America. The roles people played in making that so are long-forgotten, distant memories with the exception of a few, like Harry Vardon. But for overpopulation in Europe and political strife, which led to a mass exodus to North America, it is conceivable that golf would be no more thought of in this country than cricket, rugby, or soccer. The lowly golf professionals that escaped abject poverty and war for a better life and Harry Vardon were instrumental in growing the game. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

Vardon in America

Vardon in America PDF Author: Bill Williams
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1514453738
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 155

Get Book Here

Book Description
The objective of this book is to illustrate how golf became such a popular pastime in America. The roles people played in making that so are long-forgotten, distant memories with the exception of a few, like Harry Vardon. But for overpopulation in Europe and political strife, which led to a mass exodus to North America, it is conceivable that golf would be no more thought of in this country than cricket, rugby, or soccer. The lowly golf professionals that escaped abject poverty and war for a better life and Harry Vardon were instrumental in growing the game. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

Vardon in America

Vardon in America PDF Author: Bill Williams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781514453728
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Get Book Here

Book Description
The objective of this book is to illustrate how golf became such a popular pastime in America. The roles people played in making that so are long-forgotten, distant memories with the exception of a few, like Harry Vardon. But for overpopulation in Europe and political strife, which led to a mass exodus to North America, it is conceivable that golf would be no more thought of in this country than cricket, rugby, or soccer. The lowly golf professionals that escaped abject poverty and war for a better life and Harry Vardon were instrumental in growing the game. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

The Vardon Invasion

The Vardon Invasion PDF Author: Bob Labbance
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781587262944
Category : Golf
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1899, Harry Vardon had a Tiger Woods-type year. The 29-year-old dominated the competitive golf scene in the United Kingdom, winning nearly 75 percent of the challenge matches and professional tournaments in which he participated. Due to this background, the American-based Spalding Company offered Vardon a lucrative endorsement contract and a chance to tour America and display his skills against all the top players of the era in 1900. Labbance and Siplo have re-created Vardon's tour along with a portrait of golf in the United States in 1900. Included are many period photographs of both players and venues. In many cases, the reader might exclaim, They played golf on that?

Harry Vardon

Harry Vardon PDF Author: Bill Williams
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1503535703
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 156

Get Book Here

Book Description
The authors objective is to provide to the reader, as near as possible, a definitive record of the playing career of one of the best golfers who has ever lived. In addition, as happens with many researchers, it is inevitable that such a project will stray into other related areas; for example, other people or linked events. To illustrate, JFK assassination conspiracy theorists would no doubt have studied events surrounding Bobby Kennedy or Martin Luther King or indeed the Mafia, who some say were linked to that fateful event in November 1963. Similarly with my writings about Harry Vardon, I feel it important to illustrate to the reader how the life of a professional golfer differs in Vardons era to that of a present day PGA Tour player. How golf evolved will also provide the reader with a basis for making comparisons between players of yesteryear with those of today, and how difficult such comparatives might be. What was the norm in the late nineteenth century is quite different from today, and I believe the reader should be aware of that before making a judgment about someone like Harry Vardon. This book, therefore, is not only a diary of Harry Vardons playing career, but also a history of golf, which I sincerely hope the reader will find fascinating, of interest, and enjoyable. Any deviations from the subject matter, therefore, are intended to provide a backdrop and, hopefully, a better understanding of what golf was like in Vardons era.

American Triumvirate

American Triumvirate PDF Author: James Dodson
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307473554
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
With compelling detail and pure passion, James Dodson recounts the singular brilliance of three golf titans and how they saved the professional tour and created the game as we know it today. During the Depression golf was in crisis. As a spectator sport it was on the verge of extinction. This was the unhappy prospect facing Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan –two dirt-poor boys from Texas and another from Virginia, who had dedicated themselves to the sport. But then lightning struck, and from the late thirties into the fifties these three men were so thoroughly dominant that they transformed both how the game was played and how society regarded it. Paving the way for the subsequent popularity of players from Arnold Palmer to Tiger Woods, they were, and will always remain, a triumvirate for the ages.

The Golden Era of Golf

The Golden Era of Golf PDF Author: Al Barkow
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 1466883677
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 424

Get Book Here

Book Description
The Golden Era of Golf chronicles the rise of the sport in America from 1950 to the present by one of the most prolific and respected golf writers today. Until now, no one has made the point directly and unequivocally that the game "invented" by ancient Scots would not have reached its present stature in the world of sports if Americans had never gotten hold of it. Is this to say that Al Barkow is, in The Golden Era of Golf, being a narrow-minded, American-flag-waving jingoist? Not at all. In detailing how America expanded on the old Scots game, Barkow does not deny that the United States more or less fell into certain advantages that led to its dominion over the game - there is the geography, the luck of not having to endure the physical devastation of two world wars, and a naturally broader economic strength. Still, Barkow also makes it clear that there were, and there remains, certain especially American characteristics - a singular energy and enthusiasm for participation in and observation of games, for melding sports with business, for technological and industrial innovation, and by all means democratic traditions - that turned what had been (and would probably have remained) an insular, parochial past time into a game played by millions around the world. America has been golf's great nurturing force, and Barkow details why and how it happened. The history of American golf is not exactly a varnished treatment, a mindless glorification full of nationalist ardor, which is in keeping with the author's well-established reputation, developed over the past 37 years as a golf journalist, magazine editor, historian, and television commentator, as someone who looks with a sharp and candid eye at the game. Barkow has points of view and takes positions on affairs and personalities that impact on every aspect of golf. Is the United States Golf Association, in its restrictions on equipment, playing ostrich to inevitable technological innovation? Hasn't it always? And, hasn't the association always been hypocritical in its definition of amateurism? Was the Ryder Cup ever really a demonstration of pure hands-across-the-sea good fellowship? Why did it take so long for the members of the Augusta National Golf Club to invite a black to play in its vaunted Masters tournament? Barkow was one of the first journalists to research in depth and write about how blacks were excluded from mainstream American golf for most of this century. Here, he expands on an element of history which is intrinsic to the larger American experience and which led to the coming of Tiger Woods. How good has television been for golf, and when and by whom did this most powerful of mediums get involved in the game? Is Greg Norman's celebrity (and personal wealth) an example or the result of modern-day image making that gives greater value to impressions of greatness than the reality of actual performance? Although some curmudgeon emerges in this chronicle of golf, what also comes through, and on a larger note, is the author's passion for the game itself. Its demands on each player's will, determination, and both inherent and developed physical skills are so penetrating, and the satisfaction that comes from just coming close to fulfillment so great, that the manipulations of the golf "operators" - administrators, agents, some of its players, et al. - become mere sidebars. This is golf history with a certain perspective that arises from someone who has lived intimately with the game as a player and writer for at least half the century that is covered, and in particular the last half, on which there is the greater emphasis. It runs the gamut - from feisty, albeit well-considered, criticism to an evocation of the human drama that is finally the most vivid expression of any activity man takes on.

Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine

Homer Kelley's Golfing Machine PDF Author: Scott Gummer
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101052597
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Get Book Here

Book Description
The remarkable true story of a lone genius whose quest to unlock the science behind the perfect swing changed golf forever In 1939, Homer Kelley played golf for the first time and scored 116. Frustrated, he did not play again for six months; when he did he carded a 77. Determined to understand why he was able to shave nearly 40 strokes off his score, Kelley spent three decades of trial and error to unlock the answer and to recapture that one wonderful day when golf was easy and enjoyable. In 1969, Kelley self- published his findings in The Golfing Machine: The Computer Age Approach to Golfing Perfection. The bestselling instruction books of the day required golfers to conform their swings to the author's ideals, but Homer Kelley configured swings to fit every golfer. He found an enthusiastic disciple in a Seattle teaching pro named Ben Doyle, who in turn found an eager student in 13-year-old prodigy Bobby Clampett. Clampett's initial success in amateur golf shined a bright spotlight on Homer Kelley and The Golfing Machine, but when the young star suffered a painfully public collapse and faltered as a pro, critics were quick to blast Kelley and his complex and controversial ideas. With exclusive access to Homer Kelley's archives, author Scott Gummer paints a fascinating picture of the man behind the machine, the ultimate outsider who changed the game once and for all of us.

Golf's Greatest Championship

Golf's Greatest Championship PDF Author: Julian I. Graubart
Publisher: Taylor Trade Publications
ISBN: 1589794672
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 291

Get Book Here

Book Description
The 1960 U.S. Open Golf Championship played at Cherry Hills Country Club in Denver, Colorado, remains perhaps the most dramatic, competitive, and passionate of all Open championships. In 1960 the young lions of the game were eager to reach the top tier occupied by venerable players such as Ben Hogan and Sam Snead. In this Open only a single stroke separated the three leaders-Ben Hogan, Arnold Palmer, and a young but talented amateur named Jack Nicklaus-on the final two holes. The stunning conclusion would prove a watershed in the lives of all three players, and in the game itself. Golf's Greatest Championship is a suspenseful, richly detailed chronicle of this epic chapter in the game of golf.

Ted Ray

Ted Ray PDF Author: Bill Williams
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1543481353
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 268

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is about Edward Ted Ray who was born in the village of Gorey, on the east coast of the island of Jersey near Grouville, which was the nursery of many famous golfers, including the legendary Harry Vardon. Ted was one of the biggest stars in professional golf, considered a mighty driver of the golf ball and a prince of putters. He won the Open Championship in 1912, the US Open in 1920, and many other prestigious tournaments in Great Britain and mainland Europe. He played for Great Britain against the USA in 1921 at Gleneagles and in 1926 at Wentworth. He was the player captain of the Great Britain team in the first ever Ryder Cup match of 1927. Ted would also represent England against Scotland on nine occasions in their annual team matches, as well as Englands nonplaying captain in the 1930s. Ted Ray toured the USA, along with Harry Vardon, in 1913 and 1920 to promote and popularize golf in the Americas. He, like many of the greats of the game, is one of the forgotten men of golf. The book endeavors to spotlight a golfer who is now a distant memory and one that has inexplicably never been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

The Greatest Game Ever Played

The Greatest Game Ever Played PDF Author: Mark Frost
Publisher: Hyperion
ISBN: 0786869208
Category : Sports & Recreation
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Get Book Here

Book Description
rancis Ouimet and Harry Vardon came from different worlds and different generations, but their passion for golf set them on parallel paths that would collide in the greatest match their sport had ever known. A young Massachusetts native, Francis was only three years removed from his youthful career as a lowly caddie. Harry was twice his age, the greatest British champion in history, and innovator of the modern grip and swing. Through exacting hard work, perseverance, and determination, Vardon had escaped a hopeless life of poverty; the unknown Ouimet dared to dream of following in his hero's footsteps. When the two men finally came together in their legendary battle at the 1913 U.S. Open, its heartstopping climax gave rise to the sport of golf as we know it today. Weaving the stories of Ouimet and Vardon as his narrative, Mark Frost creates a uniquely involving, intimate epic; equal parts sports biography, sweeping social history, and emotional human drama. Including historical photographs, The Greatest Game Ever Played is sure to be a must-read for millions of sports and history fans, and all who have ever dared to reach for their dreams.