The majors : in pursuit of golf's Holy Grail /

Most golf fans consider Feinstein's A Good Walk Spoiled (1995) to be near the pinnacle of golf literature. So what's he doing writing another golf book, and one that looks very much like its predecessor? Good Walk followed the PGA tour for one year, showing us both the inner and outer lives of the competitors as they marched from one tournament to another. This time Feinstein uses the same structure but confines his examination to the sport's four major tournaments: the Masters, the U.S. and British Opens, and the PGA Championship. Yes, the two books are alike, but golf fans won't care, both because the major tournaments really didn't get their due in the first book and because Feinstein once again displays his rare ability to drill down beneath the pars and birdies to reveal not only the personalities of the players but also the essence of an infinitely complex game. Each of the four sections of the book looks in depth at one of the 1998 majors, but the treatment only begins with that year's competition, as Feinstein layers in tournament history, background on the contending players, and analysis of the tournament's place in the game. Golf fans will be familiar with many of the issues--the lure of the green jacket; why the PGA doesn't get more respect--but Feinstein consistently adds texture to what we think we know about the game and its players. For the legions of golfers who schedule their spring and summer activities so as not to conflict with watching the majors, this is certain to be a much-treasured book. --Bill Ott

With this exemplary book, Feinstein continues to exploit a formula that has worked well for him in chronicling sports subjects from college basketball (A March to Madness) to the PGA Tour (A Good Walk Spoiled): spend a year with a subject and use the experience as a way not only to tell a good story but also to illuminate the greater culture surrounding the sport. Returning to golf, Feinstein tackles the sport's four major championships: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA, as they were played in 1998. He displays a singular skill in conveying what these preeminent tournaments mean to those who contest them, and in highlighting the sometimes deeply personal struggles of people so often seen only on the grand public stage. Feinstein attributes the majors' rise in stature over the past four decades to the rivalry between Arnold Palmer, golf's first television superstar, and the younger Jack Nicklaus. From their numerous memorable duels grew the obsessive culture of today, in which unquestionably great players are forever tainted if they fail to win one of the big four. Feinstein also covers the tournaments' stewards, rigorous qualifying requisites and hallowed traditions. While stopping short of significant controversy, he looks candidly at such subjects as golf's struggle to shed its white-bread image and the attempt to deny Casey Martin, a handicapped albeit skillful golfer, the right to use a cart on tour while other players are denied that luxury. Comprehensive and immensely enjoyable, Feinstein's latest will provide veteran golfers an appreciation of how the sport is played at its most exalted level, while giving even those whose only putts have come on AstroTurf an understanding of what all the fuss is about. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

Feinstein first went behind the scenes of professional golf in A Good Walk Spoiled (LJ 5/15/95), his best-selling account of a year on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. In The Majors, he returns to the fairways and roughs of big-time golf, this time focusing on the games major championships. As in A Good Walk Spoiled, Feinsteins close-up portraits of the greats and near-greats as they compete in the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship are what make this account so absorbing. Along with penetrating profiles of the key playersDaley, Montgomery, Leonard, WoodsFeinstein also spotlights the lesser-known contenders, for whom victory in a major would be a career breakthrough. Feinstein once again manages to get inside the head of the competitor and depict the athlete as a multidimensional human being. He also includes the history of how each tournament became the prominent event it is today. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/98.]Peter Ward, Lindenhurst Memorial Lib., NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

With his usual acuity, Feinstein looks at the four most important tournaments on the men's pro golf calendar, narrowing the focus of his monster bestseller, A Good Walk Spoiled (1995). Spread throughout the year and known simply as ``the majors,'' the Masters, the British Open, the US Open, and the PGA Championship serve as touchstones of golfing achievement. To play successfully year in and out without winning a major essentially brands a golfer as a footnote. Even to have won several majors without bagging at least one of each casts a shadow on a legacy, as is the case with Greg Norman, who remains to many the ``best never to win the Masters.'' Conversely, a talented but inconsistent pro like John Daly secured immortality by shocking the world with his 1991 win at the PGA Championship. Taking readers to all four majors, Feinstein dispenses his usual complement of insights, observations, and copious knowledge of golfing lore and legend. Summaries of the majors' origins and histories are interspersed with a chronicle of 1998 tournament action. Setting the scene for the '98 majors, Feinstein profiles important players who would factor in their outcomes, among them: Tiger Woods, who ran away from the field in the '97 Masters, only to be pulled back in the following year; and Payne Stewart, who after enjoying great success in the mid-1980s, was back again in the hunt at the '98 US Open. Feinstein probes the relationships between players and sponsors, arguing that pacts can become problematic when sponsors' equipment hurts their players' game. He also follows around some hard-luck cases, showing how grim life on the tour can be for those living hand-to- mouth and week-to-week. If there is a flaw to this solid and respectable, if unspectacular effort, it's that the events Feinstein chronicles will seem familiar even to golf fans who only occasionally follow the game in the sports pages or on TV. (Author tour)