"The Open Golf's Oldest
Major" and other tomes of note
A collectible, a work of
photographic beauty, a book replete with history, "The Open Golf's
Oldest Major" by Donald Steel (Rizzoli, $60.00, 304 pages/240 color
and b/w illustrations) is one of those books you buy for browsing,
for research, for reading, for keeping in a prominent place on your
cofee table.
This is the 150th anniversary of
the Open Championship and "The Open Golf's Oldest Major" brings us
back to the 14 links courses where the competition has been staged.
From St. Andrews to Royal Liverpool to Prestwick and the others we
are there with the incredible historic images from Getty , with the
icons like Walter Hagen, Bobby Jones, Arnold Palmer, Gary Player,
Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, Padraig Harrington. VERY HIGHLY
RECOMMENDED
“Big Hair and Plastic Grass” by
Dan Epstein (St. Martin’s Press , $25.99, 340 pages) is sub-titled
“a Funky Ride Through Baseball and America in the Swinging
‘70s.” The book swings.
In another less swinging era
there was George Gipp, Knute Rockne and the dramatic rise of Notre
Dame football. “The Gipper” by Jack Cavanaugh (Skyhorse, $24.95, 294
pages) brings us back in telling detail through careful research.
This is a book for football fans of all ages, tracing as it does,
the life and times of one of the true legends of the collegiate
gridiron game. More than 80 years after his death, George Gipp is
looked upon as the best all around player of all those who played
football for the Irish. With “The Gipper,” a fascinating up close
and personal portrait, Cavanaugh has out-done himself with the
unusually fine work.
“Tales from the 5th St. Gym” by
Ferdie Pacheco (University Press of Florida, $27.50, 250 pages, many
unique photographs) is all about the legendary place in Miami where
Muhammad Ali trained and where his legend was born. The gym opened
for business in 1950 and Pacheco explains how it became the
University for Boxing presided over by Chris and Angelo Dundee. It
also became a hangout for celebrities like Joe Louis, Jackie
Gleason, Frant Sinatra. Pacheco is a man of many skills -
physician, boxing analyst, artist and corner man - -now he he shows
great skills as an author.
