On Golf

Since his childhood initiation into the mysteries of golf, Timothy O'Grady has been obsessed with the sport. This personal history tells how his father played and taught his son, how golf dominated his teenage years, his adulation of Arnold Palmer and what it was like to eventually beat his father.

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Wonderful new addition to the Yellow Jersey Shorts series - an affecting memoir of one man's obsession with the arcane mysteries of the game of golf. Destined to become a classic Weather, hazards, lack of technique or practice, poor coordination, erratic biorythyms, hangovers, an unruly mind and statistical improbability - these are just a few of the obstacles to hitting a pure golf shot Che Guevara, Alice Cooper, Dennis Hopper, and Tiger Woods have all struggled with the above to a greater or lesser degree. And, since being initiated as a child into the arcane mysteries of the game of golf, Timothy O'Grady too has carried in his mind an obsession with the sport, shrugging off its social unacceptability and embracing its history, its literature and his own private battle with the club. The obsession has, at times, been all-consuming and On Golf is structured around a personal history - how his father played and taught his son, how it dominated his teenage years, his adulation of Arnold Palmer, what it was like to eventually beat his father and how they both continued to talk manically about the game even as his father lay fading away in the bed in which he would die.
When not playing golf O'Grady was often reading about it and this book discusses the rich literature of the game which includes the work of Tobias Smollett, Ford Maddox Ford, PG Wodehouse, F Scott Fitzgerald, John Updike Michael Murphy's classic Golf in the Kindom. It also tells of his encounter when working as a caddy in Chicago with the legendary gambler and hustler Marty Stanovitch and the terrifying and glorious occasion when he got to play a game with Arnold Palmer. On Golf is the work of a great writer and a good golfer. Timothy O'Grady has never quite given up hope that he may one day fulfill his potential and become a truly fine player but in the meantime he has given us a book which beautifully describes his love affair with the game and goes to the root of the obsession that continues to captivate so many.