Sports Biographies Golf

Phil Mickelson is one of the most compelling figures in sports. For more than three decades, he has been among the best golfers in the world, and his unmatched longevity was exemplified at the 2021 PGA Championship, when Mickelson, on the cusp of turning fifty-one, became the oldest player in history to win a major championship. In this raw and unauthorised biog­raphy, Shipnuck captures a singular life defined by thrilling victories, crushing defeats and countless controversies.

In a truly groundbreaking exposé of professional golf, Michael Calvin and Thomas Bjorn - captain of the 2018 European Ryder Cup Team - capture the distinctive nature of the game, and the principles and philosophies of players who dominate the world rankings. With unprecedented access to the European Tour players, and in-depth interviews with the European Ryder Cup team, Calvin reveals a sport which operates entirely within the finest margins of excellence.

The man who invented shock rock tells the amazing and, yeah, shocking story of how he slayed his thirsty demons with a golf club. It started one day when Cooper was watching a Star Trek rerun between concerts, bored and drunk on a quart-of-whiskey-a-day habit. A friend dragged the rocker out of his room and suggested a round of golf. Cooper has been a self-confessed golf addict ever since.

When twenty-one-year-old Tiger Woods stunned the world by winning The Masters by a mind-blowing twelve strokes, the first thing he did was embrace the three most important people in his life: his father, his mother, and Hughes Norton. Now, in Rainmaker, Norton offers “the most amazing ‘behind the curtain’ view ever written about the world of sports management” (Jim Nantz, CBS Sports). This is an engaging and unforgettable memoir that explores golf as never before.

A major new biography from Alan Shipnuck – the author of the New York Times bestseller Phil – that chronicles the tumultuous life of legendary golfer Rory McIlroy, one of only six male golfers in history to achieve the modern career grand slam, perfectly timed to the 2026 Masters at which McIlroy will defend his title.

Tiger Woods is unrivalled as an athlete. He made the ultimate commitment to his chosen sport - and transformed it. Before the age of twenty-five, he rose to phenomenon status: twice named 'Sportsman of the Year' by Sports Illustrated, champion of more than thirty professional tournaments and the youngest player to win all four Grand Slam tournaments. Tiger, Tiger taps into the transformative moments of Woods's life, revealing in vivid, dramatic scenes what he saw and felt on the course and in his inner life.

Learn about these golf legends as they were learning to master the game on their home turf. In Grown at Glen Garden, the early friendship of Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson is shown, from their caddying days at Glen Garden Country Club to their chummy rivalry at the Masters decades later. With a peek at their family backgrounds, the story shows both the hardships and joys of growing up and learning to golf in Fort Worth, Texas, in the 1920s.

Reilly has been with Trump on the fairways, on the greens and in the rough; he has seen how the President plays - and it's not pretty. Based on his personal experiences and interviews with dozens of golf pros, amateurs, developers, partners, opponents and even caddies who have firsthand involvement with Trump out on the course, Reilly takes a deep and often hilarious look at how Trump shamelessly cheats at golf, lies about it, sues over it, bullies with it and profits from it.

Tiger Woods’ long descent into a personal and professional hell reached bottom in the early hours of Memorial Day in 2017. Woods’ DUI arrest that night came on the heels of a desperate spinal surgery, just weeks after he told close friends he might never play tournament golf again. The former paragon of discipline now found himself hopelessly lost and out of control, exposed for all the world to see. That episode could have marked the beginning of Tiger’s end. It proved to be the opposite.

This is the book Rick Reilly has been writing in the back of his head since he fell in love with the game of golf at 11 years old. He unpacks and explores all of the wonderful, maddening, heart-melting, heart-breaking, cool and captivating things about golf that make the game so utterly addictive. This is Reilly's valentine to golf, a cornucopia of stories that no golfer will want to be without.

As a follow-up to his 1999 autobiography, Palmer takes stock of the many experiences of his life in A Life Well Played, bringing new details and insights to some familiar stories and sharing new ones. Palmer has had tremendous success but is most notable for going about it the right way and always giving back to the fans who made it all possible. Gracious, fair, and a true gentleman, Arnold Palmer is the gold standard of how to conduct yourself.

In the wake of the stock-market crash and the dawn of the Great Depression, a ray of light emerged from the world of sports. In the summer of 1930, Bobby Jones, a 28-year-old amateur golfer, mounted a campaign against the record books. In four months, this natural, self-taught player conquered the British Amateur Championship, the British Open, the United States Open, and finally the United States Amateur Championship.

Spanning from that first match through the Duel in the Sun at Turnberry in 1977 to Watson's near-miraculous victory at Turnberry as he approached 60, and informed by interviews with both players over many years, The Secret of Golf is Joe Posnanski's intimate account of the most remarkable rivalry and (eventual) friendship in modern golf.

Coming into 2016, the Americans had lost an astounding six out of the last seven Ryder Cup matches, and tensions were running high for the showdown that took place in October 2016 in Hazeltine, Minnesota, just days after American legend Arnold Palmer had died. What resulted was one of the most raucous and heated three days in the cup's long history. Award-winning author John Feinstein takes listeners behind the scenes, providing an inside view of the dramatic stories as they unfolded.

Gary Player's Black Book contains 50 questions and detailed responses from 18-time major winner Gary Player. The book, divided into three parts, focuses on specific scenarios and problems that arise in golf, life, and business.

Best Seat in the House, written with New York Times best-selling author Don Yaeger, gives us 18 valuable lessons that Jack Nicklaus II learned from his father, PGA champion Jack Nicklaus. Although the “Golden Bear”, as he is known by fans, is widely regarded as the best golfer of all time, with a record number of PGA major championships, his life and values show that true legacy lives on through your children, grandchildren, and others we are blessed to call family and friends.

Discover the riveting journey of Rory McIlroy—a story of dreaming big, overcoming obstacles, and leaving an indelible mark on the world. With his reputation as one of the most consistent players of his era, Rory has carved his name alongside the greatest in golf history.

In 1942, the United States Golf Association (USGA) cancelled its four golf tournaments for the duration of World War II. But then it did something different in only that year - it sponsored the Hale-America National Open on the same weekend as the cancelled US Open. The great Ben Hogan won that tournament and went to his grave believing he had therefore won a record five US Open titles. In The Open Question, Peter May turns his attention to this controversial, colorful Hale-America National Open of 1942.

One publicly imploded marriage. Two car accidents. Eight surgeries. And now, a miracle of hard work and storied talent: five Masters wins. Once hailed as "the greatest closer in history" before he fell further than any beloved athlete in America's memory, Tiger swung at the world's wildest expectations and beat the skeptics with his April 2019 championship. Roaring Back traces his road to Augusta and the improbable, phenomenal comeback of one of the greatest golfers in history.

Timothy M. Gay writes that four-time major champion Rory McIlroy is "golf's ageless Opie Taylor," a superstar whose charm transcends national boundaries and enlivens the game. His swing is so powerful that Tiger Woods is teaching his own son to mimic Rory's action. But a charismatic persona and a pretty swing don't translate into winning championships. Rory has failed to win another major and fallen short of achieving the career Grand Slam. Rory Land tells the saga of a compassionate superstar living in a world where "money has no conscience."