You have heard of the writer James Patterson. You have, I’m guessing, read at least one of his books. He’s the most popular and prolific writer to come along in the last decade. An estimated one out of every 17 hardcover novels purchased in the United States is his, dwarfing the sales of both Harry Potter and […]
Now that we are back at the Masters for 2014, it is time to remember the great players, great shots, and great Masters. This is the one tournament of the year that brings golf home to the masses. And much of it is because of Gene Sarazen, the second Masters held in 1935, and the “shot […]
In the closing ceremonies at the 2012 Ryder Club held at Medinah Country Club it seemed as if everyone in Chicago was thanked for staging, attending and promoting the sports event in Illinois. But, in my opinion, perhaps the most important person in Chicagoland golf wasn’t even mentioned at any of the ceremonies, though he […]
Robert Trent Jones went to Cornell to become a golf architect, at a time when no one in golf saw a connection between golf and higher education. He spent three and a half years studying in Cornell’s various undergraduate and graduate schools. His special curriculum in “golf architecture” was made up of courses in surveying, […]
As you might have guessed, I collect stories about great players from the past. Stories from when golf was more of a game, less of a television show. Here’s one about Johnny McDermott, the first American to win the U.S. Open, in 1911 and 1912. This week, as you may know, the 2007 U.S. Open […]
Castles in the air need solid foundations. Every year graduates of MFA programs, returning Peace Corps Volunteers, and people changing careers decide that publishing is for them! They love books and magazines and want to have a line of work that matches their love of literature and language. They just want to sit around and […]
During the 1950s, two impulses swept across the United States. One impulse that characterized the decade was detailed in two best-selling books of the times, the 1955 novel by Sloan Wilson, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, and the non-fiction The Organization Man, written by William H. Whyte and published in 1956. These books looked at the […]
On the last day of our 1962 Peace Corps training in Ethiopia, we had a farewell dinner at the Guenet Hotel in the Populari section of the capital Addis Ababa. The Guenet Hotel, even in 1962, was one of the older hotels in Addis Ababa. It wasn’t in the center of town, but south of […]