We’re back after a November hiatus. My most sincere apologies!

The selection this month is a bit different from any I’ve made to date, but I believe it’s good and healthy to mix things up. So without further delay, the selection is “The Evolution of Golf Course Design,” by Keith Cutten.

It’s a beautiful behemoth of a book on, you guessed it, the evolution of golf course design. I had the pleasure of meeting Keith earlier this year at Cabot Links, a piece of property he knows intimately from his involvement in the building of Cabot Links and Cabot Cliffs. In fact, over beers in the clubhouse one evening I, along with the whole NLU crew, was able to pick his brain about the profession and his philosophies. He sent us home with a copy of his book and I’ve wanted to feature it since, but I think December is the perfect month (more on that in a second).

This is where I need to be completely transparent and point out I am in no way a GCA (golf course architecture) buff. It’s an area that holds my curiosity, but I know less than any amount to be dangerous (my bona fides amount to a delightful reading of MacKenzie’s “Spirit of St. Andrews”). There are plenty of people far and wide in the golf universe that do an amazing job of discussing architecture (eg. Doak’s Golf Course Confidential, The Fried Egg and crew, etc etc). I do not pretend to be in that company. However, and this brings me to Keith’s book, what I love about it is the following:

: there are two distinct parts of the book: Part 1 is 200+ years of course design broken into decades. Part 2 is profiles on prominent golf course architects, authors, and visionaries.

: the book is over 350 pages but it’s format makes it easy to consume. Each section, each profile is distinctly marked and written. It can be a pejorative to call something a coffee-table book, but Keith’s book is something I would love to display on my coffee-table for the dual purpose of handy reading and referencing while I’m on the couch, watching golf for example.

: it’s a gorgeous, hard-bound book, replete with big, colorful images of courses and people. Again, the type of book that from a pure aesthetic standpoint, would look great on a table at home or the office.

With the holidays fast approaching, this book is an exceptional gift for yourself or golf-obsessed loved one. It’s the type of book you won’t consume in a few sittings, but instead tackle piece by piece over time, probably as you’re watching golf. Hopefully, too, you’ll slowly find your knowledge and appreciation for course design expanding!

Selection #18: December 2019

Twenty years ago this month the plane carrying Payne Stewart, along with business partners and colleagues, crashed into the fields of South Dakota. A shock to the golf world and beyond, the tragic death came just months after Stewart won the 1999 US Open. If you’re at all like me, I have only really known the Payne Stewart of 1999–the distinct wardrobe, the affable smile, the infamous made putt and celebration on the 18th green at Pinehurst. These are my enduring memories of the man.

With great anticipation I find this month’s selection, Kevin Robbins’ book, 

The Last Stand of Payne Stewart: The Year Golf Changed Forever

. His book chronicles Payne’s redemptive triumphs of 1999, juxtaposing those successes against the trials and tribulations leading up to that point. For me, it’s an avenue to learn so much more about a 3-time major champion, one of the game’s great characters, and a man who is so much deeper and more interesting than his wardrobe.

The back cover of the books reads as such:

Forever remembered as one of the most dramatic storylines in the history of golf, Payne Stewart’s legendary career was bookended by a dramatic comeback and a shocking, tragic end. Here, Robbins brings Stewart’s story vividly to life. Written off as a pompous showman past the prime of his career, Stewart emerged from a long slump in the unforgettable season of 1999 to capture the U.S. Open and play on the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team. He appeared to be a new man that summer: wiser, deeper, and on the verge of a new level of greatness. Then his journey to redemption ended in October, when his chartered Learjet flew aimlessly for more than a thousand miles, ran out of fuel, and fell to earth in a prairie in South Dakota.His death marked the end of an era, one made up of “shotmakers” who played the game with artistry, guile, finesse, and heart. Behind them were Tiger Woods, David Duval, Phil Mickelson, and other young players whose power and strength changed the PGA Tour forever. With exclusive access to Stewart’s friends, family, and onetime colleagues, Kevin Robbins provides a long-overdue portrait of one of golf’s greats in one of golf’s greatest seasons.

This is a rare selection that I have not read yet, but as mentioned, am very excited to do so. Also, if you’d like to hear the author, Kevin Robbins, discuss the book and his writing process, check out Episode 42 of the TrapDraw podcast, available wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy!

Selection #17: October 2019

This month’s pick is John Feinstein’s “Tales from Q School: Inside Golf’s Fifth Major.” Published over a decade ago, it’s a popular read in golf circles and one of numerous golf-themed books by the prolific Feinstein. The book is dated in the sense that Q School no longer feeds directly into the PGA Tour, but it’s a phenomenal read about truly pressure-packed, high stakes golf. Additionally, Q School is still alive and well as a feeder into the Korn Ferry Tour. As the 2018-19 golf season just concluded and there was heartbreak and elation in Evansville, IN at the Korn Ferry Finals, this book will help put into perspective what many of those guys face in the coming months. If you haven’t read this book yet, I recommend it and this this time of year is perfect to do so.

It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying for the 30 slots available. The grim reality: if you don’t make it through Q school, you’re not on the PGA tour. You’re out. And those who make it to the six day finals are the lucky ones: Hundreds more players fail to get through the equally grueling first two stages of the event. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. With arresting accounts from the players, established winners, rising stars, the defeated and the endlessly hopeful, America’s favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour’s brutal all-or-nothing competition.

Selection #16: September 2019

Folks, we’re going to try a slightly different approach this month. We’ll see how it goes…

“Every year I bury a couple hundred of my townspeople.” So opens the singular testimony of the Thomas Lynch. Like all poets, inspired by death, Lynch is, unlike others, also hired to serve the living by caring for the dead in a small Michigan town where he serves as the funeral director. In this wholly unique collection of essays, the two vocations meet as Lynch shows himself to be a competent functionary of mourning, a reliable witness to life’s mysteries, and a poet poignantly tuning language to the right tones of private release.

Now, some metaphor. Of course, the 2018-19 PGA Tour season will be put to rest this month. A champion will be crowned, life will move on, and we’ll get set to do it all again in 2019-20. To be clear, this book is *not* about golf, except to the parallels you wish to draw to your own game and experience. I will say, though, golf is mentioned in the book (as is Icarus, for all you 

 fans!). If you’re looking for a thought-provoking read, please give this a try.

Lastly, for additional background on the author, Thomas Lynch, the New York Times’ Dinitia Smith wrote this article in June of 2000: 

Matters of Life and Death; A Prizewinning Writer Holds Onto His Day Job as a Funeral Director.

Selection #15: August 2019

This month’s pick is a follow-up from May and my Trap Draw podcast conversation with Alan Shipnuck (Episode 30). It is Michael Murphy’s classic, 

. It has a tie-in this month with the British Open (even though it’s being played in Ireland at Royal Portrush).

When a young man en route to India stops in Scotland to play at the legendary Burningbush golf club and in twenty-four hours, his life is transformed. Paired with a mysterious teacher named Shivas Irons, he is led through a round of phenomenal golf, swept into a world where extraordinary powers are unleashed in a backswing governed by “true gravity.” A night of adventure and revelation follows, and leads to a glimpse of Seamus MacDuff, the holy man who haunts a ravine off Burningbush’s thirteenth fairway—the one they call Lucifer’s Rug.

A classic, originally published in 1972, this novel is a must read for all golf fans, especially those (like me) bemused by the philosophical and etherial elements of the game. I mentioned Alan Shipnuck and I discussed the book on a Trap Draw, and shortly following that conversation Alan 

published a piece about a day spent with Michael Murphy at the US Open.

Selection #14: July 2019

This month is exciting for me because I’m going to read a book I haven’t read before, by an author whose name I know quite well but whose work I do not. The pick is Herbert Warren Wind’s 

The Story of American Golf: Its Champions and Its Championships

. Released in 1975, it chronicles the roots of golf in America all the way up through the time of publishing. Wind is a name I have grown to know but is a real blind spot for me. I look forward to going about changing that a bit.

The description of the book is as follows:

Here, in words & pictures, the whole story of American golf unfolds, from the inspiration of the Scottish game for the exclusive entertainment of millionaires in Newport, Tuxedo Park, & on Long Island & the golf madness that swept Chicago in 1895, down to the present day [1975]. From the triumphs of Walter Travis & Jerome Travers to the glorious 1975 Masters, here are the developments of the sport, the idiosyncrasies of the players, the courses, the tournaments, the club life, the historical & sociological insights, the drama & humor of golf.

Selection #13: June 2019

Two things influenced the selection this month–the PGA Championship moving to May and the fact I have yet to select a book from one of my favorite golf writers, Alan Shipnuck. So in that spirit, this month’s selection is 

Bud, Sweat & Tees: Rich Beem’s Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour.

 Beem of course is famous for outlasting Tiger at the 2002 PGA Championship and now does broadcast work. Hopefully you’ve come across this book, but if you haven’t I urge you to give it a read.

Rich Beem became an overnight folk hero with his victory at the 2002 PGA Championship, where he dazzled fans with fearless shotmaking and glib one-liners. By the time Beem had stared down Tiger Woods in an epic back nine and then danced a goofy jig on the final green, the sports world was clamoring to know, “Who is this guy, anyway?”



That question is answered in 

 Alan Shipnuck’s no-holds-barred look at modern professional golf. Shipnuck began tracking Beem during his rookie year in 1999, when he was a logo-free rube only a couple of years removed from a seven-dollar-an-hour job hawking cell phones. Beem and his hard-living caddie, Steve Duplantis, would find sudden fame and fortune, and Shipnuck enjoyed unparalleled access in chronicling their wild ride—sharing endless drives across the desert and eventful nights at strip clubs, cutthroat golf matches and late-night confessionals at assorted watering holes.



The result is an intimate portrait of two exceedingly colorful characters. Beem and Duplantis invite us deep into the world of the PGA Tour, exposing the rowdy, randy reality of the most interesting subculture in sports, which has always been a well-protected secret—until now. Sometimes bawdy, often hilarious, and always unpredictable, 

 stands as the finest insider sports book since 

Selection #12: May 2019

April in the golf world is synonymous with the Masters. This month’s selection is of course Augusta related though it’s not Masters specific. It’s a book written by Tripp Bowden about his relationship with longtime ANGC caddie master, Freddie Bennett. The description below does a pretty good job of conveying what it’s all about.

Though he was born and raised in Augusta, Georgia, home of fabled Augusta National and The Masters, as a child Tripp Bowden was too young and too removed from the game of golf to realize what Augusta National really was, what it meant to his town and the world and the sport; its history, nostalgia, prestige and secrecy. All the ten year old Bowden knew about golf was that it was a stupid game that took up too much of his father’s time, and that he’d much rather kick around a soccer ball or stay home and read a book. But all that changed once Bowden’s father, a renowned local doctor, introduced him to one of his patients, Freddie Bennett, the legendary Augusta National caddie master.



Though Bowden was a white child of considerable privilege and Bennett was an older black gentleman of more modest means, the two formed an unusual bond. It was Bennett who introduced Bowden to the game of golf, a sport that would one day earn him a Division 1 golf scholarship and lead him to the final stage of a British Open qualifier. But it was the lessons Bennett taught the young Bowden off the course that had their profoundest impact on his life. Through Freddie and his particular brand of homespun wisdom, the author learned invaluable lessons about personal responsibility, hard work, and respect for others regardless of age, race or religion. He also learned that there’s much more to life than just playing golf.



Like the bestsellers 

 is a heartwarming tale of two unlikely friends and their uncommon bond forged through sport.

Hope you enjoy, and more than that, I hope golf season is officially upon you wherever you might reside!

Selection #11: April 2019

Given the sad news of the passing of legendary sportswriter Dan Jenkins late last week, I think it appropriate to read one of his works which has been on my list for quite some time. This month’s selection is:

, Dan Jenkins takes us on a tour of his legendary career as a sportswriter and novelist. Here we see Dan’s hone his craft, from his high school paper through to his first job at the

. Whether in Texas, New York, or anywhere for that matter, Dan was always at the center of it all—hanging out at Elaine’s while swapping stories with politicians and movie stars, covering every Masters and U.S. Open and British Open for over four decades. The result is a knee-slapping, star-studded, once-in-a-lifetime memoir from one of the most important, hilarious, and semi-cantankerous sportswriters ever.

There were a number of wonderful tributes to Jenkins published in the aftermath of the news. I greatly appreciated learning about his life and career. A couple of my favorites were:

Selection #10: March 2019

With February being Black History Month I think it’s perfect occasion to explore a book I’ve had my eye on for some time. This month’s pick is:

The book’s description reads as follows:

Golfers talk a lot about “love of the game,” but the phrase acquires a whole new level of meaning when it’s used in the context of the first African Americans who tried to make careers for themselves on the links. No mere coffee-table book, this attractively illustrated and designed volume by veteran golf writer McDaniel (one of the first blacks to achieve prominence as a golf journalist) tells the fascinating and inspirational story of the first black golf pros in riveting detail and with quiet eloquence. The stories of Charlie Sifford and Lee Elder, the first black pros to crack professional golf’s color line, are here, but it is the less-familiar sagas of such equally talented pros as Bill Spiller and Teddy Rhodes, who were denied a chance to succeed on the tour, that are the most revealing. Equally fascinating are the accounts of African Americans John Shippen, who played in the U. S. Open in 1896, and Dr. George Grant, who invented the golf tee. An essential addition to golf literature and to the history of race relations. -Bill Ott

I’m looking forward to this and hope you enjoy as well.

Selection #9: February 2019

Let’s ring in the New Year with this selection:

Alister MacKenzie was one of golf’s greatest architects. He designed his courses so that players of all skill levels could enjoy the game while still creating fantastic challenges for the most experienced players. Several of MacKenzie’s courses, such as Augusta National, Cypress Point, and Pasatiempo, remain in the top 100 today. In his “lost” 1933 manuscript, published for the first time in 1995 and now finally available in paperback, MacKenzie leads you through the evolution of golf–from St. Andrews to the modern-day golf course–and shares his insight on great golf holes, the swing, technology and equipment, putting tips, the USGA, the Royal & Ancient, and more. With fascinating stories about Bobby Jones, Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and many others, 

 gives valuable lessons for all golfers as well as an intimate portrait of Alister MacKenzie, a true legend of the game.

I’m not an architecture aficiendo by any means, but I believe this book is both enjoyable and important for all golf lovers to read. The insight into golf course design, and specifically MacKenzie’s beliefs, provides a wonderful foundation to think about and enjoy the game in a deeper manner. This is a book that countless people have reached out and told me is a must read (a good first book to begin an architectural deep-dive as well, if that’s among your goals and/or interests in the New Year).

Selection #8: January 2019

 is the story of four middle class buddies who live outside of Boston and for years have been 1) utterly obsessed with golf and 2) a regular foursome at Ponkaquoque Municipal Course and Deli, not so fondly known as Ponky, the single worst golf course in America. Just adjacent to these municipal links lies the Mayflower Country Club, the most exclusive private course in all of Boston and a major needle in their collective sides. Frustrated by the Mayflower’s finely manicured greens and snooty members, three of Ponky’s finest and most courageous—Two Down, Dannie, and Stick—set up a bet: $1,000.00 apiece, and the first man to somehow finagle his way on to the Mayflower course takes all. A long overdue tribute to dog-meat public courses and the incurables who play them, 

This is one of those books if you haven’t read yet, please do so immediately. And if you have read it, especially if it has been awhile, read it again. It’s a very rare book I’ve read cover to cover more than once. Don’t let any preconceived notions about the author sway your opinion–this is a fun, fantastic golf book. It feels right to read it in December, around the holidays, because it’s as close to golf comfort food and coziness as I know.

Selection #7: December 2018

John Dunn never expected that his summer job as a caddie at the local course in Connecticut might turn into something more. The lifers who plied the loops were an ensemble of misfits and degenerates who made the caddie yard look more like a gambling hall than a country club. But Dunn came of age in those yards and on those courses, and the magnetism of the game and the lifestyle proved irresistible. One adventure after another kept him coming back summer after summer, until he found himself migrating with the seasons, looping at some of the most exquisite and exclusive golf locations in the world. Dunn crisscrossed the country on his own big loop, working inside the privet hedges while camping on the mountains, following the back roads and stumbling across unexpected moments of profound natural beauty, and embracing the freedom of what he calls the last vagabond existence in America, all while trying to decide whether to quit the loop and get a real job. Maybe next season…

I first read this book about five years ago shortly after I moved to Northern Michigan to work for a golf season. I met and worked with a few guys like John, chasing the seasons across the country. I always thought such people were clued into a different, probably, higher wave-length about life and what it means to truly live and experience. As you’ll read, though, it’s a tough lifestyle with obvious sacrifices. As the cold weather sets in across most of the country, I thought this book would be apropos as a contingent of caddies migrate south.

Selection #6: November 2018

The pick this month, in honor of another PGA Tour season, is:

Think country-club clinic meets Navy Seals training. I will pay any price, bear any burden, leave my home to follow the seasons, build my own swing studio in the basement, construct a practice green in my backyard. . . . Everything the big boys have access to, I want double. 

Like most amateur golfers, Tom Coyne had often wondered whether the pros won because they were more talented or because they were more obsessed. Overweight and burdened by a 14 handicap, he decided to find out for himself what it takes to play like a pro.



Charting his journey which included hiring top golf gurus such as Dr. Jim Suttie,

 takes readers from the Michelob tournament (a win for Tom) to the Australian Tour, where forty-mile-per-hour winds and a driving rain scare off his Japanese partners. With each chapter, he tracks his weight alongside his handicap, pursuing his dream with a reckless abandon that comes to involve hardcore diets, pricey technology, even psychologists. With echoes of 

 Tom brings his uniquely edgy, deeply human perspective to a game that can simultaneously bring out the best and the worst in everyone who tries to master it.

I first read this book many years ago and look forward to going through it again. It remains instrumental in reinforcing just how good the guys we watch play on television actually are. As the 2018-19 Tour season kicks off, I think this is a great time to read about the journey a good player (and writer!) takes to see just how much he can advance his game in a year’s time. I celebrate all of Tom Coyne’s writing and hope you’ll give this a read, especially if you haven’t yet read anything by Tom.

Selection #5: October 2018

Moe Norman has been called “The Mysterious Genius of Golf.” His swing, his mannerisms, and his lifestyle were unusual to say the least: Moe played very quickly, never took a practice swing, often repeated phrases when talking, and lived in motel rooms most of this life. Moe, who died in 2004 at age 75, suffered from crippling insecurity and introversion, which kept him from succeeding at the highest levels of play. Yet Tiger Woods has said that only Moe and Ben Hogan actually “owned” their swings, and Moe described himself as “the happiest guy on two feet.” In Moe and Me, Lorne Rubenstein, a sports journalist who knew Moe for 40 years, examines Moe Norman’s unique swing, his character, and how he lived his life well, despite being limited in significant ways. Rubenstein also offers his views on what made Moe special and what this most sensitive and peculiar man meant to him and to others.

Full disclosure: this is a book I have not read yet but greatly look forward to doing so this month. It comes very highly recommended via several people over at the 

, so many thanks to everyone for the recommendation. They’re always very much appreciated. If you’ve missed any previous month’s selections, you can find them in the 

. Also, subscribe to the TrapDraw podcast on iTunes (or you can listen through our website 

) to hear conversations with the author of each month’s pick.

Selection #4: September 2018

Here’s the inside flap describing the book:

Throughout the ages, the ancient arts of Zen meditation have helped warriors prepare for battle, brought philosophers to enlightenment, and opened the path to inner peace for countless practitioners. Perhaps most importantly, however, these practices have allowed golfers to transcend their game and shave precious strokes off their handicaps.



In this hilarious memoir, journalist and former -18-handicap Josh Karp tries it all–from quantum physics to Feldenkrais–in an attempt to transform his mindset, lower his score, and tap into the mystical connection between golf and spirituality. Assisted by a quirky roster of Zen-influenced golf masters, Karp’s unique experiences across the fairways of North America (and Scotland, of course!) are as funny as they are enlightening. 

 chronicles the lessons learned during the inspired, at times frustrating, but always entertaining, journey of a common man in search of an uncommon kingdom.

Quick note about Josh Karp–he’s really not a regular golf writer. You may in fact be more familiar with his book, “A Futile and Stupid Gesture,” which is about Doug Kenney and 

. It’s currently in movie form on Netflix.

If you missed any of the previous month’s selections, they’re in the 

, as well as discussion of each book over at the 

. Finally, subscribe to the TrapDraw podcast on iTunes to hear chats with each author at the end of the month!

Selection #3: August 2018

Michael Bamberger, who fell for the game as a teenager in its wild Sansabelt-and-persimmon 1970s heyday, goes on a quest to find out. The result is a candid, nostalgic, intimate portrait of golf’s greatest generation—then and now—that readers will cherish.



One night in a Chicago restaurant, drunk on chocolate and with the siren song of the road in his head, Bamberger draws up a list of golf heroes. Nine are living legends, like Arnold and Jack. Nine are secret legends, like Dolphus “Golf Ball” Hull, a windblown tour caddie from Jackson, Mississippi. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug.



Accompanied by a sidekick and friend, a former tour player who is a secret legend himself, Bamberger seeks to locate and get to know these luminaries. All the while, he is hopeful they will answer a certain difficult question: 





In their travels, these detectives from the Golf Division uncover life and death, sickness and health, unusual marriages and unlikely friendships, trophies lost and won, comic tales from lives lived on the road, lost loves and second chances, and a cheating scandal that reveals volumes about an icon in their midst. They take us from Arnold Palmer’s private warehouse in Latrobe, Pennsylvania to the twelfth green at Augusta National to a trailer park in Northern California, where an aging tour beauty lives alone with her memories of high times and bright lights. 

time-travels to forgotten places in a lost world.



Inspired by the Roger Kahn classic 

has written a book that is a meditation on aging and a celebration of the game and the men and women who made it what it is. 

is a book by a man in middle age revisiting the power of first love, and a testimony to the truth of an observation once made by the actor Laurence Olivier: “Inside, we’re all seventeen, with red lips.”

If you missed the first selection from June, it’s 

. Also, please feel free to get involved in discussing these books and anything else over at the 

Selection #2: July 2018

Introducing the inaugural selection for the online book club you never knew you wanted (or needed):

First, there’s an Amazon link to purchase the book through the image above, but I’d encourage you to either support your local bookseller or utilize your public library. Second, the back of the book reads as follows:

The Old Course at St. Andrews is the great hallowed ground of golf, and it was there that George Peper was playing in 1983 when he hit a slice so hideous that he never found the ball. But in looking for it, he came across a for sale sign on a stone town house alongside the famed 18th hole. Two months later he and his wife, Libby, became the proud owners of 9A Gibson Place. Twenty years later, they moved in and settled in the “Auld Grey Toon,” in the land of golf, single malt scotch, haggis, bagpipes, and television licenses, where the neighbors had accents thicker than a North Sea fog.



When he isn’t attempting to break par on the Old Course, Peper immerses himself in the local golf culture: He learns the rituals for ordering a drink at the Royal & Ancient Golf Club (est. 1754), where he becomes the first American elected to the Club Committee; endures homesickness (in the form of “Pre-Masters Post-Partum Syndrome”); and meets intriguing locals such as his neighbor Gordon Murray, quite possibly the only caddie to store his caddie bib in the trunk of a Mercedes, and Wee Raymond Gatherum, a magnificent shotmaker whose diminutive stature belies his skills.



Wry, warm, and witty, 

 will delight anyone who has played—or dreamed of playing—the Old Course.

In other words, a wonderful way to mentally prepare for the Open Championship in July!

So what’s this all about? Think Oprah’s Book Club, but golf focused. I’ve long been envious of folks belonging to vibrant book clubs, and have always hoped to use the NLU platform to start something similar. In my mind I envision a new book selection each month, though I think each book will have a two-month timespan (one month to read, the next month to discuss). I want to use the 

 for a home to discussion, and then hope to augment that with some sort of author interview in podcast or written form (whenever possible). At the very least I figure we can use the whole experiment to find and explore titles we may not have gotten to on our own. I 

it’s going to be golf books exclusively, but let’s reserve the right to wander outside the game, especially if certain ideas and topics can be tangentially tied back to golf. In other words, it’s going to be a feel-as-we-go process. Ride along for as much or as little as you wish!

Note: Listen to my interview with George Peper 

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