Golf in America
About the Book
In 1888, native Scotsman and New York iron magnate John Reid played an informal round of golf with friends in his Yonkers cow pasture. The same year he cofounded St. Andrews Golf Club, America’s first modern golf club. Since then, people from all walks of life have embraced the addictive Scottish sport.George B. Kirsch’s entertaining social history looks at golf as a mainstream sport enjoyed by the masses. Played by men and women of many ethnic backgrounds, golf overcame the challenges of the Great Depression and world wars thanks to clubs reducing fees and relaxing admission restrictions. Golfers of modest means, meanwhile, patronized new municipal courses. Kirsch profiles Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Sam Snead, John Shippen, and other classic heroes while looking at how celebrities from Bing Crosby to Dwight Eisenhower helped the game establish itself on television. His account then takes readers through the reigns of Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus to the ascension of Tiger Woods--names synonymous with the game’s explosion in popularity.
About the Author
George B. Kirsch is a professor of history at Manhattan College. His books include Baseball in Blue and Gray: the National Pastime during the Civil War and Baseball and Cricket: The Creation of American Team Sports,1838–72.Also by this author
Reviews
"You’ll pardon my fleeting interest in yet another instructional tract, or coffee-table book of pretty courses. . . . For readers more interested in where the game sits on the country’s cultural landscape than in whether anyone was better than Bobby Jones and Ben Hogan, Golf in America is an indispensable guide."--Golfweek"Kirsch traces golf's path in the United States, hitting the high notes just right."--Golf Digest
"Exceptional."--The Globe and Mail
"Excellent."--Geoff Shackelford
"Kirsch delivers excellent pen portraits of the great, good and obscure in American golf, and quotes richly from the golfing literature of the early twentieth century when exploring the game’s meanings and appeal."--David Goldblatt, Times Literary Supplement
Blurbs
"As the first true social history of American golf, Golf in America changes our understanding of the place of golf in American sport. A truly special achievement."--Steven Schlossman, professor of history at Carnegie Mellon University and historian of the U.S. Open Championship and the Curtis Cup Match
"Golf in America is the best one-volume history of American golf. Kirsch astutely covers a wide variety of topics, including the Americanization of golf, the rise of Jewish country clubs, the struggles of women and African American golfers for equal treatment, the environmental effects of golf courses, and even the role of the motorized golf cart. An extremely thorough and contextualized contribution to our understanding of sport history."--Steven A. Riess, author of City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports
Related Titles
