The Best Golf Books We've Ever Read

No other writer brings the pain and the pleasure of golf to life as intensely and as exquisitely as John Updike. In this compilation of published essays and excerpts from his works of fiction, Updike portrays himself and his characters as morose, gloomy and immersed in a futile, maddening pastime (a topic addressed in "Is Life Too Short for Golf?"). While it has an indisputably male perspective, Golf Dreams is worth reading for the beauty and originality of its language—Updike's description of making a great shot in "Tips on a Trip" should be read aloud. Our favorite chapter is "Women's Work," a fascinating glimpse into a man's thoughts on watching women compete, originally published in the program for the 1984 U.S. Women's Open. While other great writers of the 20th century didn't bother to veil their misogyny, Updike writes of his awe of the players, whom he compares to Amazon warriors "doing authentic battle." (Alfred A. Knopf, 1996)

A beloved figure in the literary world and a founding editor of The Paris Review, Plimpton became famous in the 1960s for trying his hand at such professional sports as NFL football and major league baseball—and living to tell the tale. In this tear-blindingly funny adventure, the lanky aristocrat pits his 18-handicap against three stops on the 1965 PGA Tour. With a wild imagination and a commitment to practicing, he survives the ordeal with humility, grace and an eye for the absurd. On hitting out of a patch of trees and bushes: "'Did it come out?' I called. 'Not the ball,' I heard Abe [his disdainful caddie] say. 'But a bird come out.'" There is nary a woman golfer to be found, but Plimpton more than compensates with the story of his grandmother attempting to order a glass of sherry in her best French accent at a Parisian hotel, where the hotel manager is convinced she's asking for a chéri. (Harper & Row, 1967)

Marion Hollins—sportswoman, champion golfer, captain of the first U.S. Curtis Cup team—is hardly as well known as Didrikson but her life deserves equal attention. In his biography, Outerbridge paints an engrossing and likable portrait of this force of nature, who lived at a time—the first half of the 20th century—when the achievements of women were downplayed, if not ignored outright. The child of a banker and railroad magnate, the independent Hollins ended up out West, where she co-founded Cypress Point Club and Pasatiempo Golf Club in northern California, the former considered one of the world's best courses. Along the way she befriended such famous personalities as Mary Pickford and Amelia Earhart. Her first course, in 1923, was the acclaimed Women's National Golf and Tennis Club in Glen Head, Long Island, and Outerbridge's account of how scheming men stole it away will make you seethe. (Sleeping Bear Press, 1998)

Humorist P.G. "Plum" Wodehouse once wrote: "Everybody ought to play golf, and nobody can begin it too soon." He was born in England but moved to America in the early 1900s, where he made a prosperous living writing for Hollywood. But he loved golf and wrote prolifically on the subject. In this collection of tales about a fictional golf club, his female characters are as entertaining as the male ones. There's the low-handicapper Jane, whose romantic musings about her fiancé, William, include the delight she takes in his nearly equal handicap. And then there's the club champion Agnes Flack, who hits it 240 yards and never lets a touch of rain put her off her game. In the deliciously absurd "Feet of Clay," the final round of the Women's Singles Championship involves a thunderstorm, a Pekinese and an "expensively upholstered" Lulabelle Sprockett, heir to Sprockett's Superfine Sardines. (Wings Books, 1991)

Now one of the world's most in-demand golf course architects, Doak played more than 1,000 courses in the 1980s and '90s, and in this mighty work, he delivers the truth on the failings and the successes he found. The book opens with "The Gourmet's Choice"—31 of his favorites, including Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic and Royal Dornoch GC in Scotland—and continues with comprehensive directories of courses in the U.S. and abroad. He dedicates the closing pages to hugely enjoyable lists of the best and the worst in categories ranging from "Courses I'd Most Like to Play with Dianna [his wife]" (St. Enodoc GC in Cornwall, England, tops the list) to "Courses I'd Never Play Again" (New Jersey's Stone Harbor GC). The honest clarity of his critiques almost makes you wince; in fact, Doak mentions that Alice Dye gave him a "motherly scolding" for having written the book at all. He seems to have grown more diplomatic, because he refuses to allow the book to be reprinted; its rarity has made it a very pricey buy: starting at $599 on Amazon.com. (Sleeping Bear Press, 1996)

This exposé is a first-class book about golfers who refused to be treated as second-class citizens. Chambers, a GFW contributing editor and former New York Times reporter specializing in legal issues, documents the discriminatory policies some private clubs have had toward women. She puts current sexist policies into a historical context and describes what happens when women (and sometimes their husbands) dare to question the status quo: for example, fighting for weekend-morning tee times. This is not a relaxing read, but it's an essential one. (Pocket Books, 1995)