I just read Carl Hiaasen’s golf book The Downhill Lie, so I figured that there would be no better time to read George Plimpton’s golf book as now. I’ve previously read his Paper Lion (in 2016) and Open Net (just last year). At some point when I was moving books on the shelves, I put this book right next to Open Net so I knew where it was exactly. Which meant I had no reason not to read it at this time, especially as I am not a golfer, so I’m not reading golf books all the time.
The conceit is similar to Paper Lion: George Plimpton joins the PGA Tour for a number of tournaments, although he plays in the Pro-Am events and not the actual professional tournaments. And, as is his fashion, he drops a hella lot of names even when they’re not golfers. He meets Bing Crosby at the Bing Crosby tournament; Andy Williams calls him over to give him some golf advice; and Samuel F.B. Morse, not that one, his relation who was wealthy on his relation’s inventions; and so on. He relates numerous heresay stories, including one about Bobby Riggs who was a notorious gambler even in 1969 and older golfers who retired decades before.
The chapters break on two things: First, topical stories which discuss things like the “yips” (nerves) which afflict golfers, the life of a caddy and stories they tell of golfers, superstitions of pro golfers, and so on, and second, the events and people he meets on the tour. He is not as good of a golfer as even Hiaasen, and he ruminates and marinates in that an awful lot (and says at the end of the book that he probably did too much of it instead of enjoying the experience).
The book climaxes with a locker room interview with Arnold Palmer where Plimpton is a bit awed by the professional and does not get the information out of him that he wanted and suspects he did not impress the legendary golfer (extra legendary because he was retired when I was a kid and is now known mostly for his soft drink). Jack Nicklaus and Lee Trevino are mentioned in passing, and they’re the only golfers whose names I recognize.
I enjoyed the book far more than the Hiaasen book. Plimpton provides real insight into the pro tour in the 1960s, such as how much a pro had to make in each tournament to cover the cost of travel (they generally drove from tournament to tournament in their own cars) and lodging, the lives of caddies (in the summer, professional caddies were essentially laid off so that country clubs could use local teens), the rise of the driving ranges just off of the highway (what, Top Golf and Big Shots Golf were not 21st century inventions?), and others. His writing style is definitely richer as he’s a long form writer writing a book, not just a columnist trying to stretch a couple of essays and a diary into a book. Also, Plimpton is a generation or two ahead of Hiaasen so he probably has a better-rounded education, and his upbringing in New York gives him a wealth of stories and names to drop (which bothered me less than in Paper Lion, apparently).
Plimpton has quite a bibliography. I should look for more of his books in the wild as I seem to be running low (as far as I can tell). But who knows what I might find in the wild if I actually look in the P section?
