So many works of golfing history focus on the greats: the best players, the most prestigious championships, the hardest courses, and the like. But most avid golfers are average players, relishing in the joy of the sport itself. In Golf’s Iron Horse, celebrated golf writer John Sabino chronicles the previously untold story of Ralph Kennedy, a golf amateur whose love of the game set him on par to play more courses than anyone before. A founding member of Mamaroneck, New York’s prestigious Winged Foot Golf Club, Kennedy had long been an avid golfer when he met Charles Leonard Fletcher in 1919. When the Englishman told Kennedy that he had played more than 240 courses in his lifetime, Kennedy took it as a challenge and became determined to play more. In a feat that caused the New York Sun to declare him “golf’s Lou Gehrig” in 1935, Kennedy succeeded in beating Fletcher’s record, and then some. He played golf on more than 3,165 different courses in all forty-eight states, nine Canadian provinces, and more than a dozen different countries during his forty-three year love affair with the game. In addition to the 3,165 unique courses he played, the unrelenting Ralph also played golf a total of 8,500 times over his lifetime, the equivalent of teeing it up every day for twenty-three straight years. Lou Gehrig’s seventeen years in professional baseball pales in comparison. This intriguing story includes details of the special conditions under which he was able to play the Augusta National Golf Club and the unique circumstances of his visits to Pebble Beach and the Old Course at St. Andrews. Perfect for golf aficionados, Golf’s Iron Horse will inspire every reader to tee off at a new course.

In the tradition of John McPhee and Tracy Kidder, John Strawn's book is a brilliant analysis of how a golf course was built in the Florida scrubland and of the people who assemble for its creation. A must-read for any golfer -- or for anyone interested in how complex things come to be.

Judd, upon returning from the hell called War, found himself in another hell in the Nation he called home. A thriving web of human trafficking, child sex rings, and child slavery. A Global market where the blood of innocents were bought and sold, daily. ... The Playground of the Rich. Only this time, it was not Emperors, Kings or Queens conducting their Orchestra of Evil. No ... this was new. A battlefield called “America”. The new Merchants of Flesh? Politicians. Bankers. Celebrities. Corporate Giants. The Clientele? One and the same. However, one of these people had crossed the line ... The Lady in Red, that is. She had awakened something in Judd. Something very ... old. So who was she? More importantly who ... rather, what was Judd? The Lady in Red” was the “name” assigned to her by Judd’s goddaughter, his best friend’s youngest child ... who said it first, in fear of, “The Lady in Red,” she had called this ... female ... after being abducted and brutalized by this woman in a red, professional dress. She had asked of her mother, “Mommy, is the lady in red coming back?” The real question to be asked here is “What” was coming ... The Madness of Lazurus has begun.

Recounts the life of the Hall of Fame ballplayer whose career was cut short by the disease now commonly called after him, in a portrait that shares details about his rivalry with Babe Ruth, the onset of his illness, and the final years of his life.

A brief history of the design of locomotives in the United States, includes first person reports of exhibition trips and contemporary observations. Includes a chapter on the physics and mechanics of locomotive power.

The most exclusive golf clubs in the world are special places that elicit feelings of awe and wonder from most golfers. How great would it be to play some of the storied venues of the game such as Winged Foot, Riviera or Muirfield? Or, the ultimate for any golfer, Augusta National, home of the Masters? How to Play the World’s Most Exclusive Golf Clubs highlights the many ways that golfers can enter the world’s elite clubs, located in some of the most beautiful locations in the world. How do you go about gaining access to some of some of golf’s hallowed grounds? Who do you have to know? How do you find a member? What is the etiquette to follow? This book gives insights into what has worked for the author and other motivated golfers. An avid golfer and student of golf history, John brings an unparalleled enthusiasm, a unique perspective, and an insider’s insights to the task. Throughout each chapter there are personal stories about the author’s experience and unique stories about some of the lengths to which golfers have gone to gain access to golf’s premier venues. The proliferation of golf course ratings by magazines, combined with the expanded information about golf courses and golf architecture that the Internet age has brought to the fore, has created a new and expanding group of golf aficionados who dream of playing at exclusive golf courses and are eager to learn the secrets of doing so. This book’s coverage of more than 125 global clubs will be perfect for any player. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Sports Publishing imprint, is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in sports—books about baseball, pro football, college football, pro and college basketball, hockey, or soccer, we have a book about your sport or your team. In addition to books on popular team sports, we also publish books for a wide variety of athletes and sports enthusiasts, including books on running, cycling, horseback riding, swimming, tennis, martial arts, golf, camping, hiking, aviation, boating, and so much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to publishing books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked by other publishers and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

The hysterical story bestseller about one man's epic Celtic sojourn in search of ancestors, nostalgia, and the world's greatest round of golf By turns hilarious and poetic, A Course Called Ireland is a magnificent tour of a vibrant land and paean to the world's greatest game in the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. In his thirties, married, and staring down impending fatherhood, Tom Coyne was familiar with the last refuge of the adult male: the golfing trip. Intent on designing a golf trip to end all others, Coyne looked to Ireland, the place where his father has taught him to love the game years before. As he studied a map of the island and plotted his itinerary, it dawn on Coyne that Ireland was ringed with golf holes. The country began to look like one giant round of golf, so Coyne packed up his clubs and set off to play all of it-on foot. A Course Called Ireland is the story of a walking-averse golfer who treks his way around an entire country, spending sixteen weeks playing every seaside hole in Ireland. Along the way, he searches out his family's roots, discovers that a once-poor country has been transformed by an economic boom, and finds that the only thing tougher to escape than Irish sand traps are Irish pubs.