Golf in this country was born (in New York), it grew up here, and 100 years later it continues to be the center of the golfing world. It has more history and more great courses per square mile than any other place in the world. It is quite simply 'golf heaven'. From the foreword by Gene Sarazen, PGA ChampionOne of America's oldest regional golf associations, the MGA began with 26 member clubs at Delmonicos Restaurant in New York City. One hundred years later, the MGA has grown into a group of over 385 clubs in New York, Connecticut, and New Jersey. Each year many of golfs most prestigious events are held at MGA clubs such as Shinnecock, Baltrusol, and Ridgewood. Golf Courses of the MGA features these clubs and many others through beautiful full color photographs that capture the majesty of these historic locales.To accompany these photographs, Dr. William Quirin painstakingly compiles comprehensive profiles on over 150 private and public golf facilities as well as complete data on every MGA member club. He also highlights many of the legendary players who helped craft the MGA's history over the past 100 years, including Walter Travis, Gene Sarazen, Byron Nelson, Jack Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, and others.Quirin carefully traces the MGA's history and retells the stories that have become imbedded in American golf lore. Within this book, discover where the Nassau bet originated, how the golf tee was born, and where the term Mulligan was first used. Also included is a section on golf club architecture and a special records section that lists the MGA's 100 years of champions, award winners, and leaders -- a real who's who of American golf.... a must-have item for any golfer'sbookshelf. Great stories, great vignettes, and great pictures of all the courses I grew up around. It's also a great reference source. -- George Peper, editor of Golf Magazine -- Beautiful photographs featuring famous MGA courses such as Shinnecock, Baltrusol, and Ridgewood -- Lively text explores the history of MGA clubs and golf in America -- Memorable keepsake for anyone interested in golf history -- Commemorates the first hundred years of one of the country's oldest golf associations

A history that extends from the 1750s to the present, In Pursuit of Privilege recounts upper-class New Yorkers' struggle to create a distinct world guarded against outsiders, even as economic growth and democratic opportunity enabled aspirants to gain entrance. Despite their efforts, New York City's upper class has been drawn into the larger story of the city both through class conflict and through their role in building New York's cultural and economic foundations. In Pursuit of Privilege describes the famous and infamous characters and events at the center of this extraordinary history, from the elite families and wealthy tycoons of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the Wall Street executives of today. From the start, upper-class New Yorkers have been open and aggressive in their behavior, keen on attaining prestige, power, and wealth. Clifton Hood sharpens this characterization by merging a history of the New York economy in the eighteenth century with the story of Wall Street's emergence as an international financial center in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as well as the dominance of New York's financial and service sectors in the 1980s. Bringing together several decades of upheaval and change, he shows that New York's upper class did not rise exclusively from the Gilded Age but rather from a relentless pursuit of privilege, affecting not just the urban elite but the city's entire cultural, economic, and political fabric.

Pictorial history of golf on Long Island, from the earliest country clubs to public courses of note. When the European sport of golf found its way to Long Island and took root in the Hamptons at Shinnecock Hills in 1891, its journey across the Atlantic served as the opening drive of a recreational era that now spans three centuries. Home to more than 130 golf courses, the area boasts prestigious American clubs overlooking picturesque Atlantic bays and inlets, along with public layouts climbing and descending the region's sloping terrain. Long Island is home to the most popular municipal golf facility in the country, the centerpiece of which is Bethpage Black, the People's Country Club. Celebrated architects like A.W. Tillinghast, Devereux Emmet, Seth Raynor, and C.B. Macdonald built many of Long Island's famous courses, which have challenged the brightest of golf's stars. International tournaments and star-studded exhibitions have all been decided on Long Island turf, helping it grow into one of the world's most prominent golf settings.

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.

For golf's true enthusiasts, the game is far more--and far more complex--than a simple hobby, commodity, or slice of the sports industry. It is a physical and mental place to be, a community. It has a history, a hierarchy, laws, a language, and a literature. And in Richard J. Moss, it has a chronicler. From its beginnings in the northeastern United States in the 1880s, golf has seen its popularity, and its fortunes, wax and wane, affected by politics and economics, reflecting tensions between aristocratic and democratic impulses. The Kingdom of Golf in America traces these ups and downs, ins and outs, in the growth of golf as a community. Moss describes the development of the private club and public course and the impact of wealth and the consumer culture on those who play golf and those who watch. He shows that factors like race, gender, technology, suburbanization, and the transformation of the South that shaped the nation also shaped golf. The result is a unique, and uniquely entertaining, work of cultural history that shows us golf as a community whose story resonates far beyond the confines of the course. Purchase the audio edition.