Tournament Week: Inside The Ropes And Behind The Scenes On The PGA Tour - Softcover

Strege, John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0060956720 ISBN 13: 9780060956721

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2001

Synopsis

Professional golf is among the most intimate of sports. Only a thin rope separates the players from the fans. Yet the reality is that the rope is a substantial barrier that permits only a glimpse of the world of professional tournament golf. John Strege, author of Tiger: A Biography of Tiger Woods and Golf Digest writer, takes you through a high-pressure week on the PGA Tour, providing a vivid portrait of what the professional golfer experiences each day of tournament week.

About this title

Review:

There are seven days in the golf week, but the fans are usually privy to just the four of competition. In Tournament Week, John Strege cuts down the ropes and invites us in for the other three as well, providing an all-access pass to sport's best traveling circus.

A tournament week is indeed a circus. From the moment the players arrive--some in private jets, though Greg Norman occasionally shows up in his private yacht or his private helicopter--and are given the keys to their courtesy cars and condos, appearance fees (against Tour rules), and other perks such as cell phones, on-site massages, expenses for spouses, and free child care, the fun begins. Cocktail party receptions on Monday. Heavy wooing from equipment representatives. (If you play the game, you'll love the detailed look into what players carry in their bags.) Practice rounds (with some heavy gambling, also against Tour rules) on Tuesday. The Wednesday pro-am, which the pros detest, unless one of their high-paying partners can offer some good business or investment tips. Then, of course, there's the pressure of tournament golf itself.

Rather than chronicle a single tournament week, Strege fills Tournament Week with tales old and new, naming names and places, some bathed in good light--Tiger Woods falling asleep holding his new green jacket after winning the Masters--while others--Woods, a few months later, throwing a small tantrum after the first round of the '97 U.S. Open--show some dirt. There's priceless stuff here for golf aficionados, such as John Daly tanking a round so he could go home after taking a big appearance fee, Jack Nicklaus's requirements for his custom-built clubs, club pro Scott Spence carrying his father's ashes in his golf bag when he qualified for the '99 PGA, Lanny Wadkins mistakenly throwing his PGA winner's check in a Pebble Beach fireplace, and David Duval's propensity to celebrate victories with a sip from a $1,500 bottle of Louis XIII cognac. Given today's exorbitant prize money, endorsement and commercial fees, and under-the-table appearance checks, the real surprise of Tournament Week may be that Duval's taste is that inexpensive. --Jeff Silverman

About the Author:

John Strege is the author of five books, including When War Played Through, which won the United States Golf Association's Herbert Warren Wind Book Award in 2005, and the bestselling Tiger: A Biography of Tiger Woods. He has covered golf for more than thirty years, and now writers for Golf Digest. He lives in San Diego with his wife, Marlene, and daughter, Hannah, in San Diego, California.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Perennial
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0060956720
• ISBN 13: 9780060956721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240