Open: Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black - Hardcover

Feinstein, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316170038 ISBN 13: 9780316170031

Publisher: Little, Brown, 2003

Synopsis

In June of 2002, the U.S. Open was played, for the first time in history, on a true public golf course. Bethpage State Park is owned by the state of New York, and no membership is required to play there. This is golf at its most populist, most pure-and most challenging. In what Tiger Woods himself would declare 'the most difficult national championship,' Sergio Garcia, Phil Mickelson, Nick Faldo, and the rest would, through days of rain and roughs, learn the hard way that while Bethpage may be open to the public, even for the pros the chance of winning can be closed off to mere mortals. With unprecedented backstage access, John Feinstein finally removes the mystery shrouding golf's most famous event, unraveling how pairings are made; qualifiers; setting up the golf course; and all the complexities of bringing golf's most exclusive competition to a truly public setting. In fascinating detail, Feinstein takes readers through every step, every thorny hole, every bitter rivalry of golf's greatest tournament.

About this title

About the Author

John Feinstein is the author of bestselling sports books including A Good Walk Spoiled, The Majors, and The Last Amateurs. He writes for Golf Magazine and is a commentator on NPR and ESPN. He lives in Maryland and New York.

Reviews

Feinstein (A Good Walk Spoiled) chronicles the years spent renovating "chewed-up" Bethpage (N.Y.) Black for the first-ever U.S. Open held on a municipal course-and the biggest ever net profit, at $13 million. Many of the behind-the-scenes people he describes (such as former U.S.G.A. president David Fay), though colorful-and colorfully drawn-don't quite pull readers into the 2002 event. Feinstein swings for significance, too, complete with references to September 11, which seldom land near the flag of portent. But unlike his earlier golf bestseller, crossover appeal fades fast. His account is impeccably researched and written with you-are-there clarity, yet the buildup stretches over three-quarters of the text, leaving the best for last but not rewarding readers' patience. Successive chapters-"Countdown," "Last Rehearsal," "Final Preparations," "D-Day"-keep putting off the moment until late in the book when Feinstein writes, "It was time to start playing golf." The skirmishes over which network gets broadcast rights or how 42,000 spectators can be accommodated just don't excite the way a neck-and-neck round does. With so many anecdotes devoted to politics and economics, even devotees may skip ahead to the later chapters centering on Tiger Woods, as the narrative fails to generate much game of its own.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

*Starred Review* It's almost inconceivable that the administrators of a large organization could ever be cast as heroes in the modern world, but that's exactly how best-selling sports reporter Feinstein portrays the employees of the United States Golf Association in this remarkably compelling portrait of how the 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black came to be. What made Bethpage special was its humble status as a state-owned municipal golf course, the first ever to host a U.S. Open. The idea of playing the Open at the Black course, as it's called by the Long Islanders who arrive before dawn to stand in line for starting times, was the dream of USGA president David Fay. Feinstein tells the story from the points of view of those men and women who made Fay's dream a reality: Dave Catalano, manager of Bethpage Park, home to five golf courses, including the Black; Craig Currier, course superintendent at the Black, who managed the multimillion-dollar refurbishing necessary to make the course suitable for the Open; Tom Meeks, who ran the Open "inside the ropes"; and a cast of hundreds who did the advance work, handled security in the post-September 11 era, and oversaw thousands of other nitty-gritty tasks. Amazingly, Feinstein turns the day-to-day operations of the USGA into the stuff of high drama. It works because the Black was such a dramatic venue; never before had the Open been staged at the home course of the cops and the maintenance workers who labored at the site. And, yes, Tiger Woods--who grew up on public courses--won the Open, but the real winner was the course itself: only Tiger finished under par. Feinstein does the impossible here: he writes a blue-collar tearjerker about a purportedly blue-blood sport. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Little, Brown
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0316170038
• ISBN 13: 9780316170031
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384