My Usual Game: Adventures in Golf - Hardcover

Owen, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679414878 ISBN 13: 9780679414872

Publisher: Villard, 1995

Synopsis

Published just in time for Father's Day, this engagingly witty discourse takes readers along on Owen's golfing adventures--playing the Masters course in Augusta, touring Ireland's greatest greens, meeting the sport's real millionaires (the equipment manufacturers), and chatting with local duffers. Line drawings.

About this title

Review:

The title sets the tone for David Owen's delightful romp through golf's mysteries, marvels, and malevolences: "Just once," goes the traditional Scottish lament, "I wish I would play my usual game." Owen, who turned away from golf as a kid because Richard Nixon played it and Jerry Garcia didn't, sets out anew to find his game in all the usual--and not so usual--places: he searches for a swing at golf school; pursues golf's enigmas in Scotland; explores the secrets of club design at the Ping factory; follows Freddie Couples at the Ryder Cup; and, once he gets his handicap down to a respectable single digit, sets out to tear up some of the best courses in the land. This is a wonderful odyssey into a maddening game, and Owen covers his course with sharp insight, prose as smooth as Augusta's greens, and wit as inviting as the bottom of the cup. But don't let his sense of humor lull you; Owen is serious about his quest to come to terms with this game. His ability to accept "the difference between a slice and a draw is a certain number of beers" is--no kidding--sober testament to that. No hacker on the planet would disagree. --Jeff Silverman

From the Publisher:

My Usual Game chronicles David Owen's funny and enlightening quest to come to terms with a game that has frustrated and fascinated him ever since he was a child. Follow Owen as he rescues his swing at golf school, spends a week with the inventor of the modern golf club, nearly wins a three-day Pro-Am at a tournament on the PGA Tour, travels with three golf-crazed friends to tacky Myrtle Beach, follows Fred Couples and Paul Azinger at the Ryder Cup, and discovers what may be the darkest secret of the golf swing: The difference between a slice and a draw is a certain number of beers.

My Usual Game is a hilarious and wonderfully literate tour through the sometimes peculiar culture of this very popular sport. Golfers of all ages will discover My Usual Game for many years to come. It is destined to become a classic of golf literature.

"Owen's droll asides are as memorable as a chip-in birdie."--People

"Mr. Owen's style might be best described as part John Updike and part Johnny Miller."--Newsweek

About this edition

• Publisher: Villard
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0679414878
• ISBN 13: 9780679414872
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256