A Disorderly Compendium of Golf: Wisdom, Folly, Rules, Truths, Trivia, and More

The ideal gift for every golfer — pros and duffers alike.

The obsessive book about the obsessive game, and more fun to read than a green at Ballybunion. Written by two authors who have misspent their lives in thrall to the sport, A Disorderly Compendium of Golf digs into the odd, the fascinating, the historical, the random, the unexpected, and the curmudgeonly, and serves up hundreds of pages of lists, anecdotes, humour, surprises, and the sheer compelling minutiae of a game whose pleasure lies in the details.

It’s all here, including history (the oldest courses, top five money-winners at ten-year intervals), odd rules (did you know you may take a free drop from a fire-ant hill but not from poison ivy?), helpful tips and golf instruction (how to hit Phil Mickelson’s trademark flop shot), the lexicon (professional caddie nicknames, terms for an ugly shot, names of golf balls), gambling games, the grasses used in greens, unusual patents, Shakespearean quotes on golf, longest and shortest holes . . . and more, much more.

Lorne Rubenstein is an award-winning golf writer, columnist for the Globe and Mail, and author of eight books, most recently, Mike Weir: The Road to the Masters. Rubenstein lives with his wife in Toronto and Jupiter, Florida.

Jeff Neuman has worked on golf books with, among others, Jack Nicklaus, Davis Love III, Butch Harmon, and Alan Shipbuck. He was the editor of Harvey Penick’s Little Red Book and has written about golf for the New York Times, Links Magazine, and Private Clubs.