Men in Green - Paperback

by Michael Bamberger (Author)

"Maybe the best golf book I've ever read." --Bill Reynolds, The Providence Journal The instant New York Times bestseller from acclaimed Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger--a warm, nostalgic, and intimately reported account of golf's greatest generation.With "exceptional insight into some of America's greatest players over the last half-century" (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Men in Green is to golf what Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer was to baseball: a big-hearted account of the sport's greats, from the household names to the private legends, those behind-the-curtain giants who never made the headlines. Michael Bamberger, who has covered the game for twenty years at Sports Illustrated, shows us the big names as we've never seen them before: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Curtis Strange, Fred Couples--and the late Ken Venturi. But he also chronicles the legendary figures known only to insiders, who nevertheless have left an indelible mark on the sport. There's a club pro, a teaching pro, an old black Southern caddie. There's a tournament director in his seventies, a TV director in his eighties, and a USGA executive in his nineties. All these figures, from the marquee names to the unknowns, have changed the game. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug. Was golf better back in the day? Men in Green weaves a history of the modern game that is personal, touching, inviting, and new. This meditation on aging and a celebration of the game is "a nostalgic visit and reminiscence with those who fashioned golf history...and should be cherished" (Golf Digest).

Author Biography

Michael Bamberger was born in Patchogue, New York, in 1960. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 1982, he worked as a newspaper reporter, first for The Vineyard Gazette, later for The Philadelphia Inquirer. After twenty-two years at Sports Illustrated, he is now a senior writer at Golf.com. His books include To the Linksland, Men in Green, The Ball in the Air, and The Playing Lesson. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Christine.