The Story of American Golf

Its Champions and Championships, 1888–1975

The classic history of golf in America beginning with the first clubs to arrive on the coast—from “golf’s most respected and authoritative writer” (Golf magazine).

Widely regarded as the definitive account of America’s love affair with the world’s greatest game, this magisterial volume is Herbert Warren Wind’s masterpiece.

From John Reid, the expatriate Scotsman who imported a set of clubs and balls from St. Andrews in 1888 and built a three-hole course on a cow pasture in Yonkers, New York, to Alan Shepard’s six-iron shot on the surface of the moon, The Story of American Golf documents the iconic moments in the sport’s first century in the United States. Wind captures legendary players, including C. B. Macdonald, Bobby Jones, Byron Nelson, Babe Didrikson Zaharias, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus, in all their glory, and expertly analyzes the developments in style, equipment, and technique that created the modern game.

Encyclopedic in scope and intimate in detail, The Story of American Golf is both a fitting tribute to the beautiful and fickle game that inspired a national obsession and a testament to Herbert Warren Wind’s incomparable talents as a journalist and historian.