Golf courses - Fairways of the
World
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It arrived in a box big enough to take a week's groceries and was packed with thousands of styrofoam pellets. It measured 16 x 12 inches and weighs roughly 13 lbs (6 kilos). It's not so much a coffee table book but a coffee table without legs and is packed with breathtaking golf photography you can pore over for hours.
Golf courses - Fairways of the World is a compilation of the best bits from the outstanding 25-year career of Dave Cannon an extraordinarily talented photographer, who's as instantly recognisable to the world's leading golfers as they are to us. Indeed Ernie Els wrote a glowing foreword.
I've known Dave, and his dedicated team of golf photographers at Getty Images (and formerly at Allsport) for over 15 years and never ceased to be amazed by his ability to be in the right place at the right time with his action shots and his capture of key moments whether still or animated with a real golfer's eye. He's also one of these annoying guys who can pick up a set of clubs once a year and play to scratch!
The Way of the Shark
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In his anniversary book, priced at £115 and published by Rizzoli International, Dave produces stunning images of more than 80 of the world's extraordinary courses including St Andrews in a warm sunset, Leopard Creek with its wild animals and the 15th hole at Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand.
But it's the blend of colours together with the subtle shades of green that create the Wow! factor and make this such a page-turner. The scarlet and golds of the Sugarloaf resort in Maine, the white-tipped mountain background of Banff Springs and Crans Sur Sierre, the azure blue water and sky at Les Bordes in France and the purple hue of Walton Heath's heather, south of London.
But it was the misty awe of Turnberry at twilight, my own favourite course in the world, which captured the book's essence. So satisfying to know that it's a course that's only a few hours away and accessible to almost any golfer.
In this book 10,000 words wouldn't do justice to these pictures - never mind a thousand.
Indeed, it was at Turnberry in 1986 that Greg Norman captured the first of his two major and Open titles, having failed to capitalise on leading both the US Masters and US Open during final rounds earlier that same year.
He reveals in his latest book 'The Way of the Shark' (Ebury Press, £18.99) that it was the inspiration and advice of Jack Nicklaus on the eve of the final round at the Ailsa course that eventually pulled him through.
Little Book of Golf
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"As I sat in the restaurant at the hotel," he recalls, "a number of players came up with words of encouragement and just as I finished the last bite on my plate Jack walked over and asked if he could pull up a chair. 'Absolutely' I said.
"'Greg, there's no one in the world who wants you win win this more than I do,' he said. 'Just concentrate on the pressure of your grip; that will orchestrate your tempo and everything else should fall into place.'"
The rest is history as is his narrow failure to win the US PGA later that year when Bob Tway holed a bunker shot at the last to rob him.
But this is not just a story of highs ands lows of a golfing legend. Norman bought the same competitive fire to the boardroom, building a multi-million dollar empire. And as head of Great White Shark enterprises, he has done something very few professional athletes have ever managed - he has transcended the sport that made him famous.
First of no doubt a handful of books depicting the story of the recent 36th Ryder Cup at the K Club (we await Tom Lehman's with great anticipation) is the 'Little Book of Golf' (Green Umbrella £7.99), which charts in its 144 pages, the rich history of this challenging and, at times infuriating, game.
The Autumn Leaves
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Former Ryder Cup captain Bernard Gallacher contributes to the book and will be at Boots in the Bluewater Shopping Mall in Kent on Wednesday, October 25 (6.30 pm) to sign copies.
The book has been updated with an extra chapter celebrating the exploits of the European team over the US in Ireland, including the creation of a special dust cover.
Completing our round-up of new releases is a light-hearted fictional novel about the unusual bond of friendship between four golfers.
Though written by Brighton-based author Roger Blount 'The Autumn Leaves' (Book Guild Publishing, £16.99 in hardback) is set in a small town community west of the Appalachian Mountains.
Both funny and touching, it centres around a fourball of sixty-somethings who were the bane of club life - 'not bad in the usual sense of the word but mischievous' and when one of them helps the general manager with a business deal no one could have guessed what it would lead to for himself and his friends.
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