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Title: A Feel For the Game : To Brookline and Back by Melanie Hauser, Ben Crenshaw ISBN: 0-385-50070-X Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 03 April, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: A missed opportunity
Comment: As a lifelong golfer and Ben Crenshaw admirer, I waited in anticipation for Crenshaw's story, both of his development in the game as well as his version of the 1999 Ryder Cup. After finishing "A Feel for the Game," my first question is: did co-writer Melanie Hauser do ANYTHING on this book? There is no writing style; it's as though Crenshaw simply rambled into a tape recorder and Texas golf writer Hauser merely did the transcribing. The end result is a cliche-ridden effort where friends and associates are described with little more than banal generalities, such as Crenshaw's portrait of former Augusta National Chairman Bill Lane as "a very nice man." Believe me, that's as much texture as you'll get when trying to learn about some of the most powerful and fascinating people in golf.
With a slew of course records as a teenager and three straight NCAA championships, there's no doubt that Ben was a prodigy, as one golf magazine described him, "The College Kid Who Beats the Pros." Left completely out of "Feel for the Game" is HOW Crenshaw became so skilled. Yes, he played a lot at Austin Muni and Austin Country Club, but both Crenshaw and Hauser failed to let even a hint of Ben's ego to come through and the result is a lukewarm history that could have been so very much richer. The result fails to amaze or even inspire. Hauser's voice is nowhere to be heard and while it's certainly not HER book, the "golly gee," and "oh wow" tone that reflects Crenshaw's renowned polite gentlemanliness sadly causes "Game" to sound like little more than a list of happy facts. The potential was there to provide the reader so much more.
Yes, there is the tale of Crenshaw's Ryder Cup captaincy and here he exhibits more backbone than "Gentle Ben" would normally demonstrate by again explaining the burst of enthusiam ignited by Justin Leonard's winning putt at the fateful 17th. I'm with Crenshaw on this one: if had been the Europeans come from behind victory on home soil, that bunch would have acted in exactly the same manner.
Unless one is Jack Nicklaus, you don't have many autobiographies in you and the fact that this is Crenshaw's certainly leaves one wishing there had been a more concerted effort to put some bite in the story of this athlete who has been so affected by fate through his golfing life. Crenshaw admits that a number of writers had initially been enlisted to help him with the tale... it's just too bad that Melanie Hauser brought only a tape recorder and left her reportorial instincts on the putting green.
Rating: 3
Summary: Not a bad taste but could use more beef
Comment: As a lifelong golfer and Ben Crenshaw admirer, I waited in anticipation for Crenshaw's story, both of his development in the game as well as his version of the 1999 Ryder Cup. After finishing "A Feel for the Game," my first question is: did co-writer Melanie Hauser do ANYTHING on this book? There is no writing style; it's as though Crenshaw simply rambled into a tape recorder and Texas golf writer Hauser merely did the transcribing. The end result is a cliche-ridden effort where friends and associates are described with little more than banal generalities, such as Crenshaw's portrait of former Augusta National Chairman Bill Lane as "a very nice man." Believe me, that's as much texture as you'll get when trying to learn about some of the most powerful and fascinating people in golf.
With a slew of course records as a teenager and three straight NCAA championships, there's no doubt that Ben was a prodigy, as one golf magazine described him, "The College Kid Who Beats the Pros." Left completely out of "Feel for the Game" is HOW Crenshaw became so skilled. Yes, he played a lot at Austin Muni and Austin Country Club, but both Crenshaw and Hauser failed to let even a hint of Ben's ego to come through and the result is a lukewarm history that could have been so very much richer. The result fails to amaze or even inspire. Hauser's voice is nowhere to be heard and while it's certainly not HER book, the "golly gee," and "oh wow" tone that reflects Crenshaw's renowned polite gentlemanliness sadly causes "Game" to sound like little more than a list of happy facts. The potential was there to provide the reader so much more.
Yes, there is the tale of Crenshaw's Ryder Cup captaincy and here he exhibits more backbone than "Gentle Ben" would normally demonstrate by again explaining the burst of enthusiam ignited by Justin Leonard's winning putt at the fateful 17th. I'm with Crenshaw on this one: if had been the Europeans come from behind victory on home soil, that bunch would have acted in exactly the same manner.
Unless one is Jack Nicklaus, you don't have many autobiographies in you and the fact that this is Crenshaw's certainly leaves one wishing there had been a more concerted effort to put some bite in the story of this athlete who has been so affected by fate through his golfing life. Crenshaw admits that a number of writers had initially been enlisted to help him with the tale... it's just too bad that Melanie Hauser brought only a tape recorder and left her reportorial instincts on the putting green.
Rating: 3
Summary: Hey here's a bandwagon lets jump on it
Comment: It is a great pity that someone who I have no doubt has the highest integrity and honour should feel the need to jump on the Brookline Bandwagon.
In exactly the same way as Mark James did Ben has chosen to use the degeneration of one of the true last great sports to sell a book. Both Ben and Mark should consider their responsibilities to the game of Golf which is bigger than both of them. The shameful scenes (The USA celebrating and Europe sulking) at Brookline should not have been an opportunity to cash in but a lesson in how not to behave.
The remainder of Ben's book tells of the honour of the great game and the many great people who have played it. The legacy of Brookline let Ben, his contemparies and peers badly down. It should be a lesson to all of how not to continue.
Ben is undoubtedly a gentlemen and a great golfer, it is a pity is reputation is sullied by selling an otherwise great read on something that no-one should be proud of. I am afraid one apology will never be enough!
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Title: Caddy for Life: The Bruce Edwards Story by John Feinstein ISBN: 0316777889 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: April, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Getting Up & Down: My 60 Years in Golf by Ken Venturi, Michael Arkush, Jim Nantz ISBN: 1572436069 Publisher: Triumph Books Pub. Date: April, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: Ben Hogan : An American Life by JAMES DODSON ISBN: 0385503121 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 11 May, 2004 List Price(USD): $27.50 |
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Title: Afternoons With Mr. Hogan: A Boy, a Golf Legend, and the Lessons of a Lifetime by Jody Vasquez ISBN: 1592400515 Publisher: Gotham Books Pub. Date: 25 March, 2004 List Price(USD): $20.00 |
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Title: The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf by Mark Frost ISBN: 0786869208 Publisher: Hyperion Press Pub. Date: 06 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
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