To the Linksland: A Golfing Adventure

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

This will appeal only to a special sort of golfer, one who shares the author's near-mystical view of the sport. A sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer , Bamberger took a leave of absence in 1991 to caddy on the European tour and to seek the roots of golf. He caddied for the first portion of the year with fellow American Peter Teravainen, who was having his best season ever. Abandoning his caddying efforts Bamberger, with his wife, then went to Scotland, where he learned that linksland is the word for ``the earth at the edge of the sea--tumbling, duney, sandy, covered by beach grasses''--and fell in love with the concept. In his play on the very challenging courses there, he came to terms with his golf game, which improved markedly, and, in a sense, with himself. The book has a certain bizarre interest. (July)

Kirkus Reviews

Bamberger, a Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter, spent 1991 caddying on the European professional golf tour and playing the "linksland," Scotland's legendary array of courses. Here's his record of that time—a lovely book that will stand with the classics of the game. In search of "the primal heart of golf" and hoping "to improve" both his 13-handicap and his patience with the game, the 31-year-old author caddied for Peter Teravainen, a superstitious journeyman, practicing Buddhist, and Yale grad from Singapore. Teravainen's powerful, unorthodox swing had never brought a tour victory (his best year was 1984, when he won $55,000) or endorsement contracts, but he was good enough, usually, to make the cut in European play. Bamberger hit it off with the golfer (despite a few mishaps: losing a club; being yelled at to "never talk to my golf ball") and caddied his way through France, Italy, Portugal, Spain, and Belgium en route to Scotland. There, the author met John Stark, a teaching pro at Crieff Golf Club and "a mystic" who taught Bamberger that "to feel the proper tempo of a swing, you have to hear the swing. You have to make the sounds that accompany a good shot." Inspired by this advice and filled with the legends and history of Scottish golf, the author played the time-honored shrines at St. Andrews, Cruden Bay, Prestwick, and Dornach—and, with Stark, "secret," undiscovered courses deep in the Scottish hills. Bamberger learned to "create the sounds of good golf" and, at Machrihanish, capped off his trip by breaking 80 for the first time since his teens. Bamberger's course histories and profiles of legends from Old Tom Morris to today's Seve Ballesteros evoke a flavor andnostalgia that further deepen this lyrical and inspired work, a far better choice for golfing enthusiasts than Curt Sampson's The Eternal Summer (reviewed below).