Table Of Content

T H E P O E T I C S O F G O L F A N D Y B R U M E R UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA PRESS • LINCOLN & LONDON © (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:22) by Andy Brumer All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Acknowledgments for previously published material appear on page (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:24), which constitutes an extension of the copyright page. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Brumer, Andy. The poetics of golf / Andy Brumer. p. cm. (cid:62)(cid:72)(cid:55)(cid:67)(cid:0)(cid:24)(cid:22)(cid:23)(cid:12)(cid:15)(cid:12)(cid:23)(cid:15)(cid:18)(cid:17)(cid:12)(cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:21)(cid:20)(cid:12)(cid:19)(cid:0)(cloth : alk. paper) (cid:16). Golf—Miscellanea. (cid:17). Golfers. I. Title. (cid:60)(cid:75)(cid:24)(cid:21)(cid:22)(cid:13)(cid:55)(cid:23)(cid:22)(cid:20)(cid:0)(cid:0)(cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:22) (cid:22)(cid:24)(cid:21)(cid:13)(cid:18)(cid:20)(cid:17)—dc(cid:17)(cid:17) (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:22)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:20)(cid:22)(cid:22)(cid:16) Set in Minion by Kim Essman. To the memory of my father Contents Preface . . ix Part One. Golf as Memoir Taking It Back Inside . . (cid:18) Night Golf . . (cid:20) Sam . . (cid:16)(cid:19) Girls and Golf in Pinehurst . . (cid:17)(cid:18) Golfless in Berkeley . . (cid:17)(cid:24) Pure Wine . . (cid:19)(cid:15) Cheating at Golf . . (cid:19)(cid:22) Part Two. Lives of the Golfers What Do Golfers Want? . . (cid:20)(cid:20) Pro-trait #(cid:16): Arnold Palmer . . (cid:21)(cid:16) Light My Fivewood . . (cid:21)(cid:18) Pro-trait #(cid:17): Jack Nicklaus . . (cid:21)(cid:21) The Meaning of Tiger Woods . . (cid:21)(cid:22) Pro-trait #(cid:18): Bobby Jones . . (cid:22)(cid:19) Pro-trait #(cid:19): John Daly . . (cid:22)(cid:20) Pro-trait #(cid:20): Charles Howell III . . (cid:22)(cid:21) Mike Austin, “Mr. (cid:20)(cid:16)(cid:20)” . . (cid:22)(cid:22) Pro-trait #(cid:21): Gary Player . . (cid:23)(cid:17) Pro-trait #(cid:22): Fred Couples . . (cid:23)(cid:18) Big Shots at Bighorn (July (cid:18)(cid:16)(cid:11)(cid:0)(cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:15)(cid:17)) . . (cid:23)(cid:19) Pro-trait #(cid:23): Craig Stadler . . (cid:23)(cid:24) Pro-trait #(cid:24): Raymond Floyd’s Swing . . (cid:24)(cid:15) Pro-trait #(cid:16)(cid:15): Annika Sorenstam . . (cid:24)(cid:16) Can You Have Too Much Love? . . (cid:24)(cid:17) Pro-trait #(cid:16)(cid:16): Se Ri Pak . . (cid:24)(cid:21) Canvassing the Course . . (cid:24)(cid:22) Pro-trait #(cid:16)(cid:17): Tom Watson . . (cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:16) (cid:56)(cid:68)(cid:67)(cid:73)(cid:58)(cid:67)(cid:73)(cid:72) Part Three. The Golf Swing as the Axis of the World Golf Mundi . . (cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:20) The Swing Sculpture . . (cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:22) “I’ve Got It!” (or the Madness of “Y”) . . (cid:16)(cid:15)(cid:24) Bashō’s Haiku and the Three-ring Swing . . (cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:17) Fingerprint Swings . . (cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:20) Dream Lessons . . (cid:16)(cid:16)(cid:24) On Phil’s Watch . . (cid:16)(cid:17)(cid:24) The Zen Puppet Swing . . (cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:17) Telling Golf’s Secret . . (cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:19) Seeing the Light . . (cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:21) Bending Hogan . . (cid:16)(cid:18)(cid:23) The Pathological Driving Range . . (cid:16)(cid:19)(cid:17) Piano Lessons to Nobody . . (cid:16)(cid:19)(cid:21) Part Four. Golf as a Tool Chest Faithless to the Fourteen . . (cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:18) The Half-degree Solution . . (cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:21) Strokes of Genius . . (cid:16)(cid:20)(cid:24) About Face . . (cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:17) Vestigial Headcovers . . (cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:20) Part Five. Golf and the Soul The Golf Course as a Work of Art . . (cid:16)(cid:21)(cid:24) Golf and Creativity . . (cid:16)(cid:22)(cid:21) Golf and Spirituality . . (cid:16)(cid:23)(cid:18) Bob’n Around . . (cid:16)(cid:24)(cid:19) Golf’s Imponderables (and an Answer from Jack Kerouac) . . (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:16) Winter Scene with Figures Playing Kolf . . (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:20) Source Acknowledgments . . (cid:17)(cid:15)(cid:24) viii Preface I’ve written poems and played golf for almost as long as I can re- member and have enjoyed the ongoing struggle to master both ac- tivities. Through my practice I’ve discovered many similarities be- tween poetry and golf, with the primary unifying principle being that they both pose “problems to be solved.” Indeed, the solution to a specific swing problem that may have vexed me for some time often becomes clear to me in a dream, as if a great golf teacher were giving his or her lesson directly to me (in fact, they often do!). Like- wise, images, ideas, or phrases for poems sometimes come to me in a dream all in a piece, and I wake up excited to write them down on a pad of paper next to my bed. As a young man I wanted to become a great poet and a great golfer, though more than one sympathetic friend or family member pointed out to me the difficulty of making a living from either, let alone ex- celling in both! Therefore, although I’ve written and published poetry throughout my life, just as I’ve worked to improve my golf game from my days as a college player, I’ve also heeded reality’s call by choosing to earn a living as a freelance arts and golf writer. In a world of specialists, my work in multiple fields has raised eye- brows, and even I have felt confused at times as to where my true pas- sion lies. A moment arrived when, rather than fight this division, I decided to integrate the two passions. As a wise friend of mine once said, “It’s better to proceed through life via addition rather than sub- traction.” It is in this spirit that I began writing The Poetics of Golf. This book does not argue that golf is literally poetry. Rather, it takes golf as its subject matter and a starting place for what aspire to be poetic essays, memoirs, journalism, short fiction, and other meditations on the game, the arts, and life. For my title, I owe a nod of recognition to Aristotle’s Poetics and ix