My Greatest Shot: The Top Players Share Their Defining Golf Moments
With the exception of the occasional contest at a miniature golf emporium, I am the only golfer in my immediate family. A long time ago we reached an accommodation, as it were, relating to how much information I could divulge about my most recent round of golf.
It’s called the one-hole rule.
I can tell them as much as I want about how it went, as long as I limit my story to only one hole.
Avid golfers know how hard that task can be. After all, a typical eighteen-hole round evolves much like a short story or novel, with emotional highs, depressing lows, and the occasional comedic relief breaking through the tension of trying to score six strokes below your handicap.
Who wouldn’t want to hear the whole saga, instead of just a sample?
On the other hand, knowing when to compromise is the essence of maintaining good family relationships.
In one respect, this pleasant little book sets up a similar conundrum. Instead of describing your best round of golf, how would you decide which single shot was your personal best? Or, even harder, which was the greatest shot you ever saw anyone hit?
Ron Cherney, a dentist and club champion at his home course in California, took the initiative to write to some of the game’s greatest players, both professional and amateur, and ask them these two disarmingly simple questions. Beginning in 1999 and continuing over the next five years, he obtained responses from well over a hundred famous players. Michael Arkush joined in the project a few years ago, and interviewed most of those who replied to Cherney’s letters. From that process they selected the best 80 to publish, and their combined efforts paid off handsomely.
The book includes an exact reproduction of each golfer’s written response, whether neatly typed or in occasionally shaky longhand. Many of them noted that the process of focusing on a single best shot wasn’t as easy as one might think. Several famous golfers described shots that will surprise many of their fans. In nearly every instance, however, the process of answering these two questions seems to have encouraged the players to reveal something of their character as well as show some of the reasons why they love golf.
For example, Greg Norman’s short note about a scrambling shot off the stone wall at the Road Hole at St. Andrews is a great example of his willingness to dare greatly. Estaban Toledo showed how much a single shot can mean to someone trying to earn a spot on the PGA Tour during the Q-School tournament.
Jan Stephenson’s note gave a glimpse into the importance of family support for many professional golfers, with a story involving her father and a potentially winning putt in an LPGA major tournament. Notah Begay had no witnesses for his best shot, but the experience cemented his own love affair with the game.
Arkush’s short biographical notes and quotes from his interviews are equally revealing. Bob Toski explained how his family commitments led him to leave the touring life and focus on teaching. Kathy Whitworth credits Harvey Penick as among her greatest influences in making her one of the best women golfers of all time. Mark McCumber described how his own sense of family priorities affected his schedule for competing on the Tour.
The last section of the book includes a blank page or two for the readers to fill in the story of their own best shot, as well as two charming pieces by the two authors on their own experience with greatness.
The book is highly entertaining. It’s a bit like listening in on an animated conversation among golf’s best players.
Review date: April 18, 2004