The Big Three and Other Golf Essays: Palmer, Nicklaus, Player, and the Philosophy of Play (Valley of Flowers)

What do Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, and Gary Player carry beyond their combined thirty-four major championships?Palmer carried grace – the capacity to mentor rather than haze, to include his gallery in every swing, to wave goodbye from Swilcan Bridge and then mean it. Nicklaus carried power – strength, plus a focus so complete that when asked early on whether hostile crowds had bothered him, his answer was: What crowd? Player carried shadow – the darkness of an empty childhood home, the weight of a country's sins, the black clothing worn as armor on the course for sixty years.Each wanted what the others had. None could have it. The impossibility of being all things at once became golf's greatest rivalry and produced its richest era.The Big Three and Other Golf Essays explores the biographical, psychological, philosophical dimensions of golf's golden age through a series of literary essays.From the Hogan remark that ignited Palmer's first Masters victory to the origins of Player's Black Knight persona in a 1950s TV western, these essays reveal hidden layers in the game's most familiar stories.For golfers, historians, and readers who feel the game has always been about something more than the score.Includes the author's own crossing of Swilcan Bridge at St Andrews – on an empty course, during the coldest winter in a century, with a frozen-numb right hand on the clubs for the last couple of holes.This book is part of the Valley of Flowers series with the novella Valley of Flowers along with Golf in the Field of Time: A Himalayan Roundand MIST: A Philosopher's Guide to Golf. Read more