Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major
Author: John Feinstein
Amazon info
Also....
A Good Walk Spoiled : Days and Nights on the PGA Tour
A special 2-in-1 book review. Possibly due to laziness, but also possibly due to the similarity between the two books. I first read the book about Q School (the PGA tour's qualifying tournament) and I liked it enough to choose another book by the same author.
The Q School book covered the events of the 2004 Q School, while "A Good Walk Spoiled" covered the events of the 1994 PGA season. Interestingly, there were well known players on the 1994 tour who were back in Q School in 2004. Less interesting, were some passages that were reused verbatim in the later book.
While I found it a little confusing trying to keep track of all the players (each book covers quite a few using interleaved story lines), I did learn how golfers qualify for the PGA the importance of the money list, the Nationwide tour, and all about excemptions. The author is a good sports writer and the books moved along quickly and were very interesting. Especially interesting (although unintended) was the depiction of life on the pre-Tiger PGA. It makes one realize how impressive Tiger Woods is - back in 1994 there were dozens of golfers that were in contention every week - in fact, I think the most tournaments won by someone that year was 2 (and it was a very special year for Nick Price who did the unheard-of - winning two majors that year). A much different world today.
Recommended - Golf fans.