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Title details for The Ball in the Air by Michael Bamberger - Available

The Ball in the Air

A Golfing Adventure

by Michael Bamberger
ebook
2 of 2 copies available
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2 of 2 copies available
After a lifetime of writing about the professional sport, Michael Bamberger, "the poet laureate of golf" (GOLF magazine), delivers an exhilarating love letter to the amateur game as it's played—and lived—by the rest of us.
Over Michael Bamberger's celebrated writing career, he has written a handful of books and hundreds of Sports Illustrated stories about professional golf and those who play it—that is, the .001 percent. Now, Bamberger trains his eye on the rest of us. In his most personal book yet, Bamberger takes the lid off a game that is both quasi-religious and a nonstop party, posing an age-old question that is answered over its pages: Why does the game cast such a spell on us?

Here is the story of modern golf that is not on TV. This is our story, we who pay to play, who can't wait to get another crack at the game, even when golf doesn't love us back. And just as every round is an adventure, every life in golf is, too. The golfers Michael Bamberger introduces will leave you inspired and moved. You'll meet Sam Reeves, a golf-loving US Army soldier who becomes captivated by a fellow soldier, Cliff Harrington, a gifted Black golfer who's cruelly robbed of the chance to show the world all he can do. You'll meet Ryan French, who plays on a college golf team out of Animal House. You'll get to know Pratima Sherpa, who grew up in a maintenance shed at the Royal Nepal Golf Club in Kathmandu and took up the game with a stick whittled by her father.

The Ball in the Air is reported with Bamberger's you-are-there intimacy and captures the sweep of time. Pratima finds her way from Nepal to a university golf team in Southern California. Ryan and his father caddie in minor-league events while sleeping in tents, a preamble to Ryan's becoming the godfather of the popular Monday Qualifier Twitter feed. Sam Reeves, born in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes a cotton king, the oldest amateur to make the cut at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and the ultimate man for all seasons.

And there are Bamberger sightings, too, as he finds his own path in the game. You'll make joyful side trips with the author, who's spent more than forty years exploring golfers and golf, a way of life that captivates him down to his bones. You'll visit the golf course at Balmoral Castle in Scotland and compete with Bamberger and other purists at the National Hickory Championship in rural Pennsylvania. At St. Andrews, you'll get up close and personal with Lee Trevino, one of the few professionals in these pages, because Trevino, when you really get to the core of the man, is one of us. He can't get enough of it.

The Ball in the Air is Bamberger's valentine to golf. The modern world, obsessed with fame and fortune, has infiltrated professional golf—but it hasn't infiltrated golf. Bamberger is here to highlight the distinction and to celebrate the game and all who play it.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    March 28, 2023

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9781668009840

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9781668009840
      • File size: 14594 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Kirkus

      March 1, 2023
      The veteran writer capably juggles golf balls and life stories. In 2022, Bamberger, a senior writer for the Fire Pit Collective, was awarded the Memorial Golf Journalism Award. His latest book, following Men in Green, The Second Life of Tiger Woods, and others, is an ode to the game and the amateurs who play it. "They all know what it's like to marvel at a white ball in a high sky and get lost," he writes. "What a gift that is." Bamberger introduces us to a diverse group of golfers: Pratima Sherpa, who grew up in a maintenance shed on a small golf course in Nepal; Sammy Reeves, from a small town in Georgia, who got to see Ben Hogan and play the legendary Seminole Golf Club; Ryan French, who would go on to write for the Fire Pit Collective; and Californian Sophia Montano, who invited Pratima for a five-week visit to play golf and be filmed by ESPN for a documentary. Pratima's story is the most affecting. An article about her accomplishments in Golf Digest resulted in her playing on a college team in America and a personal letter from Tiger Woods, whom she would later meet and practice with. Bamberger weaves his way back and forth as he knits together his subjects' golfing and life stories, showing how each found the game and their accomplishments and adventures. Golf, he writes, "despite its elitist reputation, levels playing fields as few sports do." He tells some of his history, as well, including his stint caddying on professional tours and his favorite courses, before returning to the other players, families, and friends. Somewhat awkward at first, the narrative eventually takes on a crisp, smooth rhythm, sparkling with details, as Bamberger goes deeper into each person's life. The author provides more details than some readers will want, but the stories are heartwarming and affecting.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

    • Booklist

      March 15, 2023
      Bamberger, a senior writer at the Fire Pit Collective, has been one of our finest golf journalists for the past 30 years. Here he turns away from professional golfers (The Second Life of Tiger Woods, 2020) to examine the game as played by dedicated amateurs, himself included. His subjects range from Pratima Sherpa, who grew up living in a maintenance shed near a golf course in Kathmandu, where her father was the greenskeeper; to Sam Reeves, from rural Georgia, who went on to become a multimillionaire with a home at Pebble Beach, one of the most exclusive golf communities in the U.S.; to Ryan French, a fast-food executive who reinvented himself as a golf writer covering the ""Dreamer"" beat, especially the rough-and-tumble Dakotas Tour. Linking these stories and the snippets of Bamberger's life on the links is the abiding love all these golfers feel for a game that ""promises you nothing and loads you up with problems."" Like the author's first golf memoir, To the Linksland (1992), this is for everyone who knows ""what it's like to marvel at a white ball in a high sky.

      COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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