By Herbert Warren Wind
Wind's masterpiece is one of the great books in golf.
In the second half of the twentieth century, Wind contributed as much to golf as the force of nature with which he shares a name. He helped Ben Hogan codify his knowledge of the swing and Gene Sarazen and Jack Nicklaus tell their life stories in riveting fashion. (He also gave Amen Corner its name.) And, like a certain famous Englishman, he took golf reportage to a new level of specificity, insight and narrative grace, writing primarily for the New Yorker. He always saw himself as the heir and apprentice to Bernard Darwin, but in some ways he surpassed the master, translating his principles into a lively, colloquial American idiom. First published in 1948, Wind's most cohesive work traced American golf from its earliest stirrings in Yonkers, New York, in 1888. He updated the book in 1956 and again in 1975, nearly doubling its size. The Story of American Golf is just that—a great story. You can't put it down even though you know how it all turns out
Afterword by Robert. S. Macdonald.