Jenkins at the Majors: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger

by Dan Jenkins

Book Overview

Six decades of classic stories on the Masters, U.S. Open, British Open, and PGA Championship by the legendary Dan Jenkins Dan Jenkins has long been considered one of the premier sportswriters in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385519133
• ISBN13: 9780385519137
• Release Date: May 2009
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 326 Pages
• Weight: 1.44 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Dead Solid Not-Perfect

Like any fan of Dan Jenkins, I have always gone out of my way to read almost everything he has written through the years. Since this is a compilation of many (but, unfortunately, not all) of his recaps of golf's majors thru the years it is great to see his writing evolve. The only problem I have with the book is that many of the articles are condensed. Still a great read, especially for anyone late to the game where Dan Jenkins is concerned.

A Birdie

Dan Jenkins is the dean of American golf writers, by his count he's covered 197 Major Championships over 60 years for various publications, beginning with the 1951 U. S. Open, he has selected 94 of the best for our perusal. What lifts this book above the usual collections of columns by sportswriters is it's superb organization. It's organized chronologically so that it's easy for the reader to follow the march of golf history forward. It's a fast, fun read, the columns are short so the pages really fly by, this could also be seen as a negative however, as the medium of a column rarely offers one the space to give an in-depth, hole-by hole account of who won and how. Jenkins is usually limited to who won, by how much, and the general impression the tournament left him with. Luckily for us, thanks to his considerable skills, this feels like more than enough in most cases. Jenkins at the Majors is absolutely essential reading for anyone who loves the game, especially for those fans whose golf consciousness began in the Tiger era.

Good Golf!

This book contains examples of Jenkins' best sports writing - funny, incisive, informative. A must for readers of sports.

A Vertical Tasting of Dan Jenkins' Genius

If you're even a semi-serious golf history fan, you'll enjoy "Jenkins at the Majors", and if you've read Jenkins' golf fiction (and you should...) you'll recognize some tastes of actual events that he incorporated into the lives of his fictional golfer characters Kenny Lee Puckett and Bobby Joe Grooves. There will be some who get their backs up at his Hogan-centric views of professional golf, but he comes by his prejudices honestly, as they say, as he is a fellow Fort Worth native, and covered Mr Hogan's career since he was a college journalist. As a Texan once-removed myself, and a golfer who was introduced to the sport nearly a quarter-century ago (pre-Tiger) by the writings of Mr Jenkins, I share his reverence for Mr Hogan, and the opportunity to read his coverage of the major tourneys which occurred before I came to the sport (and many before I was born...) was a real treat.

Good bedtime reading for the golf fan

This book is a collection of short articles about the golf majors during Jenkins' career that spanned the 50s through the 00s (and is still going by the way). As such, it makes perfect bed-time reading. Three or four of the 94 "episodes" is just about right before turning out the light. Jenkins is a prime example of the "old-fashioned" sportswriter, wrting in his humorous yet insightful down-home Texas style. I have just two complaints: First, that Jenkins repeatedly includes the U.S. Amateur when counting major wins for Nicklaus, Woods, et al. The Amateur was a major when Bobby Jones won it. It had lost that status by the time Nicklaus won two in the late 50s. And it had LONG AGO lost that status when Woods won his in the 90s. Second, Jenkins accepts Ben Hogan's claim that he (Hogan) won 5 U.S. Opens -- with Hogan, Jenkins, and pretty much nobody else counting the 1942 Hale American Open as a "war-time Open". Sorry, it was not the Open and not a major. Just as the Players Championship is not a major today.