Now You Know Golf.

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

The literature of golf is far ranging. Histories of the game, biographies of famous players, and instructional manuals abound. Doug Lennox has found a niche with this volume of trivia. In 11 themed chapters, the single-paragraph entries he supplies are the print equivalent of radio’s or television’s 20-second sound bite. Chapters are on such topics as the history of the game; its rules—often arcane and sometimes variable from country to country or even course to course; the personalities who have left their imprint on the game; traditions (a word that always looms large in golf); famous golf courses; equipment past and present; and much else. The book contains a list of winners of major tournaments from their inception up to 2008. There is no index as such, but 14 pages at the end of the book will assist the reader in trying to locate a particular entry.

The author has obviously delved deeply into the story of the game and has delivered a compilation of trivia that will amuse, inform, and perhaps surprise the golf addict. However, a little more care before the book reached print would have helped. One famous golfer’s given name is misspelled 10 times. An item that begins “When was…?” fails to mention either the month or year. Still, in a game that lends itself to trivia this volume should appeal to the true enthusiast.