A Good Walk Spoiled by John Feinstein

I have heard a lot of people say golf is boring to watch on TV, so a book about golf should work better than Lunesta, right? Well not in this case. A Good Walk Spoiled is a great rebuttal to Mark Twain's often quoted quip about golf. It is a gripping and insightful look at a year on the PGA Tour. The only drawback is that the book is a little out of date. It was written in 1995 back when Nick Price, Paul Azinger, Greg Norman and Nick Faldo were the biggest names on the tour and $2 million was a big purse for a tournament.

As a history lesson it is amazing to see where the tour was only 12 years ago and how much Tiger has changed things. The book chronicles the passing of the torch to Tim Finchem as the new head to the PGA Tour. One of his first crisis's is John Daley saying there are a lot of drug abusers on the tour, and he should know. Here we are all this time later and they are still debating a drug testing policy.

The biggest change however is the amount of money that is flying around. It's almost funny to read about Greg Norman breaking the $1 million mark in earnings for one year, when the 100th ranked guy on tour makes more than that now. Back in 1995 only the top few golfers had private jets, now when a tour player flies commercial with his family on holiday, the kids want to know why other people are on their plane.

I wish Fienstein would right the 2008 version of this book, but I doubt he will get access to the players like he did back then.