Bookshelf

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31215, 12 November 1966, Page 11

Bookshelf

’THE name of Arnold 1 Palmer has a magic all its own. A blend of skill and personality has made him the outstanding golfer in the world today. He may lose tournaments, sometimes; but wherever he plays. Palmer draws the crowds, and pleases them. Palmer’s unmistakeably good nature peeps through on every page of PORTRAIT OF A PROFESSIONAL GOLFER (Pelham Books, London: 110 pp.). In this excellently - produced book. Palmer tells, in simple but effective style, of some of the moments of triumph and despair during his years on the professional circuit The great names of golf run through the book, and there are some revealing—but never unkind—references to his fellow professionals. A genuinely modest man, Palmer makes his famous “charge” a little less colourful, at times, than the situations require, but that is part of his charm. There are some diverting

passages in the book. Palmer recalls the little Welsh professional, Dai Rees, using his putter seven times on one hole during the 1962 Canada Cup matches at Buenos Aires. Rees used only a driver and a putter at a hole of 466 yards, and most of the strokes were made from dreadfully difficult positions. The drama is there, often. In the 1960 American Open. Palmer was seven strokes behind the leader, and was in fifteenth place, equal, with one round to play. This tournament was at Cherry Hills, Colorado, and the first hole measures 346 yards. Palmer began the final round by driving the first green, and proceeding on similarly spectacular lines to score six birdies in the first seven holes. Out in 30, he finished with 65 and won by two strokes. Palmer relates how, at another American Open, he waited almost two minutes in the hope of seeing his ball fall in to the cup after he had putted it to the lip and says that the rules of the game specify that only a “reasonable” time lapse is allowed. In the Phoenix Open in 1963, he says, Don January putted to the edge of the cup and waited for seven minutes to see if it would drop. The rules of golf set out by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews, and the United States Golf Association, say that the player is allowed “only a few seconds" to determine whether the ball is at rest. “Portrait of a Professional Golfer” is well, and extensively. Illustrated. Its author, as well as its contents, assure it of a wide reading.

• * • 'THE delightfully clipped 1 colourful speech of the West Indian comes through clearly in CRICKET CRUSADER (Pelham Books; 171 pp.) in which the greatest present-day cricketer, Gary Sobers, traces his career from cricket on the streets, with a knitted ball, which had been soaked in tar, to his many test match triumphs His book covers much ground, as might be expected of an outstanding batsman and fieldsman and a two-in-one bowler, and a captain. There is a moving chapter on the late “Collie” Smith; who died in a car crash in which Sobers was involved; some hard words about umpiring in Pakistan; a colourful account of the famous tied test at Brisbane, and a fine collection of anecdotes and Incidents and views for the cricket reader.