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The Mystery of Golf | 
 enlarge | Authors: Arnold Haultain, Herbert Warren Wind
Publisher: Applewood Books
Category: Book
Buy Used: $30.98
Used (5) from $30.98
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 2443509
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 152
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 4.8 x 0.5
ISBN: 0939218186
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780939218189
ASIN: 0939218186
Publication Date: November 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
Originally published in 1908, The Mystery of Golf was the first book to seriously ruminate over that problematic region known as the golfer's mind and the obsessive hold the game has on it. Haultain suggests there are three unfathomables that have gripped the minds of men: metaphysics, golf, and the female heart. "The Germans, I believe, pretend to have solved some of the riddles of the first," he writes, "and the French to have unraveled some of the intricacies of the last; will someone tell us," he pleads almost rhetorically, "wherein lies the extraordinary fascination of golf?" Of course, Haultain goes on to do just that, and John Updike, for one, raves about the effort. "The book's core," writes the prose master of Golf Dreams, "is pure gold.... Haultain goes to the heart of golf's peculiar loveability and enduring fascination." Much has changed in the game since Haultain penned this delightfully quaint tome, except for that elusive heart, which remains every bit as peculiar and enduring as it was when Haultain first opened it up for examination. --Jeff Silverman
Product Description
Foreword by Herbert Warren Wind In the opinion of many leading scholars of the sports world, what Izaak Walton's The Compleat Angler is to books on fishing, Arnold Haultain's The Mystery of Golf is to books on golf. Whether or not this is an excessive rating, there can be no disputing that Haultain's treatise is both a historically important document and an extraordinarily evergreen entertainment. As such, it is a minor classic. The Mystery of Golf was first published in 1908 in a limited edition, then republished in 1910 in a general edition. This current edition is a reprint of one published in 1965 and retains the Foreword by Herbert Warren Wind. Haultain, born in 1857, was a Canadian belletrist. 160 pp 5 x 7
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| Customer Reviews:
 All aspects of golf are poetically demystified to a degree September 23, 2008
All the mysteries of golf are probed: physiological, physical, spirituality and the author does not forget to tell you to keep your head down and your eye on the the ball until the swing is completed. Words can only partly explain golf (the full experience of the mystery, of course can only be gained from actually playing) and this little book does that part extremely well.
 The Mystery of Golf March 21, 2007
This book was written in 1908 and is largely philosophical about golf. However before one dismisses this as being `old-fashioned', this book contains many truths that today's golfers should reconsider as to what golf is really about. If your interest in golf lies beyond the technicalities of striking a pure shot this book will interest you - it talks about something that some old-timers, like myself, feel has been lost from the game. I found it well worth the time spent reading it.
 Reprint of a required text June 8, 2005
The Mystery of Golf is one of the earliest (?) attempts to delve into the mystery of the game. His focus ranges from the physical to the psychological, and many of the observations Haultain makes have only been reproduced by later authors. He did, in many ways, set in motion our inquiries into what the game holds for us, and why we find ourselves on the course so often.
This edition is a reprint of the original. According to the afterword, a more extensive version printed for the popular press contained revisions and expansions on Haultain's ideas. Given that many of his views border on the provincial, if not clearly crossing the line, it may have been just as well that we were spared. However, it would have been nice to have included the more lucid portions of the expanded text. The integrity and "purity" of the original is intact, but at what expense most of us will be forever unaware.
Before delving into other works of fact or fiction on the lure of the links, this should be the starting point.
Haultain's Comet August 24, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
As a golfer, have you ever wished that you could go back to the early 20th century, and play the game as it was played then? Does the smell of hickory and balata put you in mind of Ouimet, Vardon, Ray and Jones? What is it about golf that creates in its adherents a love for the game bordering on obsession? Settle down of an evening with Arnold Haultain's "The Mystery of Golf" and you shall have a very pleassant evening indeed. The book will make you long for those halcyon days of golf, from 1890 to 1930, when the golfiong heroes bestrode America and Britain like Titans. Read it, and then consider: Where is Haultain now, when we need him most?
A classic in a neat new edition April 18, 2000
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This little book, written in 1908, says everything that"Golf in the Kingdom" had to say 70 years later, but it saysit more clearly and succinctly. It is basically a love letter to golf -- don't look for instruction or anything like that. It captures the essence of golf without becoming as incomprehensible as a zen koan. The author was a Canadian scholar who took up golf in middle age and pondered why the game had become such an obsession. Despite the dissimilarity between the game in 1908 and the game today, it is amazing how many of the author's insights still hold true (virtually all of them, with the notable exception of his misguided belief that the game would never descend to the level of crass profesionalism). Even though he was not an accomplished player, he had a real understanding of and feel for the game... This has been compared to Izaak Walton's "The Compleat Angler," and you should be forewarned that the prose is sometimes archaic and demands careful reading. Anyway, if you've played golf for any length of time, you'll surely find this more worthwhile and enjoyable than the latest book of tips from some PGA nonentity.
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