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Good Bounces & Bad Lies: The Autobiography of Ben Wright | 
 enlarge | Authors: Ben Wright, Michael Patrick Shiels
Brand: Booklegger
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $24.94 (100%)
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Rating:  33 reviews
Sales Rank: 1533777
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 304
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 1886947228
Dewey Decimal Number: 070.449796092
EAN: 9781886947221
ASIN: 1886947228
Publication Date: September 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Biographical | | • | Hard Cover |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
John Bentley-Wright had no idea what life had in store for him when he was given a hickory-shafted mashie for his tenth birthday. That day his love affair with the game of golf began, and it would be golf that would love him in return. With his silky British accent and a gift for painting a scene with words, Ben Wright traveled the world covering the game he adores and chronicled the most intimate and spectacular moments in golf. For over forty-five years, Ben Wright has been the voice of the golfing world, beginning his career as a sportswriter for the Daily Dispatch in Manchester, England in 1954. In the years following you would find his columns in a variety of publications - from The Financial Times in London, where he became its first ever golf correspondent, to Sports Illustrated. Good Bounces & Bad Lies covers the peaks and valleys of Wright's brilliant and often controversial career in the media. From his breakthrough interview in 1954 with British Open champion Peter Thomson, to his own 1995 interview that derailed his career at CBS. Fascinating memories from going AWOL from the British Army in 1953 to see Hogan play at Carnoustie, to the many intimate conversations with the great writers and players from over four decades of the sport. His articulate prose and ability to tell a tale are unrivaled, as his wit and intellect fill these pages. It has been said that Wright has lived the lives of six men -- Good Bounces & Bad Lies is proof that he has.
Amazon.com Review
You've got to give this to former CBS golf analyst Ben Wright: he can sure tell a story, and the further he shoves his soft-spiked foot into his mouth, the better the stories. His anecdotal autobiography flits back and forth between idolatry and wickedness, and at times his pen has no governor at all. Case in point: Wright idolized Ben Hogan. He even went AWOL from the British army in 1953 "shamelessly, though without a trace of guilt," he admits, because it was the only way he could get off base to see Hogan win the Open at Carnoustie. (It's hard to quarrel with that.) After teeing up several tales that firmly ensconce Hogan on his pedestal, Wright finally veers off this way: "These stories illustrate the kind of perfection, dedication and respect with which Gary McCord"--Wright's fellow CBS analyst, and a pretty funny guy in his own right--"was wholly unfamiliar." Fore! Wright then proceeds to launch into a tale of introducing McCord to Hogan, Hogan humiliating McCord when he finds out McCord's been on tour for 17 years and has no victories, and Wright, who clearly detests McCord, getting to gloat, "I told you so." Wright likes to gloat; he does a lot of it in Good Bounces, and he's awfully entertaining--if somewhat small--when he does. He's also entertaining on the intricacies and personalities of CBS's golf broadcasts, and what an analyst must go through when he criticizes a player. When Wright kept chastising Peter Jacobsen's atrocious putting, Jacobsen claimed he'd exorcised those woes by mentally imaging Wright being hoisted from the TV tower by a helicopter and flown into outer space. Which is about where Wright ultimately wound up when he hooked his career into the drink with some out-of-bounds comments about women golfers, breasts, and lesbianism in 1995. He still offers a bagful of excuses for the incident that badly tarnished him, but he does treat it with appropriate seriousness and contrition. He makes no excuses, though, for the alcoholism that actually sunk him. Given the public nature of his disgrace, Good Bounces is something of a mulligan for Wright. As both raconteur and provocateur, he's made a pretty good shot of it. --Jeff Silverman
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| Customer Reviews: Read 28 more reviews...
 Good bounces, Bad read July 24, 2006
Wright's tales are stupendous, but to the point of being absurd. This is one of the few books in years that I finally just put down. He defects from the army to watch Hogan, his house is reduced to rubble but he and his sister miraculously survive; his overzealous buddy grabs a waiter and pulls him outside to beat him senseless...sheesh. I liked Wright as a commentator but leave this book on the shelf.
 No secret is sacred - no one is spared November 27, 2002
Wright's book basically, after he gets through some obligatory stories about golf in England when he was young, is a tell all about most of the peole he has worked with at CBS Sports. If it is not a tell all, it will do 'til one comes around. Most of the problem is with alcohol...we hear of interventions, wild partys, stupid episodes of behavior...yet through it all...even after an intervention which sent him to Betty Ford...one of the staff told him before he left that he was not an alcoholic but an abuser of alcohol. What that distinction is remains lost to me but was understood by Ben. No matter. You wonder how CBS managed to produce a cohesive telecast of the Masters or any other tournament they were assigned to based on Ben's recollections. He also ran into some world travelers that he thought behaved badly. It is a "tell all" from one who is still in the dog house for telling all about his opinion of women's golf and the difference betwen the men's game and theirs. No matter that he had that just right,,,he was PC'd out and the world of golf broadcasting is the worse for it. I miss him behind the microphone, but the book goes a bit long.
 All the bounces were good December 28, 2001
Ben Wright does a superb job in taking mere golfing mortals behind the scenes of some famous, and some not so famous, tournaments to give an insight into LIFE in the golfing world. It is a page turner that had me howling with laughter as he strips bare the mystique behind both golf broadcasting and some of the peripheral characters that add to the colour of the sport. Of course in the true style that has endeared him to so many he also takes a few swipes at some brighter lights in the business of golf. Wright has an obvious deep love for the game but he does not let sentimentality get in the way of a good story. I am sure that he must have a stock of untold tales waiting to be let out of the closet and I look forward to the next installment from this very funny, very English and very lovable raconteur.
A GREAT Read May 2, 2001
CBS, BRING THIS GUY BACK! If you want a good read that will absolutely make you CRY with laughter. This is the book for you...And you don't have to be a Golf fan to enjoy it. I always figured that stranged things happened behind the camera, but his stories will absolutely crack you up. It is definitely a MUST buy.
Intimate sharing of a life in golf January 20, 2001
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Wright is as witty and colorful as his broadcasts were. Gives an image of broadcasting which most of us aren't aware of. We sense the morals and ethics of these public individuals are different. Appreciated even more his love for the game and extreme pain the LPGA comments have brought upon him. Image is everything!
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