cover image To the Linksland: 2a Golfing Adventure

To the Linksland: 2a Golfing Adventure

Michael Bamberger. Viking Books, $21 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-670-84182-0

This will appeal only to a special sort of golfer, one who shares the author's near-mystical view of the sport. A sportswriter for the Philadelphia Inquirer , Bamberger took a leave of absence in 1991 to caddy on the European tour and to seek the roots of golf. He caddied for the first portion of the year with fellow American Peter Teravainen, who was having his best season ever. Abandoning his caddying efforts Bamberger, with his wife, then went to Scotland, where he learned that linksland is the word for ``the earth at the edge of the sea--tumbling, duney, sandy, covered by beach grasses''--and fell in love with the concept. In his play on the very challenging courses there, he came to terms with his golf game, which improved markedly, and, in a sense, with himself. The book has a certain bizarre interest. (July)