cover image Every Shot I Take

Every Shot I Take

Michael Bamberger, Davis Love. Simon & Schuster, $48 (204pp) ISBN 978-0-684-83400-9

The author's father, Davis Love Jr., carved out a successful career as golf pro and then teacher, ending up at Sea Island, Ga. Among his best pupils was his son, Love III, now entering his 12th year on the pro tour. Love Jr. was mentor, teacher and, above all, close friend to his son, but tragedy struck in 1988, when a small plane carrying Love Jr. and a friend of Love III, Jimmy Hodges, crashed, killing all aboard. The crash's impact on the family is the theme of this book, which also contains affecting chapters contributed by the author's mother, brother, wife and new coach about their loss. Happily, however, Love Jr. was a compulsive note-taker on golfing techniques. His observations included here, tempered by his son's, make this work a kind of semi-instructional manual as well as memoir. Golfers will savor it. 45,000 first printing; first serial rights to Golf Digest. (Apr.)