My Usual Game: Adventures in Golf

Owen (The Walls Around Us) sounds like a reasonable human being but for his obsession with golf: as he puts it, ``Monks feel about God the way I feel about golf.'' But even those who spurn the links as the territory of white, fat-cat Republicans (Owen admits to a bit of unease on that score) will enjoy reading his reasons for loving the sport, a most compelling one being that ``golf is life simplified and improved.'' Also of interest are his visits to famous courses in Scotland and Ireland; his sessions in a golf camp, which actually helped to improve his play; and his theories on golf as male bonding and a means of escape from females. Everything in the book sails over the sand traps except for an overlong and boring chapter on the Ryder Cup matches, which pit the U.S. against an all-Europe team and are played alternately in the U.S. and Europe. Many of the entries in this collection first appeared in such periodicals as Esquire, Golf Digest and The New Yorker. Author tour. (June)