Golf, the Greatest Game: The USGA Celebrates Golf in America

In celebration of its centenary the United States Golf Association has partially funded the publication of this handsome volume in conjunction with a TV documentary with the same title. Although the text encompasses the history of the game in the States, course architecture and the financial aspects of the sport by such noted golf writers as William Hallberg (The Rub of the Green) and David Noonan (Memoirs of a Caddie), the almost 400 photographs, 150 in color, reign supreme. The pictures reach back into the 19th century, showing such pioneers as Old Tom Morris of St. Andrews and amateurs like Robert Lincoln, son of the president. Most spectacular are the shots of famous courses, bearing out Updike's observation that those who play the game ``breathe natural vastness.'' (Oct.)