TIPTOEING THROUGH HELL: Playing the U.S. Open on Golf's Most Treacherous Courses

While most golf tournaments played throughout the year are won by professionals who pile up birdie after birdie, there is one tournament that never fails to humble them. It's the U.S. Open, a competition in which par is king and "the best golfers in the world scramble to avoid triple-bogeys... [on] a course that is as difficult for them as the local muny is for us." Conducted by the United States Golf Association, the governing body of American golf, the Open is played on the country's best courses after they've been given the Open treatment—their greens made hard and fast, their roughs left untamed, their fairways pinched thin as bowling lanes. All this makes for an exciting contest, with the world's best players happy just to finish as close to par as possible. In this sprightly account, Strege explains how the courses for 14 of the most memorable Opens in the last 50 years were laid out, and the effects they had on their players. Although Strege (Tiger) provides an overview of the outcome of the tournaments, his emphasis rests on the course design and the reaction of the players, whose scores often resembled those of weekend duffers rather than skilled professionals. Golfers interested in an insider's look of what it's like to face some of the country's toughest holes (Pebble Beach's 17th, Winged Foot's 10th) in golf's toughest tournament will find Strege's work a treat. (May)

Forecast:Should this year's Open be one of the memorable ones, expect sales to get a little boost in the days after the tournament's finish on June 16.