Customer Reviews

Golf in the Year 2100: A Fanciful Glimpse at the Future of Golf (Good Golf)

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One of the things that makes a great book, in my opinion, is its ability to transport you to a completely different place than the one your rear end presently happens to be occupying. Bob Labbance's wildly imaginative book, Golf in the Year 2100, does that and more. As the author of several nonfiction books on golf, as well as editor of Turf Magazine and Editor at Large for New England Journal of Golf, Labbance knows the game inside and out. And it shows in this hilarious look at where the game might go in the next hundred years. It's science fiction made fun, and it takes the game of golf to places never before imagined. Golf has always been a complex game - part physical challenge, part mental exercise - and with Labbance's imaginary inventions it becomes even more strategic. My favorite Labbance addition to the game is the future player's ability to change the weather on a course from one hole to the next. Feel like playing in a snowstorm? You can. Prefer cartpath-melting heat? Just punch a button on the tee and you've got it. There are dozens of wild ways that the game of golf changes in this book, and they're all great fun to see unfold. But at its heart the story is really about the 20th-century man who wakes up after a 100-year coma to encounter them all, and Labbance handles the character development well. I heartily recommend this book to anyone who likes golf, or reading, or both. It will make you smile.

Mr. Labbance has shown us his humorous side as well as a realistic vision as to what we all may expect in the coming decades. Even if the USGA manages to sort out the equipment and impose limits, golf course and equipment designers and technicians would do well to read Golf In the Year 2100 to get a sense of the direction we all may be going. Moving fairways, weather control? And we thought the home course was an advantage. X Golf has already arrived and I don't think any of the concepts are unrealistic. I especially like the bunker technology, given that I have so much trouble with sand anyhow. What really sets this book apart is the wonderful story that is woven throughout. As a hickory golfer, I especially loved the ending which gives us with a classic golf mentality something to hope for along with those of us with a more technical leaning. Its a great book and can easily be read while waiting on the first tee.

Thought the concept was fantastic! Both my 18 year old son and myself loved the book....sparked some interesting conversations!