Jenkins at the Majors: Sixty Years of the World's Best Golf Writing, from Hogan to Tiger (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Dan Jenkins has covered 197 of golf’s major championships over the last 60 years—a record that is likely to stand as long as Joe DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak. This collection brings together 94 of Jenkins’ pieces on the majors, written mostly for Sports Illustrated and Golf Digest; strung together, Jenkins says in his introduction, “they would make the longest par five in the history of journalism.” Not only the longest, but one of the most entertaining. Jenkins is known for his raucous humor—the defining quality in his best-selling novels, including Semi-Tough—and that signature wit is everywhere evident in his golf journalism as well. But it’s easy to forget just how good a writer Jenkins is. Sportswriters could go to school on his leads: here’s Jenkins on Jackie Burke’s victory over then-amateur Ken Venturi, who had led the 1956 Masters for 70 of the 72 holes: “Jackie Burke’s victory in the 1956 Masters ruined more newspaper leads than a worn-out typewriter ribbon.” Golf fans will treasure this collection both for the history it reports and the spot-on voice of the peerless reporter. --Bill Ott

Review

Praise for Dan Jenkins

“Dan Jenkins invented the art of golf writing.”
—John Feinstein, author of the forthcoming Are You Kidding Me? The Story of Rocco Mediate's Extraordinary Battle with Tiger Woods at the US Open

“Dan Jenkins is to golf as Michelangelo was to ceilings.”
—Roy Blount Jr., author of Alphabet Juice

“There may be some dispute about the greatest golfer of all time. Just not the greatest golf writer. That would be Dan Jenkins, his ownself.”
—Mike Lupica, author of Heat and Summer Ball

“These chronicles from golf's resident muse, court jester and gold-standard storyteller are as delightful, absurd and wickedly addictive as the sport itself.”
—Peter Richmond, author of The Glory Game

“Jenkins is hilarious, providing more laughs per page than any other writer in the ‘bidness.’”
—People

“Dan Jenkins is the nearest thing to Ring Lardner this generation has ever seen. No one has captured the essential lunacy of the twentieth-century sports (and TV) scene as accurately and hilariously as this.”
—Los Angeles Times

“Dan Jenkins is a comic genius.”
—Don Imus

“His writing and his ear recall—there is no higher compliment—Ring Lardner, though in different times and different Americas.”
—David Halberstam, New York Times Book Review

“The best sportswriter in America.”
—Larry King

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday (May 5, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385519133
• ISBN-13: 978-0385519137
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,996 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good bedtime reading for the golf fan, May 25, 2009

By	Mark Wilsonwood (Grapevine, TX) - See all my reviews

This book is a collection of short articles about the golf majors during Jenkins' career that spanned the 50s through the 00s (and is still going by the way). As such, it makes perfect bed-time reading. Three or four of the 94 "episodes" is just about right before turning out the light.
Jenkins is a prime example of the "old-fashioned" sportswriter, wrting in his humorous yet insightful down-home Texas style.
I have just two complaints: First, that Jenkins repeatedly includes the U.S. Amateur when counting major wins for Nicklaus, Woods, et al. The Amateur was a major when Bobby Jones won it. It had lost that status by the time Nicklaus won two in the late 50s. And it had LONG AGO lost that status when Woods won his in the 90s.
Second, Jenkins accepts Ben Hogan's claim that he (Hogan) won 5 U.S. Opens -- with Hogan, Jenkins, and pretty much nobody else counting the 1942 Hale American Open as a "war-time Open". Sorry, it was not the Open and not a major. Just as the Players Championship is not a major today.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Vertical Tasting of Dan Jenkins' Genius, July 2, 2009

By	The Dread Pirate Roberts (San Jose, CA) - See all my reviews

If you're even a semi-serious golf history fan, you'll enjoy "Jenkins at the Majors", and if you've read Jenkins' golf fiction (and you should...) you'll recognize some tastes of actual events that he incorporated into the lives of his fictional golfer characters Kenny Lee Puckett and Bobby Joe Grooves.

There will be some who get their backs up at his Hogan-centric views of professional golf, but he comes by his prejudices honestly, as they say, as he is a fellow Fort Worth native, and covered Mr Hogan's career since he was a college journalist. As a Texan once-removed myself, and a golfer who was introduced to the sport nearly a quarter-century ago (pre-Tiger) by the writings of Mr Jenkins, I share his reverence for Mr Hogan, and the opportunity to read his coverage of the major tourneys which occurred before I came to the sport (and many before I was born...) was a real treat.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Birdie, August 25, 2009

By	Mahlon Christensen (Monterey, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Dan Jenkins is the dean of American golf writers, by his count he's covered 197 Major Championships over 60 years for various publications, beginning with the 1951 U. S. Open, he has selected 94 of the best for our perusal. What lifts this book above the usual collections of columns by sportswriters is it's superb organization. It's organized chronologically so that it's easy for the reader to follow the march of golf history forward. It's a fast, fun read, the columns are short so the pages really fly by, this could also be seen as a negative however, as the medium of a column rarely offers one the space to give an in-depth, hole-by hole account of who won and how. Jenkins is usually limited to who won, by how much, and the general impression the tournament left him with. Luckily for us, thanks to his considerable skills, this feels like more than enough in most cases.

Jenkins at the Majors is absolutely essential reading for anyone who loves the game, especially for those fans whose golf consciousness began in the Tiger era.