The Vardon Invasion: Harry's Triumphant 1900 American Tour (Hardcover)

by Bob Labbance (Author), Brian Siplo (Author), Tony Jacklin (Foreword)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
In 1899, Harry Vardon dominated competitive golf in the UK, winning nearly 75 percent of the matches and tournaments in which he participated, which led to a lucrative endorsement contract with the American-based Spaulding Company and a chance to display his skills against all the top players of the era. Vardon's tour is recreated in this portrait of golf in 1900 America, which includes many fascinating period photographs of both players and venues.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 216 pages
• Publisher: Sports Media Group (March 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1587262940
• ISBN-13: 978-1587262944
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #746,599 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Across the Generations, May 12, 2008

By	David Donelson "Author of Heart of Diamonds" - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A favorite topic for discussion among golfers is how cross-generational matches would turn out. Would Tiger beat Jack Nicklaus? How would he fare against Ben Hogan? or Bobbie Jones? After reading The Vardon Invasion by Bob Labbance and Brian Siplo, I'd like to throw Harry Vardon's name into the mix.

The book tells the tale of how Vardon came to America in 1900 and energized the game in this country. He not only won the U.S. Open that year, but played 90 matches against the best amateur and professional golfers from Maine to Florida and west to Colorado. The book recounts many of those matches and is filled with interesting sidebars about his opponents and the courses they played.

I found descriptions of the courses themselves fascinating. Instead of the billiard-table greens and manicured fairways we play today, Harry and the boys teed it up on nine-hole tracks where irrigation was unheard of and greens might be "browns" of oiled and rolled sand rather than grass.

Vardon, of course, is best known here for his defeat in the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline by Francis Ouimet. He won the British Open, though, six times--a record that stands to this day. He won 75 of the 90 matches in the 1900 tour covered in this book--most of them played against the best ball of two top amateurs or pros. A record like that would be envied by golfers of any generation.

Bob Labbance and Brian Siplo compiled The Vardon Invasion through countless hours of pouring through newspaper accounts and club records. Their work has paid off with a highly readable tribute to the man against whom all future champions should be measured.

Dave Donelson, author of Heart of Diamonds: A Novel of Scandal, Love and Death in the Congo

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quality New Golf Book, April 7, 2008

By	Michael J. Brown "Hoosierhacker" (Indiana) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished reading the book "The Vardon Invasion: Harry's Trimphant !900 American Tour" and can highly recommend this offering. I really enjoyed the effort the book's author obviously made to track the little known information regarding this piece of American Golf History. There are so many ties between Vardon's trip and our own golfing past that were unknown until now. Anyone interested in golf history and superb writing will love this book and its' value to their golf library. A good solid book from a good solid author.

5.0 out of 5 stars Labbance does it again, November 12, 2008

By	Henry Zecher (Waukesha, WI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

One could argue that Bob Labbance writes solely for the choir - the golfing choir. His books - including The Life and Work of Wayne Stiles (Massachusetts-based golf course and landscape architect) and Keepers of the Green: A History of Golf Course Management - will certainly never make the New York Times Best-Seller List.

I discovered Labbance when I eagerly obtained The Old Man: The Biography of Walter J. Travis, and found that Labbance is not only a first-rate historian, but an excellent writer. If his books appeal only to a minority of golf history enthusiasts, they nevertheless fill critical gaps in our recorded history of the game.

Travis was America's first great golf champion, and a biography of this fascinating man was long, long overdue.

And Harry Vardon remains to this day one of the half-dozen greatest golfers of all time and the man who, more than any other single individual, was responsible for the rise and developing excellence of American golf after it first took hold on these shores.

But, while everybody knows about Vardon's historic loss to Francis Ouimet in the 1913 U.S. Open at Brookline (thanks to Mark Frost's book and the subsequent motion picture), practically nothing was known of Vardon's historic 1900 tour beyond a few passages in various golf history books.

Labbance has filled in that gap in splendid form, with many fascinating photographs and even small side biographies of many of the other prominent players, including the American pro who beat Vardon twice. As a historian and author myself, I prize the work of great historians who can also tell a great story, and Labbance has done it again.