Men in Green

The instant New York Times bestseller from acclaimed Sports Illustrated writer Michael Bamberger—a warm, nostalgic, intimately reported account of golf’s greatest generation, and “maybe the best golf book I’ve ever read” (Bill Reynolds, The Providence Journal).

With “exceptional insight into some of America’s greatest players over the last half-century” (The Philadelphia Inquirer), Men in Green is to golf what Roger Kahn’s The Boys of Summer was to baseball: a big-hearted account of the sport’s greats, from the household names to the private legends, those behind-the-curtain giants who never made the headlines.

Michael Bamberger, who has covered the game for twenty years at Sports Illustrated, shows us the big names as we’ve never seen them before: Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Curtis Strange, Fred Couples—and the late Ken Venturi. But he also chronicles the legendary figures known only to insiders, who nevertheless have left an indelible mark on the sport. There’s a club pro, a teaching pro, an old black Southern caddie. There’s a tournament director in his seventies, a TV director in his eighties, and a USGA executive in his nineties. All these figures, from the marquee names to the unknowns, have changed the game. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug.

Was golf better back in the day? Men in Green weaves a history of the modern game that is personal, touching, inviting, and new. This meditation on aging and a celebration of the game is “a nostalgic visit and reminiscence with those who fashioned golf history…and should be cherished” (Golf Digest).

• The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever
• A Life Well Played: My Stories (Commemorative Edition)
• The Eternal Summer: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Hogan in 1960, Golf's Golden Year
• The Masters: Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia
• The Making of the Masters: Clifford Roberts, Augusta National, and Golf's Most Prestigious Tournament
• The Greatest Game Ever Played: Harry Vardon, Francis Ouimet, and the Birth of Modern Golf
• The Match: The Day the Game of Golf Changed Forever
• The Grand Slam: Bobby Jones, America, and the Story of Golf
• The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup
• American Triumvirate: Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan, and the Modern Age of Golf