Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry | Ian O'Connor

Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry | Ian O'Connor | Arnie & Jack

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Arnie & Jack: Palm...

	Arnie & Jack: Palmer, Nicklaus, and Golf's Greatest Rivalry Ian O'Connor Houghton Mifflin, 2008 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Surprisingly, one of sport's most contentious, complex, and defining clashes played out not in the boxing ring or at the line of scrimmage but on the genteel green fairways of the world's finest golf courses. Arnie and Jack. Palmer and Nicklaus. Their fifty-year duel, in both the clubhouse and the boardroom, propelled each to the status of American icon and pushed modern golf to the heights and popularity it enjoys today.

Yet for all the ink that has been spilled on these two essential golf figures individually, no one has ever examined their relationship in this way. Arnie was the cowboy, with rugged good looks, Popeye-like forearms, a flailing swing, and charm enough to win fans worldwide. Jack was scientific, precise, conservative, aloof, even fat and awkward. Ultimately, Nicklaus got the better of Palmer on the course, beating him in major victories, 18-7. But Palmer bested Nicklaus almost everywhere else, especially in the hearts of the public and in endorsement dollars -- Palmer was the top-grossing athlete for thirty years, until Michael Jordan surpassed him.

With dogged reporting and crisp, colorful storytelling, the award-winning sports columnist Ian O'Connor explores this heated professional and personal battle in fascinating, intimate, and revelatory detail. Drawing on unique and exclusive access to Palmer and Nicklaus, and informed by some two hundred new interviews, O'Connor illuminates the two men's extreme differences and sprawling influence through mini-dramas, such as their little-known first meeting on the course at the topsy-turvy U.S. Open in 1962, their early involvement with marketing and a small agency called IMG, and their intense competition for golf-course designs in their later years.

By the end of this page-turning narrative, which spans five remarkable decades, we see that each man wanted what the other had: Arnold had the adoring fans but wanted the trophies. Jack had the trophies but wanted the love.

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"A Classic Work with the Most Riveting of Personal Moments"

Good book, great book on two of golf's greatest names, greatest players and greatest guys...This book is "a keeper," giving a dynamic inside look at the personalities and competitive instincts of both men. The reader comes to a new and deeper appreciation and understanding of the two golfing giants of our time.

Ian O'Connor takes the easy way out in some of the writing at times, but the story (and stories) he tells far overcome the few and slight wordsmsithing that could be made by the most critical of readers.

This book is an eagle, a sure eagle, for those who remember Arnie and Jack and for those who want to learn about them.

Tiger Woods is Tiger Woods, the best of all time. It's a shame he doesn't have a competitive adversary such as Jack and Arnie had in each other. Then we could see just how good Tiger could be.

Edwin Pope may have best described this book: "A classic work...the most riveting personal moments..the best I've read in a long while..."

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Arnie & Jack

For anyone that has followed professional golf for the past 50 years, reading about these two greats was very rewarding. I remember almost everyone of their thrilling victories, especially in the Masters and US Opens. I personally saw them in the Ryder Cup in St. Louis at Old Warson CC. They shot a best ball of 29 on the back nine to pull out a one up victory for the USA.

golf fanatics

When your husband has EVERYTHING golf...a new and interesting golf book a must ! Thank you for quick delivery,book in excellent condition.

How Arnie and Jack Liked to Defeat Each Other . . . in Detail

If you want the long and short of this book, it's easy to summarize: Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus loved nothing better than to one-up each other; Arnold wanted to win more on the golf course, and Jack wanted to be more popular with the fans; their wives kept the rivalry from getting out of hand; and they are more at peace with one another now than before.

If you want to read about the various times they played each other, the off-course competition, slights to one another, and what bugged each one about the other, then you'll want to read every page of this detailed dual biography. If you would rather read just about one or the other . . . and their whole career in perspective, another book will undoubtedly be more pleasing.

I had never read anything about the backgrounds of either golfer so I learned a lot. As soon as the book got into the years where I was well aware of both men, the book didn't add very much to what I knew already. In fact, Mr. O'Connor left out material that I would have included.

Because the two men are ten years apart in age, they aren't the kind of playing rivals that some of the earlier champions were who competed against each other in their prime years. In the process, the astonishing rise of golf as a spectator sport isn't given as much attention as it should.

But if you want to get an overview of both men, magnified by their feelings about one another, this book will serve you all right. But don't expect the book to be compelling reading. It's more like those long-winded stories you hear at the country club in the bar that are shared by the oldest member after quite a few libations.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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