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9 sports books for holiday reading and giving

If you like variety, these 2017 sports releases offer an abundance of that.

5. ’The First Major: The Inside Story of the 2016 Ryder Cup,’ by John Feinstein

  • By Ross Atkin

John Feinstein is such a prolific and noted author of sports books that whatever he turns his attention to gets noticed. This time it’s golf and the game’s most intensely competitive team showdown: the Ryder Cup played every two years between the top American shotmakers and their European counterparts. The 2016 edition saw the oft-frustrated US squad prevail in Chaska, Minn. before the largest TV viewing audience in Golf Channel history. Feinstein records the drama both on and off course in great detail.

Here’s an excerpt from The First Major:

“Sunrise on Friday morning in Chaska, Minnesota, was at 7:12 a.m. Hazeltine National Golf Club was alive with noise and nerves long before the sun showed up.

“[Jordan] Spieth and [Patrick] Reed were the first two players to arrive, both on the putting green an hour before their 7:35 tee time. The forecast was for more perfect weather, including an afternoon high of about seventy, but with the sun not yet up and the practice areas lit only by temporary lights put in for the week, it was quite brisk – to put it mildly – when the two players ventured outside. Spieth was bundled up. Reed was in short sleeves.

“He had adopted this approach in Scotland, partly because he knew he just didn’t feel right wearing extra clothing, partly because he knew it had a psychological effect on his opponents. Much like the pitcher who shows up on a forty-five-degree day in April in short sleeves or the football player who goes bare-armed in subfreezing temperatures, Reed wanted his opponents to know that he was tougher than they were.”

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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