Rating: 
Summary: AN AMAZING GOLF HISTORY
Review: Many golfers, steeped in an era of sometimes maddening technology and tournament purses that might well fund the governments of many third-world countries, forget where things began simply, almost religiously, for the game, especially in America. The shortsighted assumption is, among some, that the popularity of the game began with Tiger Woods or maybe with Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus.
In THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED we learn the true story. Not only does Mark Frost offer a wonderfully readable account of the beginnings of golf in the United States, he also offers great stories of the lives of other golfers, in the States and in Britain, who were the Founding Fathers of the ancient game in the "modern" world. Center stage in the story we meet young Francis Ouimet, the George Washington, really, of golf in the United States, an unassuming man without whom there would not have been the popular game that would ultimately give us Jones, Palmer, Nicklaus and Woods.
Frost's account of the life of Harry Vardon offers one of the best biographies written of, arguably, the greatest golfer ever. Not only did Vardon offer many of the mechanics that would revolutionize golf, he also was the standard for etiquette that continues to make the game remarkable and special.
Add to all that the detailed, hole-by-hole, day-by-day account of the 1913 US Open at the Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts and the lives of Ted Ray, Jerry Travers, and Wilfred Reid and what you get with THE GREATEST GAME EVER PLAYED is an amazing golf history.
THE HORSEMAN
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Greatest Golf Book Ever Written
Review: Mark Frost takes you back to the beginning of the American golf boom. The inspiring detailed account of Francis Ouimet's 1913 US Open is just one part of this wonderful historical book. Frost takes you through Harry Vardon's career and Francis Ouimet's childhoods, with background of all the great British golfers at the turn of the century. He then traces the growth of American golf, with the stories of John McDermott, Long Jim Barnes and a young Walter Hagen. All participants in the 1913 US Open.
Until reading this book, I never understood the impact of Ouimet's win on the careers and lives of Gene Sarazen, Bobby Jones and Francis' caddy, Eddie Lowery, and American golf in general. This book belongs in the hands of every young golfer, just as Francis Ouimet grew up with and was inspired by Harry Vardon's "The Complete Golfer".
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Summary: Required reading for anybody who knows a golfer!
Review: Mark Frost’s first novel, The List Of Seven, was so meticulously researched, had you not known it was fiction you would believe it to be fact. His latest work, The Greatest Game Ever Played, is so well structured and vivid in its description of characters and events, had you not known it was fact, you would embrace it as a novel. It is a wonderful, captivating, heartwarming yarn. And every detail is true.It took me nearly two weeks to read The Greatest Game Ever Played - not because I’m a slow reader nor because the book is that long - but, because I savored each chapter, internalized its characters, and then proceeded to go out and shoot a terrific game of golf. Frost’s historical novel actually taught me to play better by inviting me inside the hearts and minds of golfing greats Harry Vardon and Francis Ouimet. I simply didn’t want the experience to end. Frost’s gift for storytelling is at its best as he tackles a subject he clearly loves. His fascination and enthusiasm are contagious. The Greatest Game Ever Played is a book you will read more than once and want to share with your friends: golfers, golf-widows, and all those who simply think golfers are crazy.
Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Farce Ever Written
Review: Never letting the facts get in the way of a good story, author Frost can't correctly tell you the location of Royal St. George's GolfClub (it ain't southwest of London), or what Young Tom Morris's wife died of (cholera?! it was childbirth), but he pretends to know the innermost thoughts of Harry Vardon and Francis Ouimet, consistently fabricating both dialogue and stream of consciousness. The unmitigated gall! Forget the eight forced similes per page, the sappy sentimentality of the writing, and the miss-spellings (La Tourquet for Le Touquet!) in this novel and purchase the authoritative "Harry Vardon" by Audrey Howell. I didn't just put this book down after a mere 120 pages, I threw it away. I simply couldn't tell what was fact or fiction. On the other hand, Hollywood should love this made-for-television version that was written by a make-believe golf historian.
Rating:
Summary: Get comfortable!
Review: One of the best books I have read in years. Magically transported me back in time. Tears and laughter throughout while staying up most of the night to finish this great story.
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable
Review: One of the things that impressed me the most about this book is how the author succeeded in practically making a novel out of this non-fiction story. This added even more depth and drama to a story that had plenty to begin with. I mean let's face it--one has to assume that 99% of the dialogue had to be invented out of whole cloth. There is no reason to suspect that much more than that would have been recorded for posterity. And yet all of the dialogue seemed completely realistic. The author not only accounted for their difference in ages (ranging from Eddie Lowery at 10 years old on up), and their difference in nationalities, but also for the fact that this was 1913 and people presumably spoke a bit differently back then. I was also impressed by the extreme detail as to the actual golf matches themselves, not only at the 1913 U.S. Open itself but also at a number of tournments that preceded the Open. Is it possible that every single shot which Frost describes in such detail had been recorded somewhere in the contemporary records of the era? That seems just a little too hard to swallow. And if so, it makes his writing all that much more impressive. In any event, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable
Review: One of the things that impressed me the most about this book is how the author succeeded in practically making a novel out of this non-fiction story. This added even more depth and drama to a story that had plenty to begin with. I mean let's face it--one has to assume that 99% of the dialogue had to be invented out of whole cloth. There is no reason to suspect that much more than that would have been recorded for posterity. And yet all of the dialogue seemed completely realistic. The author not only accounted for their difference in ages (ranging from Eddie Lowery at 10 years old on up), and their difference in nationalities, but also for the fact that this was 1913 and people presumably spoke a bit differently back then. I was also impressed by the extreme detail as to the actual golf matches themselves, not only at the 1913 U.S. Open itself but also at a number of tournments that preceded the Open. Is it possible that every single shot which Frost describes in such detail had been recorded somewhere in the contemporary records of the era? That seems just a little too hard to swallow. And if so, it makes his writing all that much more impressive. In any event, a great read.
Rating:
Summary: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Review: The greatest golf book ever written.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best golf books I have ever read!
Review: This is a very well written history of players in the 1913 US Open. I enjoyed the history behind each player and the turns their careers made after the historic win by Ouimet. The author does an excellent job of describing the play of the qualifying rounds and the actual tournament. The descriptions of the shots and the play of significant players was like being there. I did not understand or appreciate the significance of the 1913 US Open until I read this book. The history of the English golfers and their golf makes one wish we could meet them today (Harry Vardon and Ted Ray). The golf rules of 1913 also are very well outlined and illustrate the style of play during that time in history. This book is highly recommended to anyone interested in the game of golf and I feel it helps one appreciate the test that golf has each time we step on the course. Wonderful book and a very well written true story!
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Summary: Where great research meets great storytelling
Review: This is easily the most exciting work of non-fiction I have ever read. The natural elements for a great story were always there--the young underdog vs. the steely veteran; the conquering of a leisure class pastime by the lad with a hardscrabble past; the ferocious contest between two competitors with vastly different styles, but an identical will to achieve. All against a backdrop of a young nation beginning to discover and assert itself. These elements were always there, but it was author Frost whose keen eye identified this seminal moment in the birth and growth of golf in America. And it is Frost who has woven a story of the 1913 US Open that is at once engrossing, riveting and precision paced. The final chapters of the book provide as much drama as any top fictional thriller, yet Frost manages to intersperce his narrative with lovely descriptions of the game and of living in America during its formative years. The book is a great read for lovers of the game, but also for those who appreciate the historical parallel that America was as vital and raw and explosive as the duel that catapulted golf into the mainstream of American sports culture.
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