Rating: 
Summary: Great Job on a Great Championship!
Review: Feinstein has done a masterful job yet again. He captured everything about the planning and executing of the 2002 U.S. Open. If you're looking for a "typical" golf book summarizing the Open, you might be disappointed. While he does cover the week of golf, Feinstein devotes the majority of his book to how the USGA went about developing everything for last year's Open. It is as much a book on managing a golf championship as it is a book about the four rounds played Thursday through Sunday. Something a little different than what I expected, but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: Sleep in your car for this one...
Review: Feinstein's creation was aptly named... "Open". The national championship is open to all entrants, the public course that hosted it was open to all who wished to play it and the USGA finally agreed to open its closed doors and allow a great author to document what goes into running this major championship.Feinstein allows the reader to be a fly on the wall as David Fay (Executive Director of the USGA) formulates his dream of hosting the U.S. Open on a truly public facility and watches that dream become a stunning reality. Along the way he answers a number of questions that the avid and/or casual golf fan has probably wondered: How do they create the pairings? How do they choose the host course? What exactly does the USGA do and how do they interact with the PGA Tour? Feinstein also captures the pride and character of the New Yorkers who call the course home and couldn't wait to see how the best players in the world would fare on The Black. As one of those New Yorkers myself, I can truly say that Feinstein's narrative on this point is right on the money. The only criticism I have is around his chronology of the final round. He states that Tiger was on 13th hole when the weather delay hit, but Tiger had yet to tee of on 12 when they halted play. This becomes even more important when one considers the tee shot Tiger had to hit after a 45 minute delay on 12, the longest par 4 in U.S. Open history. As Roger Maltbie said on the NBC coverage - "I can't think of a another tee shot I would least like to hit than this one after a rain delay." Tiger, of course, striped it 300 yds down the middle and made par on his way to the championship. I was fortunate enough to volunteer at last year's Open all four days and I look forward to doing it again in 2009 when it returns.
Rating:
Summary: Typical Feinstein
Review: First off, as has been written below, this is not a book that revolves around the golfers, as "The Majors" and "Good Walk Spoiled" did. It is an in-depth look at all the work and politics behind staging an Open championship (not "tournament", as we are reminded seemingly countless times). The challenges run the gamut from the contract with the course, to television, to parking, to security. If these machinations do not interest you, don't bother. That being said, I enjoyed the book. As is the case with his books, he introduces seemingly countless players and provides short bios on each of them (much shorter than those in "The Majors", thankfully). Good stuff, except a) there were so many people that it's simply hard to keep track of who they all are, particularly when they were last referenced 45 pages prior, and b) there really weren't any "bad guys" (although he didn't paint a rosy picture of Frank Hannigan). This isn't a surprise, given the fact that he was basically cozy with all of them and was their guest, but it did make for rather vanilla interaction. Surely over the course of years it took to stage this, there had to be some tension, instead they came off as one Giant Sized Cleaver Family. The golfing itself was given very short shrift, being mentioned almost in passing, which was fine with me. In short, if you are a fan of Feinstein's writing and can deal with the minutae, you will enjoy this.
Rating:
Summary: I was cynical but....
Review: Given that his most recent book "The Punch" was released recently, I figured Feinstein hastily put this book together to cash in the upsurge in interest in golf. I WAS WRONG and am happy to admit it. The author once again takes us on the "inside" and proffers the reader another dose of history, tradition, and day to day banter of those who help stage the world's greatest (and most democratic) championship. Feinstein grabs the reader with his poignant insights and an introduction to the jargon of those in the know (How many people will be correcting their foursomes on pin placements vs. hole locations?). The 2002 Open was truly a special and spectacular event held so close to New York during an historical time and truly an Open for the people. Feinstein does justice with this well written and easy to read tome. In fact I found myself wanting more. I noticed in the thank you portion at the end of the book that he thanks dozens of golfers, but did not mention the 2002 Champion, Tiger Woods. I really thought there might have been more on Tiger, but maybe John has been frozen out of the inner circle due to his book "The First Coming: Tiger Woods: Master or Martyr" Feinstein has alienated subjects in the past (right Bob Knight), but sometimes showcasing the "inside" leads to people reading unflattering things about themselves they wish to hide. It's the author who has to live with himself with those relationships; however once again I found myself enraptured in great sports book by Feinstein. Write on John!
Rating:
Summary: Feinstein Goes Low at Bethpage Black
Review: Having read "A Good Walk Spoiled" and "The Majors" I surmised that John Feinstein had exhausted his insights on the subject of golf. However, "The Open" showed me that Feinstein can go low whenever he writes about golf. Somehow, he is able to provide information that make events come alive and keep the pages turning. Having been a caddy myself in High School, I enjoyed the inside the ropes details Feinstein provided. When it comes to writing about golf, Feinstein is the man! Good shot.
Rating: 
Summary: Way too much extra crap
Review: He writes with a lot of descriptive detail, to a fualt. Every person he mentions gets their biography put in. Way too much extra junk about people no one would ever here of. Chapters start out with the continuing story and quickly break down into the life story of some high ranking account for the PGA, and so on. Read only if you need to get some sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Feinstein does it again
Review: I am a fan of Mr Feinsteins ability to tell a story. From a good walk spoiled to The Majors to The Punch and Now The Open Inside the Ropes at Beth Page Black Mr Feinstein know how to weave the details and the intricate fabric of an event into a interesting and page turning story. I found the lead up to be just as interesting as the guts of the tournament. Great book for all readers who enjoy a good story.
Rating:
Summary: Feinstein sliced this book OB
Review: I am really ticked off and feel that somebody at Little, Brown publishing co. owes me $26. This is the worst book about golf I've ever read, and I've read a lot. Feinstein is generally a fantastic writer and in the past I've really enjoyed his stuff . . . so imagine how disappointing this was when I found out that it not only was NOT his usual great work . . . and that in reality, this one is really a 5-star stinker. Here's the problem: If you look at the book's dust cover, there is a guy teeing-off and gallery on both sides looking on. Look at the back of the jacket and there's Tiger and others. Read the title, "Open -- Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black", and adding all that up you'd think that this would be a book about the open, inside stories about the golfers and personal looks at them and their lives and their games. You know, the kind of stuff that made Feinstein's other books so much fun to read. Inside the jacket the blurb talks about Tiger, Sergio, Nick, Phil, etc., so you figger you'll be reading about them. Uh-uh. Imagine, then, how the reader feels when this book slogs on and on about Barney McFeeley and Harry O'Howsmigolfin' and Freddie Fatsohuffinpuffin and whoever these old geezers at the USGA are . . . stories not about golf, but about executives and bureaucrats having to do work (! wow, imagine that!) to set up an open at Bethpage Black (and the reverence for this golf course really gets on one's nerves, I mean, come on already). Bo-ring, boring, boring! But I suppose this sold well on Long Island and in the New York area. . . I don't blame Feinstein, the author. He wrote a book about a boring topic and was probably misled by his publisher into thinking this would be a big hit. And his editor, well, what could he do with a can of crud like this. But Little, Brown, knowing they had a bomb on their hands, did the unethical thing, and that is to market this as something it's not. Little, Brown if you are out there, please email me. You owe me a refund.
Rating:
Summary: His worst book yet...
Review: I bought this book anticipating another great read like: A Good Walk Spoiled. What I got, however, was every tiny, irrelevant detail about every person even remotely involved with the US Open. For example, do we really care that the superintendant's son played junior golf at... Or do we need 10-15 pages on the Shinnecock Indians and the 1995 US Open at Shinnecock? Or that the workers at Bethpage enjoyed eating sandwiches at BK Sweeney's??? Or that the guy who caddied for Tiger in his practice round was frome Ireland and his family, blah, blah, blah... Come on. It was just too much clutter and noise. This from an avid, single-digit handicapper, from Long Island, who played Bethpage Black and went to the Open on Friday in teh pouring rain! I had every reason to love this book, but instead threw it away. Save your money. I wish I had.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable....but misleading
Review: I enjoyed the book, but it certainly occurred to me in the middle of reading it that a lot of people were going to be ticked off at how misleading the title is in relation to the actual direction of the book. As has been previously mentioned repeatedly, the book is more -- MUCH more -- about the behind-the-scenes personalities than the US Open golfers themselves. Feinstein's overall theme is that the US Open is more than a golf tournament, but it's a multi-year planning process with dozens and dozens of vital people playing important roles. The problem is that he spends a few hundred pages beating this idea over the head of the reader, while the reader wonders when the actual golf is going to start. You have to sift through a great deal of mini-bios -- and some not so "mini" -- on USGA and state characters before the Open tees off.
I must say that one of the main reasons I enjoyed the book was because I live 20 minutes from Bethpage Black and drive past the "Bethpage: Home of the 2002 US Open" water tower every day on my way to work -- so the geographical and course info, and other relevant stuff, caught my interest. Obviously I realize that this same info is meaningless and annoying to people not from the area, something Feinstein should have realized, and if he did, he apparently didnt care.
There certainly are a bunch of patches where the reader labors through incredibly unnecessary detail, but I thought most of it was made up for with SOME of the behind-the-scenes planning process, as well as the coverage of the Open Qualifiers. There is a lot of stuff here that is very interesting and entertaining, and you can learn a lot about what goes into putting on an Open. But if you simply want to read about the 2002 US Open's golf play and analysis, I wouldnt be surprised if you quit after 100-150 pages. The actual golf coverage takes up maybe the last 20% of the book, and its not all that fulfilling even when you reach it.
Simply put, the book is way too bogged down in details that have no business being in print. Outside of the families of said USGA officials, state politicians, etc., I dont know who would be the least bit interested in much of what Feinstein wrote. However, if you can stomach the rough patches and the misleading title and marketing -- and if things like network TV negotiations, traffic/parking issues, merchandise tent issues, local vs. state politics, etc. can hold your attention and intrigue you in any way -- I think you'll enjoy it. And you'll probably add a star if you're from the NY Tri-State Area.
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