Rating: 
Summary: Great Book For An Avid Golfer
Review: "The Majors" is a well written, very interesting golf book. It concentrates solely on the 1998 Majors. While entertaining, "The Majors" falls well short of Feinstein's previous work "A Good Walk Spoiled." Likewise, "The Majors" would be most interesting to an avid golfer. I gave the book to my brother, a casual fan, who found it to be rather dull.
Rating: 
Summary: An interesting read to this day!
Review: Feinstein's book chronicles the 1998 PGA Tour Season highlighting the Majors which are the Masters, the US Open, the British Open and the PGA.
This book avoids becoming the run-of-the-mill 1998 PGA Tour Season review by providing us with information on the Major tournaments we cannot get in magazines [tidbits on the US Open "unfair" hole locations, champions' locker rooms(Masters), payment for trophy replicas etc...]
Interesting backgrounders on major protagonists such as Mark O'Meara, Fred Couples, Vijay Singh, Tom Watson etc are provided as well as stories of golfers at the lower rung of the pecking order whose names we may never see again in the entry list.
In short, this book tells us of life in the PGA Tour in the context of the 1998 season. I'm reading this in 2004 and still found it to be quite a good read.
And oh, Colin Montgomerie does have a sense of humor.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read - Feinstein Tells a Great Story
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Feinstein weaves a great story together about the 1997 Majors season. This was Tiger's first US Open defense, and a great year for O'Meara. John Daly was falling apart, and Fred Couples was having his challenges.I'm guessing that through interviews with the players, as well as their friends and family, Feinstein gets a great deal of background material. The story that he's put together takes the reader through the four Majors in order, and makes each place come to life. I learned a great deal about what it's really like to play at Augusta National. For that matter, I learned a great deal about what it's like to spectate at the Masters. Admittedly, I have a love for the game of golf. I have played it for over twenty years; since about 7th grade. I play well, I love being on the course and I love watching the majors. So, buyer/reader beware. I ought to have loved this book. That being said, it's got plenty to offer if you're a golf widow or just like a good read about professional athletes.
Rating:
Summary: Great Read - Feinstein Tells a Great Story
Review: I couldn't put this book down. Feinstein weaves a great story together about the 1997 Majors season. This was Tiger's first US Open defense, and a great year for O'Meara. John Daly was falling apart, and Fred Couples was having his challenges. I'm guessing that through interviews with the players, as well as their friends and family, Feinstein gets a great deal of background material. The story that he's put together takes the reader through the four Majors in order, and makes each place come to life. I learned a great deal about what it's really like to play at Augusta National. For that matter, I learned a great deal about what it's like to spectate at the Masters. Admittedly, I have a love for the game of golf. I have played it for over twenty years; since about 7th grade. I play well, I love being on the course and I love watching the majors. So, buyer/reader beware. I ought to have loved this book. That being said, it's got plenty to offer if you're a golf widow or just like a good read about professional athletes.
Rating: 
Summary: Sequel Syndrome?
Review: I'm not sure if it happened to Feinstein, but this book wasn't nearly as good as A Good Walk Spoiled. Nevertheless, it is very similar in that Feinstein again gets up close and personal with more of the PGA Tour's brightest stars, including the Tiger. Again, Feinstein writes appealingly well, and knows no equal in this field. Definitely read A Good Walk Spoiled either before or instead of this one, however.
Rating:
Summary: Another Top-notch Feinstein Work
Review: If you've read "A Good Walk Spoiled," you have to follow it up with this Feinstein gem. He once again takes you inside the game like no one else can. Feinstein puts a great deal of focus on the men behind the Masters, and gives you a good idea of the pressure at the U.S. Open. You also see that most Americans who put the British Open a step below the first two majors are clearly uninformed about what major championship golf is all about. Finally, you realize that the PGA is the least important of the four majors, searching to find an identity to distinguish itself. Some of the more interesting storylines are the close detail in which Fred Couples' season was followed, the improvement in Payne Stewart's attitude, the unbelievably rock-hard nerves of U.S. Open champion Lee Janzen, and the love the Brits showed Open qualifier Larry Mize. However, the most intriguing information comes from the in depth discussion of the career of David Duval. Before I read the book, I despised Duval and thought he was nothing but an arrogant jerk. However, after reading the book, I came to respect him for his no excuses attitude. Overall, I obviously recommend that anyone who follows the PGA tour read this masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Majors Is Minor Feinstein
Review: Is a book a book because an author says it is? Or is it a book because it is about something? John Feinstein seems to take the former "I write therefore it is" approach. As a result, I never quite got what "The Majors" was about. My fault? I don't think so. I not only "got" the point of Feinstein's previous golf book, "A Good Walk Spoiled," but enjoyed it. That book belongs on any sports lover's shelf, and is worth any novice's time as well. "A Good Walk Spoiled" is about the lives and trials of the pro golfer. "The Majors," despite the title, is about much the same thing, not so much the four events that make up the biggest trophies in pro golf but the elite PGA Tour pros who compete for these titles. Frankly, if you aren't hot for golf, you aren't going to relate to these millionaires and their quest to buck the dread acronym BPNTHWAM (best player never to have won a major) the way you will to the fringe folk and dewsweepers that made up the cast of "A Good Walk Spoiled," for whom making the cut was the difference between survival and doom. There are some decent profiles here, like that of Mark O'Meara, who won two of the four majors in 1998, the year of Feinstein's narrative. O'Meara seems affable, but I got no sense of hunger from the guy. Brad Faxon offers some revealing insights, but since he didn't contend for any majors, he seemed a waste of time in the ultimate scheme of the book. A lot of golfers Feinstein profiles are like that. Meanwhile, players who did contend in 1998 majors are skimmed over, like PGA Championship winner Vijay Singh, British Open runner-up Brian Watts, and most crucially, Tiger Woods. Feinstein probably couldn't get the same level of access to these guys he could to those he dotes on, but that shouldn't be the reader's problem, should it? Unlike "A Good Walk Spoiled," the writing feels tired. The humor is forced. He throws in some clunky metaphors. A caddy "studies the wind the way a political pollster studies trends." Tiger Woods' security entourage are "like the guys chasing Butch and Sundance: You could see them coming from miles away." This makes the rote approach to the subject all the more apparent, and enervating. Feinstein seemed to be trading in on the good will he engendered on the pro circuit with "A Good Walk Spoiled." That's great, if he gives the reader something for his new access. But whereas "Good Walk" was a candid and often blunt description of what went on inside the ropes, "The Majors" seems more an exercise in puffery and back-patting, never more egregious than with Fred Couples, a decent golfer and a good guy who Feinstein blows totally out of proportion in his narrative. Couples doesn't contend except at the Masters, but Feinstein can't let go of him for more than a chapter at a time. The biggest problem about this book is it isn't about the title subject. He doesn't give equal time to the four majors, doesn't really relate any of the day-to-day drama, and offers little insight as to the courses or the final-day fields. He reports the winners, and some key shots, but that's it. If you want majors excitement, read Herbert Warren Wind or "Massacre At Winged Foot." "The Majors" won't interest people who don't care much about golf, and though it has some interesting insights that made it more than a one-star read for me, it's not something that knowledgeable golf readers are going to find that illuminating.
Rating:
Summary: Inside The Majors
Review: John Feinstein first tackled the PGA tour with his excellent book A Good Walk Spoiled. In that book he extensively looked at the lower end of the tour, Q School, in which golfers competed to gain a Tour Card that would allow them to opportunity to play on the PGA Tour. In his latest, The Majors, he dives into the other end of the spectrum as he dissects the four tournaments that make up the Grand Slam and the elite golfers chasing the immortality of being a Majors champion. As usual, Mr. Feinstein's research is impeccable and we get some in depth information about the history of each of the tournaments, especially that of the Masters. While Tiger woods, David Duval, Phil Mickelson and other stars are profiled, the real star of the book is Mark O'Meara who won two majors in '98 after previously winning none. As he notes several times in the book, a golfer is never considered to be a truly great golfer unless he has a Majors victory on his resume. Mr. O'Meara had long been considered the best of the B's (golfers without a major) and the insight we get into his quest of a Major is superb journalism. The one negative of the book is that too often we get into the personal lives and relationships of the golfers and those sections start to read like a copy of Tiger Beat. That aside, this book is a good read and has the right balance that will appeal to both the hardcore and casual golf fan.
Rating:
Summary: A leisurly and delightful tour of the Major championships
Review: John Feinstein reports the stories of the 1998 major golf championships through the lives of several players who were contending for one or more of them that year. The Majors are, of course, The Masters, The US Open, The Open Championship (British Open), and the PGA Championship. Saying that Mark O'Meara won The Masters and the British Open, Lee Janzen the US Open, and Vijay Singh the PGA Championship says almost nothing about the character, history, and the dynamic nature of life and competition on the PGA tour. Mr. Feinstein helps us get to know some of these players as people. We learn some things about their health, how the got to the PGA tour, how qualifying for the various majors is done (and other tournaments, for that matter). Of course, the author reports actual competitions and how the leaders changed position and finally emerged victorious. All of this is told in a rather meandering and leisurely style. If you want crisp, concise, and beginning to end reporting this book really isn't for you. However, if love golfing anecdotes and enjoy reading about golfing events, I think you will enjoy this book as much as I did. I learned about players I didn't know and learned more about some that I did know. Certainly, I learned more about these events we call the Majors and my enjoyment of them has been enhanced because I have read this book. Thanks to Mr. Feinstein for that favor.
Rating:
Summary: A splendid intro to the great tourneys and players
Review: John Feinstein's A Good Walk Spoiled was a double-threat treat that not only provided golf fans a rare glimpse behind both the lives of its stars and the scenes of the Ryder Cup but also coaxed the golf-averse into chancing a closer look at the sport. He succeeded by plumbing the minds of the golfers themselves as his starting point, humanizing a sport that, to the casual observer, consisted of little more than boring androids pursuing gobs of money in a boring game. In this new book, Feinstein pulls off the same feat using the same technique. The four annual golf tournaments considered "the majors" are roughly akin to the grand slam of tennis, except that no golfer in history has ever won all of them in a single year. In fact, only four golfers in history have ever won all of them in different years. No matter how many other tournaments a player wins, and no matter how high up on the money list he is or how often he's been there, no touring pro can claim a fulfilled career unless he's won at least one major. And some of the best in the game never have, including Dave Duval and Phil Mickelson. Each of the majors carry with it unique pressures, challenges and difficulties. The British Open is played under the most horrendous environmental conditions on the tour, including fierce winds, torrential downpours and course surfaces that look as if they were maintained with no piece of equipment more delicate than a bulldozer. The U.S. Open traditionally gives the impression that the course was laid out by a committee of criminally insane golf-haters whose compensation was directly correlated to the size of the scores they could force the leaders to post. The stories behind the quests of golf's top echelon players to add a major win to their career histories are by turns exhilarating, heartbreaking and maddening, but in Feinstein's capable hands they are endlessly fascinating. The ability to convincingly peel away the stoic game faces that appear on television is the author's unique gift, and you don't have to know or care a thing about golf to fully appreciate it. If you enjoy an insightful peek into the rarefied stratosphere of a field of endeavor with which you're not necessarily familiar, get your hands on this book. Golf fan or not, you won't regret it, and you may even find yourself tuning into a golf tournament or two with a whole new attitude.
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