GOLF BOOK CLUB: PHILIP REIDreviews Duel in the Sunby Michael Corcoran

THIS IS a story about two men. You know them. Jack and Tom. Tom and Jack. The ‘Golden Bear’ and, believe it or not, ‘Huckleberry Dillinger’. Who makes up these nicknames? Anyway, the point of the exercise is to recount the head-to-head between the two great golfers in the 1977 British Open at Turnberry but there is more to this book than recounting the duel that would finally see Watson outgun the game’s greatest ever player.

Indeed, you are halfway into the book before the action at Turnberry even gets a sniff of a mention. That is not a bad thing. What Michael Corcoran has done is to prepare us splendidly for a championship that that year basically lost any semblance of stroke play and where the play resembled the gung-ho and aggressive approach more normally associated with match play.

The first part of the book is like a history lesson in the game, explaining – superbly – just how the leading American players were basically insular creatures who didn’t see the point of making the trip across the Atlantic to play in the Open. That is, until Arnold Palmer made it his business to play in the 1960 championship at St Andrews, a week after partnering Sam Snead to victory in the Canada Cup (now the World Cup) at Portmarnock.

Corcoran does a fine job in outlining just why, up to that point, many Americans simply couldn’t be bothered to play in golf’s oldest championship. Money, as you’d know, was at the root of much of it. But it wasn’t the only reason. As Corcoran points out: “It never took much for Americans to assume that anything at home was better than what the rest of the world had.” Apart from money, the fact the links courses were not watered and that the smaller 1.62 “British” ball was used were other mitigating factors against Americans playing.

In contrasting matters, however, Corcoran outlines the extent to which such players as Argentina’s Roberto De Vicenzo made the effort to play. On one occasion, in 1949, De Vicenzo couldn’t afford to travel but was given a boat ticket by a benefactor. It took him 17 days to make the transatlantic journey, getting off the boat in Liverpool looking like a “ghost”. What Corcoran succeeds in doing is building an affinity with the Open and the reader. He establishes the championship’s place in history and why it is the most cherished of all the majors to win. He does it from an American perspective, and much of the credit for ensuring that a stream of US players post-1960 made the journey was entirely down to Palmer.

In building up to the duel at Turnberry, the author makes a very good fist at examining the rivalry that existed between Palmer and Nicklaus. The players had mutual respect for each other, but Arnie’s army of supporters cruelly called Nicklaus “Fat Jack”. Palmer disassociated himself from such comments.

Still, the rivalry between Palmer and Nicklaus takes up a goodly portion of the run-up to 1977 by way of showing how Palmer was knocked off his pedestal by Nicklaus. And, showing that night follows day, someone else – Watson – arrived in Turnberry that year as the man destined to push Nicklaus, the greatest player of any era, off his pedestal.

By the time we get to events at Turnberry, we have been given a history lesson on golf’s origins, on Palmer and Nicklaus, and introduced to Watson’s arrival. Corcoran’s recounting of the match goes beyond play by play. He succeeds in bringing us the emotion of the occasion, often seeing things through the eyes of Nicklaus’s caddie, Angelo Argea.

Of that missed putt by Nicklaus on the 17th which was to prove so costly, Arega was to remark years later: “I really wish Jack would have asked me sometimes (for a line).”

The duel in the sun at Turnberry has earned a place in the modern folklore of the game, mainly because – given the nature of pairings and stroke play tournament – it is rare for the two best players in the world to go head-to-head in the final round of a championship. Corcoran does it more than justice.

QUESTIONS FOR READERS.

1Do you believe Corcoran manages to convey how the US golfing public's perceptions of Jack Nicklaus changed with time?

2Tom Watson's win in the British Open in 1977 convinced him that he "belonged" among the game's elite. Do you think he gets the credit he deserves for dominating the game from 1977 through to 1984?

3At one point in the final round, play was stopped to deal with the crowds running down the fairways. Play was stopped for over 15 minutes to allow police deal with the situation. Do you think this affected the players?

4Does the author succeed in imbuing the reader with the sense that the Open is not only the oldest but the most revered of the major championships?

5How do you rate this book out of a possible top mark of 10?