Men in Green

By: Michael Bamberger

Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain

One night in a Chicago restaurant, Michael Bamberger draws up a list of golf heroes. Nine are living legends, like Arnold and Jack. Nine are secret legends, like Dolphus "Golf Ball" Hull: a windblown tour caddie from Jackson, Mississippi. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug.

Accompanied by a sidekick and friend, a former tour player who is a secret legend himself, Bamberger seeks to locate and get to know these luminaries. All the while he is hopeful that they will answer a certain difficult question: When and where were you happiest?

In their travels these detectives from the Golf Division uncover life and death, sickness and health, unusual marriages and unlikely friendships, trophies lost and won, comic tales from lives lived on the road, lost loves and second chances, and a cheating scandal that reveals volumes about an icon in their midst. They take us from Arnold Palmer's private warehouse in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, to the 12th green at Augusta National. Men in Green time travels to forgotten places in a lost world.

©2015 Michael Bamberger (P)2015 Tantor

Critic reviews

"[E]namored with the game, [Michael's] prose is thankfully straightforward and free of sanctimony or syrupy, romantic sentiments, and his interviews and game accounts are extensive without being tedious." ( Kirkus)

Interesting but cover misleading

Enjoyed the book but I was expecting a story about golfers at the Masters, especially when you look at the "cover". Instead it was a bucket list of golfers that the author wanted to meet and talk with. As I said, still enjoyable but was fooled by the cover.

good history on Masters tournament

Bobby Jones history along with how the course was built and used a tourist destination in early days .

Great stories, hard to follow

I did enjoy this book a lot, but it definitely left me wanting. I often had to go back and listen again because he switches around so much. But it is a solid selection for golf lovers.

A drive through golf and life for the ages

This was a tremendous, whimsical, elegant narrative about life in and around a golf course seen through the game’s legends and those behind the scenes who made author Michael Bamberger who he is today. Marvelous from start to finish.

Loved It!

Yes, I have listened to it 3 times and cherished each story as I lived memorably through the whole book. It was my time to play professional golf for a living, having numerous close associations with many of the events. I may listen a 4th time! Excellent writing and fascinating insights. Loved every minute. Thank you Michael!