As much a force of nature in sporting pursuits as John Grisham is on lawyers or Steven King is on the weird, the dauntingly prolific John Feinstein once again steps up to take a swing at golf. While A Good Walk Spoiled chronicles the pressures and tensions of a full season on the PGA Tour, The Majors narrows the vista, and expands the importance, to the chase for the four prestigious titles--the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA--that separate the great careers from the pretenders. That the chase occurred in 1998 turns The Majors from a compelling chronicle into a thrilling one.

A thorough reporter, Feinstein does the necessary homework both inside and beyond the ropes. He dusts off history and anecdote to provide perspective and explore how and why these four particular tournaments sprouted such regal fur around their collars. Still, perspective is just background if there's no focus to give it meaning, and he finds a bagful of it in the individual quests and the public and private dramas of, most notably, Fred Couples, Lee Janzen, Tiger Woods, Mark O'Meara, Phil Mickelson, and David Duval. All entered the season with much to prove--to themselves and posterity, and the latter is what the Majors are so imposingly about. As Feinstein observes, "Four days a year, golfers go out to play for Forever. Those are the four Sundays at the major championships. They all know what is at stake." As the record shows, none staked a claim more improbably or excitingly than O'Meara, who put a pair of exclamation points on a long, distinguished--but significantly Major-less--career with stunning, gutsy victories at both the Masters and the British Open. Feinstein records these quests with precision and color; as usual, he aims at a target and shoots better than par. --Jeff Silverman


From Publishers Weekly
With this exemplary book, Feinstein continues to exploit a formula that has worked well for him in chronicling sports subjects from college basketball (A March to Madness) to the PGA Tour (A Good Walk Spoiled): spend a year with a subject and use the experience as a way not only to tell a good story but also to illuminate the greater culture surrounding the sport. Returning to golf, Feinstein tackles the sport's four major championships: the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open and the PGA, as they were played in 1998. He displays a singular skill in conveying what these preeminent tournaments mean to those who contest them, and in highlighting the sometimes deeply personal struggles of people so often seen only on the grand public stage. Feinstein attributes the majors' rise in stature over the past four decades to the rivalry between Arnold Palmer, golf's first television superstar, and the younger Jack Nicklaus. From their numerous memorable duels grew the obsessive culture of today, in which unquestionably great players are forever tainted if they fail to win one of the big four. Feinstein also covers the tournaments' stewards, rigorous qualifying requisites and hallowed traditions. While stopping short of significant controversy, he looks candidly at such subjects as golf's struggle to shed its white-bread image and the attempt to deny Casey Martin, a handicapped albeit skillful golfer, the right to use a cart on tour while other players are denied that luxury. Comprehensive and immensely enjoyable, Feinstein's latest will provide veteran golfers an appreciation of how the sport is played at its most exalted level, while giving even those whose only putts have come on AstroTurf an understanding of what all the fuss is about. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Feinstein first went behind the scenes of professional golf in A Good Walk Spoiled (LJ 5/15/95), his best-selling account of a year on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. In The Majors, he returns to the fairways and roughs of big-time golf, this time focusing on the games major championships. As in A Good Walk Spoiled, Feinsteins close-up portraits of the greats and near-greats as they compete in the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship are what make this account so absorbing. Along with penetrating profiles of the key playersDaley, Montgomery, Leonard, WoodsFeinstein also spotlights the lesser-known contenders, for whom victory in a major would be a career breakthrough. Feinstein once again manages to get inside the head of the competitor and depict the athlete as a multidimensional human being. He also includes the history of how each tournament became the prominent event it is today. Recommended for all public libraries.-Peter Ward, Lindenhurst Memorial Lib., NYCopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Dave Anderson
If you want to know how touring pros think, on and off the course ... this is the book.


The Wall Street Journal, Jay Nordlinger
The Majors is not a history. Rather, it is another Feinsteinian work of journalism, a study of the 1998 season with an emphasis on the four most significant tournaments. Mr. Feinstein has made a specialty of delving into the lives of a select group of players and drawing a portrait of a particular world. In this, he has no peer.


From Kirkus Reviews
With his usual acuity, Feinstein looks at the four most important tournaments on the men's pro golf calendar, narrowing the focus of his monster bestseller, A Good Walk Spoiled (1995). Spread throughout the year and known simply as ``the majors,'' the Masters, the British Open, the US Open, and the PGA Championship serve as touchstones of golfing achievement. To play successfully year in and out without winning a major essentially brands a golfer as a footnote. Even to have won several majors without bagging at least one of each casts a shadow on a legacy, as is the case with Greg Norman, who remains to many the ``best never to win the Masters.'' Conversely, a talented but inconsistent pro like John Daly secured immortality by shocking the world with his 1991 win at the PGA Championship. Taking readers to all four majors, Feinstein dispenses his usual complement of insights, observations, and copious knowledge of golfing lore and legend. Summaries of the majors' origins and histories are interspersed with a chronicle of 1998 tournament action. Setting the scene for the '98 majors, Feinstein profiles important players who would factor in their outcomes, among them: Tiger Woods, who ran away from the field in the '97 Masters, only to be pulled back in the following year; and Payne Stewart, who after enjoying great success in the mid-1980s, was back again in the hunt at the '98 US Open. Feinstein probes the relationships between players and sponsors, arguing that pacts can become problematic when sponsors' equipment hurts their players game. He also follows around some hard-luck cases, showing how grim life on the tour can be for those living hand-to- mouth and week-to-week. If there is a flaw to this solid and respectable, if unspectacular effort, it's that the events Feinstein chronicles will seem familiar even to golf fans who only occasionally follow the game in the sports pages or on TV. (Author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Publishers Weekly, March 29, 1999
(starred) With this exemplary book, Feinstein continues to exploit a formula that has worked well for him

FROM THE PUBLISHER

What Does It Take to win a major championship and reach the absolute pinnacle of golf? Through a season of the four tournaments known collectively as the majors -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship -- John Feinstein takes us where the television cameras never go, both off the links and "inside the ropes," as he reveals the special challenges and rituals, the frustrations and exhilaration, that mark the lives and careers of the world's greatest golfers.

SYNOPSIS

John Feinstein, author of the massive bestseller A Good Walk Spoiled, takes readers through a year behind the scenes at the Masters, the British Open, the U.S. Open, and the PGA Championship. Full of Feinstein's always insightful commentary,The Majors delves into the significance of the great tournaments as well as the players who excelled in them, interspersing the origins and history of the events with a chronicle of the 1998 competitions. Feinstein also intelligently explores many aspects of golf culture as a whole, from legends of the game to player-sponsor relationships and what they mean to what it's like to be a pro on the other end of the table from those who win these tournaments. A fascinating read from start to finish, The Majors is the most anxiously awaited golf book of the year—a perfect gift for Father's Day.

FROM THE CRITICS

Mike Snider - USA Today

In The Majors, John Feinstein sets a historical stage, then takes readers inside the ropes of last year's competitions.... The Majors offers a refresher course in preparation for this year's season.

Washington Post

We can almost imagine Feinstein, like Shakespeare's Henry V, making his rounds from camp to camp. The author's interest is...with the human stories that surround these championships and give them meaning.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A wonderful follow-up to his bestselling A Good Walk Spoiled.

Library Journal

Feinstein first went behind the scenes of professional golf in A Good Walk Spoiled (LJ 5/15/95), his best-selling account of a year on the Professional Golf Association (PGA) tour. In The Majors, he returns to the fairways and roughs of big-time golf, this time focusing on the games major championships. As in A Good Walk Spoiled, Feinsteins close-up portraits of the greats and near-greats as they compete in the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship are what make this account so absorbing. Along with penetrating profiles of the key playersDaley, Montgomery, Leonard, WoodsFeinstein also spotlights the lesser-known contenders, for whom victory in a major would be a career breakthrough. Feinstein once again manages to get inside the head of the competitor and depict the athlete as a multidimensional human being. He also includes the history of how each tournament became the prominent event it is today. Recommended for all public libraries. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/98.]Peter Ward, Lindenhurst Memorial Lib., NY

Dave Anderson - The New York Times Book Review