Follws a single season in the life of golfer Rich Beem, a twenty-eight-year-old rookie on the professional tour, and his caddie, Steve Duplantis, in an insider's look at the world of professional tournament golf.

Bud, Sweat, And Tees: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe

Sports & Outdoors

Shipnuck, Alan

Golf

Simon&Schuster

Rich Beem became an overnight folk hero with his victory at the 2002 PGA Championship, where he dazzled fans with fearless shotmaking and glib one-liners. By the time Beem had stared down Tiger Woods in an epic back nine and then danced a goofy jig on the final green, the sports world was clamoring to know, “Who is this guy, anyway?” That question is answered in Bud, Sweat, &amp; Tees, Alan Shipnuck's no-holds-barred look at modern professional golf. Shipnuck began tracking Beem during his rookie year in 1999, when he was a logo-free rube only a couple of years removed from a seven-dollar-an-hour job hawking cell phones. Beem and his hard-living caddie, Steve Duplantis, would find sudden fame and fortune, and Shipnuck enjoyed unparalleled access in chronicling their wild ride—sharing endless drives across the desert and eventful nights at strip clubs, cutthroat golf matches and late-night confessionals at assorted watering holes. The result is an intimate portrait of two exceedingly colorful characters. Beem and Duplantis invite us deep into the world of the PGA Tour, exposing the rowdy, randy reality of the most interesting subculture in sports, which has always been a well-protected secret—until now. Sometimes bawdy, often hilarious, and always unpredictable, Bud, Sweat, &amp; Tees stands as the finest insider sports book since Ball Four.

Bud, Sweat, & Tees: Rich Beem's Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour (A Gift for Golf Fans)

The controversy began with a seemingly innocuous private letter, and spiraled into the biggest media event in golf history. The Augusta National membership dispute dominated headlines and watercooler conversation for nearly a year, propelled by twenty-first-century hot-button issues and a pair of perfectly drawn foils in Hootie Johnson and Martha Burk. But a year after Burk's messy Masters week protest, the meaning of the membership controversy remains elusive. In The Battle for Augusta National, Alan Shipnuck -- who reinvented the PGA Tour narrative with the rollicking Bud, Sweat, &amp; Tees -- provides the definitive account of what really happened and why. 
 In this lively, irreverent, ambitious book, Shipnuck chases the story from the chairman's office at Augusta National to the living room of the One Man Klan, along the way bringing to life a vivid cast of characters and revealing subplots aplenty. With meticulous reporting and penetrating insights, Shipnuck provides a nuanced look into the complex and contradictory worlds of Hootie and Martha, who were drawn together like moths to a flame; reveals Augusta National's secret plots to undermine the press and the accompanying turmoil at The New York Times, including an exclusive interview with the Times's disgraced executive editor, Howell Raines; and explores the Southern politics that led to Burk's Masters week banishment, drawing on Senate confirmation hearings and campaign contribution documents to link local politicians and a federal judge to Augusta National. 
 From Tiger Woods to Jack Welch, Sandra Day O'Connor to Bryant Gumbel, Treasury Secretary Snow to Jesse Jackson, the gang's all here in this withering look at a story that never stopped churning. 
 Along the way, many of the membership controversy's mysteries are revealed. How did Augusta National's top-secret membership roll become public? Who was the shadowy protester identified by hoodwinked reporters as Heywood Jablome? Did Burk lie about a vast right-wing conspiracy to undermine her demonstration? All of this and much more can be found in The Battle for Augusta National, a book that captures the passion and absurdity of a great national debate that continues to simmer. 
 The controversy began with a seemingly innocuous private letter, and spiraled into the biggest media event in golf history. The Augusta National membership dispute dominated headlines and watercooler conversation for nearly a year, propelled by twenty-first-century hot-button issues and a pair of perfectly drawn foils in Hootie Johnson and Martha Burk. But a year after Burk's messy Masters week protest, the meaning of the membership controversy remains elusive. In The Battle for Augusta National, Alan Shipnuck -- who reinvented the PGA Tour narrative with the rollicking Bud, Sweat, &amp; Tees -- provides the definitive account of what really happened and why. 
 In this lively, irreverent, ambitious book, Shipnuck chases the story from the chairman's office at Augusta National to the living room of the One Man Klan, along the way bringing to life a vivid cast of characters and revealing subplots aplenty. With meticulous reporting and penetrating insights, Shipnuck provides a nuanced look into the complex and contradictory worlds of Hootie and Martha, who were drawn together like moths to a flame; reveals Augusta National's secret plots to undermine the press and the accompanying turmoil at The New York Times, including an exclusive interview with the Times's disgraced executive editor, Howell Raines; and explores the Southern politics that led to Burk's Masters week banishment, drawing on Senate confirmation hearings and campaign contribution documents to link local politicians and a federal judge to Augusta National. 
 From Tiger Woods to Jack Welch, Sandra Day O'Connor to Bryant Gumbel, Treasury Secretary Snow to Jesse Jackson, the gang's all here in this withering look at a story that never stopped churning. 
 Along the way, many of the membership controversy's mysteries are revealed. How did Augusta National's top-secret membership roll become public? Who was the shadowy protester identified by hoodwinked reporters as Heywood Jablome? Did Burk lie about a vast right-wing conspiracy to undermine her demonstration? All of this and much more can be found in The Battle for Augusta National, a book that captures the passion and absurdity of a great national debate that continues to simmer.

The Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe

History

Americas

The controversy began with a seemingly innocuous private letter, and spiraled into the biggest media event in golf history. The Augusta National membership dispute dominated headlines and watercooler conversation for nearly a year, propelled by twenty-first-century hot-button issues and a pair of perfectly drawn foils in Hootie Johnson and Martha Burk. But a year after Burk's messy Masters week protest, the meaning of the membership controversy remains elusive. In The Battle for Augusta National, Alan Shipnuck -- who reinvented the PGA Tour narrative with the rollicking Bud, Sweat, & Tees -- provides the definitive account of what really happened and why.  In this lively, irreverent, ambitious book, Shipnuck chases the story from the chairman's office at Augusta National to the living room of the One Man Klan, along the way bringing to life a vivid cast of characters and revealing subplots aplenty. With meticulous reporting and penetrating insights, Shipnuck provides a nuanced look into the complex and contradictory worlds of Hootie and Martha, who were drawn together like moths to a flame; reveals Augusta National's secret plots to undermine the press and the accompanying turmoil at The New York Times, including an exclusive interview with the Times's disgraced executive editor, Howell Raines; and explores the Southern politics that led to Burk's Masters week banishment, drawing on Senate confirmation hearings and campaign contribution documents to link local politicians and a federal judge to Augusta National.  From Tiger Woods to Jack Welch, Sandra Day O'Connor to Bryant Gumbel, Treasury Secretary Snow to Jesse Jackson, the gang's all here in this withering look at a story that never stopped churning.  Along the way, many of the membership controversy's mysteries are revealed. How did Augusta National's top-secret membership roll become public? Who was the shadowy protester identified by hoodwinked reporters as Heywood Jablome? Did Burk lie about a vast right-wing conspiracy to undermine her demonstration? All of this and much more can be found in The Battle for Augusta National, a book that captures the passion and absurdity of a great national debate that continues to simmer.

Phil

Simon and Schuster UK

From two of today’s most highly regarded sportswriters, a funny, feisty, and mischievous novel that takes readers on a high-spirited romp between the ropes and the sheets of the PGA Tour—published with major support from Sports Illustrated. The most famous athlete on the planet is a bit off his game. Maybe you heard? His name, as we all know, is Herbert X. “Tree” Tremont, and he’s the richest and most celebrated athlete of our time—a multicultural golfing icon with fifty-three Tour wins, thirteen major victories, a smoking hot wife, and two adorable kids. Tree’s carefully cultivated image of country club values has made him so beloved by corporate America that he is the first celebrity in history to endorse Coke and Pepsi. The world kneels at his feet. As it turns out, so do a good many agreeable young women. When a reporter uncovers evidence that Tree’s sexual appetites are as prodigious as his tee shots, his public and private lives collide, producing the juiciest scandal in sports history. In this high-spirited romp that recalls the hilarious work of Dan Jenkins and Rick Reilly, two veteran Sports Illustrated writers have some wicked fun with recent events as they take us inside “Treeworld” and the secret society of elite golf. It’s a wild ride that whisks us between the ropes and the sheets of the PGA Tour, cracks open Tree’s cloistered inner circle, and propels us around the world in high style . . . from Tree’s top-secret compound in Florida to the wine cellar of Augusta National for an illicit tryst on Masters Sunday . . . from the deck of his $61 million yacht to the plush interior of his favorite private plane (he owns a few) . . . from the secluded beaches of Maui to an exclusive Southampton estate. As the scandal spirals out of control and Tree is forced underground, we get to know his entourage: Andrew Finkelman, his famously brusque manager who left IGM to manage Tree alone; Turner Darlington, the bizarre and charismatic founder and CEO of Tree’s main sponsor, Arrow Golf; Tree’s wife, Belinda, a hot-blooded Italian former bikini-model who doesn’t play golf but swings a mean fireplace tool; and a healthy number of the hundreds of women whose liaisons with Tree are brought to light as the plot unfolds. Bursting with inside observations and anecdotes about pro golf and life on Tour, The Swinger is a fast, funny, and gleefully outrageous novel that illuminates the life of the modern world-class, life-by-the-tail athlete. It is also a meditation on love, sex, marriage, friendship, celebrity, and the media. It is written with a smile, not with disdain for athletes like Tree, but with empathy and affection. It ends with the hope that Tree’s transformation, redemption, and return to greatness may be just around the corner.

The Swinger: A Novel

Literature & Fiction

Bamberger, Michael

United States

A sports hero seeks a comeback in this wildly funny and ultimately redemptive novel. His name, as we all know, is Herbert X. “Tree” Tremont, and he’s the richest and most celebrated athlete of our time—a multicultural golfing icon with fifty-three Tour wins, thirteen major victories, a smoking hot wife, and two adorable kids. But when a reporter uncovers evidence that Tree’s sexual appetites are as prodigious as his tee shots, his public and private lives collide, producing the juiciest scandal in sports history. In this wickedly funny novel that takes readers between the ropes and the sheets of the PGA Tour as never before, the only thing more entertaining than Tree’s downfall is his quest for redemption.

Humor & Satire

Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar

A juicy and freewheeling biography of legendary golf champion Phil Mickelson--who has had a big, controversial life--as reported by longtime Sports Illustrated writer and bestselling author Alan Shipnuck. Phil Mickelson is one of the most compelling figures in sports. For more than three decades he has been among the best golfers in the world, and his unmatched longevity was thrown into sharp relief in May 2021, when Mickelson, on the cusp of turning fifty-one, became the oldest player in history to win a major championship. In this raw, uncensored, and unauthorized biography, Alan Shipnuck captures a singular life defined by thrilling victories, crushing defeats, and countless controversies. Mickelson is a multi-faceted character and all of his warring impulses are on display in these pages: He is a smartass who built an empire on being the consummate professional; a loving husband dogged by salacious rumors; a compulsive gambler who knows the house always wins but can't tear himself away; an intensely private person cravenly building his brand on social media. Mickelson's career and public image have been defined by the contrast with his lifelong rival, Tiger Woods. Where Woods is robotic and reticent, Mickelson is affable and extroverted, a consummate showman whom many fans love and some can't stand because of his overwhelming Phil-ness. For over a decade, Mickelson lacked Tiger's laser focus and discipline, leading Tida Woods to call her son's rival "the fat boy," among other things. Yet as Woods's career has been curtailed by scandal, addiction, and a broken body, Mickelson sails on, still relevant on the golf course and in the marketplace. This book is the perfect marriage of subject and author. Shipnuck has long been known as the most fearless writer on the golf beat and he goes deep on all the rumors and controversies that have forever dogged Mickelson. But he spends nearly as much time celebrating Mickelson's random acts of kindness and generosity of spirit. Shipnuck has been on the ground at Mickelson's most memorable triumphs and crack-ups and he takes readers inside the ropes with a thrilling immediacy. His access through the years to Phil, his wife, his famous caddie Bones, and other insiders gives the story a deep intimacy. Phil is the juiciest and liveliest golf book in years, full of heart, humor, and unexpected turns.

Biographies & Memoirs

Leaders & Notable People

Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A rollicking good time." --Golfweek * "Thoroughly engaging." --The Washington Post Now with a new afterword: a juicy and freewheeling biography of legendary golf champion Phil Mickelson--who has led a big, controversial life--as reported by longtime Sports Illustrated writer and bestselling author Alan Shipnuck. Phil Mickelson is one of the most compelling figures in sports. For more than three decades he has been among the best golfers in the world, and his unmatched longevity was exemplified at the 2021 PGA Championship, when Mickelson, on the cusp of turning fifty-one, became the oldest player in history to win a major championship. In this raw, uncensored, and unauthorized biography, Alan Shipnuck captures a singular life defined by thrilling victories, crushing defeats, and countless controversies. Mickelson is a multifaceted character, and all his warring impulses are on display in these pages: He is a smart-ass who built an empire on being the consummate professional; a loving husband dogged by salacious rumors; a high-stakes gambler who knows the house always wins but can't tear himself away. Mickelson's career and public image have been defined by the contrast with his lifelong rival, Tiger Woods. Where Woods is robotic and reticent, Mickelson is affable and extroverted, an incorrigible showman whom many fans love and some abhor because of the overwhelming size of his personality. In their early years together on Tour, Mickelson lacked Tiger's laser focus and discipline, leading Tida Woods to call her son's rival "the fat boy," among other put-downs. Yet as Tiger's career has been curtailed by scandal, addiction, and a broken body, Phil sails on, still relevant on the golf course and in the marketplace. Phil is the perfect marriage of subject and author. Shipnuck has long been known as the most fearless writer on the golf beat, and he delivers numerous revelations, from the true scale of Mickelson's massive gambling losses; to the inside story of the acrimonious breakup between Phil and his longtime caddie, Jim "Bones" Mackay; to the secretive backstory of the Saudi golf league that Mickelson championed to wield as leverage against the PGA Tour. But Phil also celebrates Mickelson's random acts of kindness and generosity of spirit, to which friends and strangers alike can attest. Shipnuck has covered Mickelson for his entire career and has been on the ground at Mickelson's most memorable triumphs and crack-ups, allowing him to take you inside the ropes with a thrilling immediacy and intimacy. The result is the juiciest and liveliest golf book in years--full of heart, humor, and unexpected turns.

Christina Kim is the brashest, bawdiest, funniest player on the Ladies Professional Golf Association tour. Golf fans know her for her colorful wardrobe, even more colorful on-course antics, and an explosive game. But in this rollicking account of the 2009 season, Kim invites readers deep into her life, providing an intimate diary of a young woman's struggles on and off the golf course, and revealing the glory and heartbreak of life on the tour. 
Once known as a prodigy who shot a 62 in her first LPGA event some six years ago, Kim has newly rededicated herself to realizing her potential, and she takes readers between the ropes for all the action, including her nail-biting near misses at two major championships. She also goes inside the team room at the Solheim Cup, revealing the hijinks and late-night gab sessions that bonded the victorious U.S. team. Along the way we get intimate portraits of her close friends on tour, including tour leaders such as Michelle Wie, Lorena Ochoa, Paula Creamer, Morgan Pressel, and Natalie Gulbis. 
In this courageous telling, no topic is out-of-bounds, as Kim dishes about the LPGA's sexual mores, the culture clash of an American-based tour increasingly dominated by Koreans, the tumultuous economic forces squeezing the players, and her own battles with body image and her traditional upbringing. Winsome and good-natured, but never afraid of a laugh line or choice profanity, Christina Kim provides a must-read for anyone who loves golf or has wondered about the inner self of a professional athlete.

Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star

Kim, Christina

Bloomsbury USA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shipnuck, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Shipnuck, Alan

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Shipnuck, Alan. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Bud, Sweat, And Tees: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe

Bud, Sweat, & Tees: Rich Beem's Walk on the Wild Side of the PGA Tour (A Gift for Golf Fans)

The Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe

The Battle for Augusta National: Hootie, Martha, and the Masters of the Universe

Phil

The Swinger: A Novel

The Swinger: A Novel

Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar

Phil: The Rip-Roaring (and Unauthorized!) Biography of Golf's Most Colorful Superstar

Swinging from My Heels: Confessions of an LPGA Star