Michael Parkinson On Golf

There weren't many golf courses in the Yorkshire pit village where Michael Parkinson grew up. In fact there were none. But when he was thirteen his father became the first Parkinson to try the game and he took Michael along as a caddie. As a result of a traumatic spectacle with a seven pound hammer that day, young Parkinson developed a phobia about golf. In his twenties and thirties he became founder member and president of the Anti-Golf Society.

But he was eventually won over to the game, and since his conversion Michael Parkinson has worked hard at unravelling the mysteries of golf by talking to and playing with such experts as Nick Faldo, Gary Player, Laura Davies, Bernard Gallacher and David Leadbetter; and celebrity players such as Gary Lineker and Alistair Cooke.

Here he recalls these experiences with sketches of his subjects that tell us much about the world of golf itself - all recounted with that infectious sense of humour and eye for the absurd.