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What: “Par Excellence: a Celebration of Virginia Golf”

Author: Jim Ducibella (photographs by Ross D. Franklin)

Price: $29.95

Why Virginia golf?

All one has to do is look at numbers provided by the author of this slick, 256-page book.

Jim Ducibella, a sportswriter for the Virginian-Pilot in Norfolk, Va., reports that Virginia golfers have won 16 major championships and 169 PGA-sanctioned events while playing in 27 Ryder Cups, nine Walker Cups and two Solheim Cups.

Virginia is also home to six resorts ranking among America’s top 100.

The last tournament that Pennsylvania native Arnold Palmer won was in Virginia. He writes in the foreword: “I’ll bet you are as surprised to see my name attached to a book honoring the history of Virginia golf as I was when I was asked to write on the subject.”

Chapter One is on Sam Snead, who was born May 27, 1912, in Ashwood, Va., and now lives in Hot Springs, Va. There are ensuing chapters about Curtis Stange, Lanny Wadkins and Lew Worsham. Worsham of Newport News, Va., won the 1947 U.S. Open and, in 1953, won the first tournament ever televised, the All-American in Chicago. And he won it in dramatic fashion, holing a shot from the fairway to beat fellow Virginian Chandler Harper of Portsmouth.

The book also looks at many of the state’s resorts and courses.