HOT CORNER
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What: “Duel in the Sun”
Author: Michael Corcoran.
Publisher: Simon & Schuster.
Price: $24.
Michael Corcoran’s 200-page retrospective on the 1977 British Open, “Duel in the Sun,” recounts the showdown between Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson at the Ailsa course at Turnberry, Scotland, where Watson defeated Nicklaus in the heat by one stroke, in what some call the greatest final 36 holes of golf played.
Corcoran deliberately works his way to Turnberry, located on Scotland’s west coast near the Firth of Clyde, by painting a historical portrait of “The Open,” as it is called in the United Kingdom. He shows how the infusion of American players, led by Arnold Palmer in the 1950s, and later Nicklaus in the early ‘60s, changed the event from a provincial yearly get-together on rotating courses to a major international tournament.
The book documents the history of Turnberry and its courses too, telling of Ailsa’s strategic importance as an Allied airbase during World War II and how after the war, the runways on which heavy bombers and fighters landed and took off were removed and a natural links course re-emerged.
Nicklaus’ rapid rise in overtaking Palmer as the “world’s greatest golfer” and then Watson’s formidable challenge to Nicklaus’ throne, are accurately recalled through interviews, newspaper clippings and television reports.
Especially worthwhile are the recollections of such players as Ben Crenshaw, Roger Maltbie and Hubert Green, and the caddies for Nicklaus and Watson -- Angelo Argea and Alf Fyles.
The book is pedestrian in spots -- when Nicklaus and Watson finally go head to head in the last 40 pages, the narration is less than dramatic -- but Corcoran’s account overall is an informative experience with a history lesson thrown in and should be enjoyable to golf fans.
-- John Scheibe