Brush up on your knowledge of The Open and St Andrews with these must-read golf books
The biggest week in golf has finally arrived!
This year marks a milestone for golf’s oldest major, as The Open celebrates its 150th birthday. And what better place to mark the occasion than at the home of golf?
To get you in the mood for this week’s action, we present to you the best books that you should be reading to brush up on your Open knowledge.
There’s a ‘Buy Now’ button below each product, so there’s no excuse to not get your hands on them before The Open arrives!
If you’re still thirsty for the best golf equipment deals on the market then check out the rest of our NCG buyer’s guides right here, but for now let’s take a look at a collection of the best books about The Open…
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Best golf books about The Open
The Official 150th Open Book: Celebrating Golf’s Defining Championship
The official book produced in partnership with The R&A at St Andrews, to celebrate The 150th Open, which began its journey in Prestwick on the west coast of Scotland in 1860.
This beautiful book captures and celebrates the stories and history that make The Open so unique, with a fascinating and lively narrative history of the Championship, including interviews and exclusive content from champions of the game past and present.
From caddies to greenkeepers clubhouses to breathtaking courses, through archive imagery and stunning photography, these pages reveal the fascinating sights, stories and characters from this revered Championship’s long and remarkable history.
The Open: 150 Years of Golf’s Oldest Major
A celebration of the venerable tournament and hallowed links in Scotland that gave birth to the sport.
Published to coincide with the 150th Open Championship at St. Andrews in 2010, The Open captures the unique experience of playing the courses that have made the championship’s Claret Jug the sports’ most coveted trophy. Set into the spectacular British coastline, from St. Andrews in Scotland to St. George’s in Kent, the fourteen courses that have hosted the best players in the world since the mid-nineteenth century are famed not only for their beauty but also for their character. In The Open: Golf’s Oldest Major, The R&A presents an astonishing photographic celebration of a tournament that has hosted every icon of the sport, from Old Tom Morris to Bobby Jones, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods.
Bringing together classic images of unforgettable moments in the competitions history with vintage photographs, many previously unpublished, sourced by Getty Images from archives throughout Britain, and including new photographs of the courses by David Cannon, this extravagantly illustrated book captures both the excitement and the glory of The Open and the unparalleled beauty of the courses themselves.
St. Andrews & The Open Championship: The Official History
When one thinks of the Open Championship (British Open), it’s hard not to think of the Old Course at St. Andrews as well. And no wonder. The Open Championship was first played at St. Andrews in 1873. Since then, the Open has returned to St. Andrews again and again. Each time, the game has been better for it.
St. Andrews & The Open Championship: The Official History, is a detailed, chronological record of all the Opens that have taken place on the Old Course in the past 130 years. The text, by third generation St. Andrean David Joy, is fully researched and highly informative. The colour photography, by Iain MacFarlane Lowe, is some of the most beautiful of the Old Course or any other course that you will ever see.
Plus, the book is filled with vintage photos and additional documents that help define the true importance of this historical event.
St Andrews In The Footsteps of Tom Morris
The USGA’s Herbert Warren Wind Book Award and BGCS Murdoch Medal winning book by Roger McStravick, St Andrews In The Footsteps of Old Tom Morris, beautifully sets out the golf history of the ancient Scottish town, St Andrews, birthplace of Old Tom Morris.
Designed by award winning Chic Harper, this stunning book has been hailed a masterpiece and an instant classic.
Golf at St. Andrews
Known and revered by golfers everywhere, St. Andrews was formed by members of the Kingdom of Fife in 1754. The Royal and Ancient Golf Club stages the Open Championship annually and is responsible for the rules of golf throughout the world in conjunction with the United States Golf Association. Golf at St. Andrews, including never-before-seen photographs, is an interesting and detailed survey of the Old Course and an account of its rise as the Home of Golf.
Author Keith Mackie begins by discussing Open Championships from 1873 to 1990, giving amusing anecdotes of the lives of players from Old Tom Morris to Jack Nicklaus, who wrote the foreword. Mackie then handles the subject of equipment; as golf equipment and the upkeep of courses has changed, so has the shape of the swing and the flight of the ball.
American Caddie in St. Andrews: Growing Up, Girls, and Looping on the Old Course
A caddie since he was twelve and a golfer sporting a 1.8 handicap, Ollie decides to spend his gap year, pre Harvard, in St. Andrews: a town with the U.K.’s highest number of pubs per capita and home to the Old Course, golf’s most famous eighteen holes, where he enrolls in the St. Andrews Links Trust caddie trainee program.
Initially, the notoriously brusque veteran caddies treat Ollie like a pest. But after a year of waking up at 4:30 A.M. every morning and looping two rounds a day, Ollie earns their grudging respect. A charming coming-of-age memoir.
Miracle at St. Andrews
Though nobody has ever identified a single secret – no universally accepted truth – to the sport, every real player searches for one. Travis McKinley is one such seeker. A former professional golfer who feels like he’s an amateur at the rest of life, he makes a pilgrimage to the mythical greens at St. Andrews. On the course where golf was born, every link, hole, fairway – even the gorse – feels like sacred ground. Ground that can help an ordinary player, an ordinary man, achieve a higher plane.
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Ben Outhwaite
Ben is National Club Golfer's Marketing Editor and the latest addition to our golf equipment review team.
He specialises in testing golf bags, beginner golf club sets, apparel and golf accessories. He also collates our buying guides so you know which are the latest and greatest bits of golf equipment on the market.
Ben picked up his first golf club when he was five years old – which was in fact a left-handed set of clubs!
He is a member at Rudding Park Golf Club and has a handicap of fifteen.
