Golf's Greatest Eighteen : Today's Top Golf Writers Debate and Rank the Sport's Greatest Champions

There is endless animated debate in famous clubhouses—at Augusta during the Masters, St. Andrews during Royal and Ancient Golf Club meetings, indeed at all major championship venues: if a foursome of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, Jack Nicklaus, and Tiger Woods were to play today, who would be the champion of champions? The proposition would be even more intriguing were they to compete on the same terms of modern, wonderfully conditioned courses, using the latest aerodynamic golf balls and rocket-shafted titanium clubs.
A fantasy, of course, but David Mackintosh has come close to answering this intriguing question with actuarial acumen. Indeed, the intrepid compiler of this book has gone much further than just one match, pitting the best of the twentieth century, all against all, in the most fascinating analysis ever. Applying a logic that the most constant factor in professional golf over the years has been competition for prize money, David has given every great player in his Golf’s Greatest Eighteen a fascinating opportunity—playing on today’s world tour for the same rewards to see who comes out on top. This remarkable feat of accurately balancing many thousands of events over ninety years reveals some remarkable and previously unconsidered aspects of the game’s all-time heroes. So who really was the greatest of all time? In the spirit of the challenge, the author simply provides the facts,many thousands of them, neatly arranged to put these glorious champions
in perspective, each reader then the final judge. 

Additionally, chapter after chapter, vivid word portraits capture these great figures at the pinnacle of their time on center stage—their spirits as well as their crucial swings. James Dodson on Sam Snead in southern hillbilly
vernacular is splendidly authentic; Stanford man John Garrity on Stanford champion Tom Watson, both with midwestern values, is arrow-straight. Kay Kessler has the ultimate inside track on Jack Nicklaus, following his
every footstep from schoolboy Ohio days to the present. Jaime Diaz on the determined, disciplined, and shot-making perfectionist Ben Hogan is splendid stuff as indeed is each and every contribution. I have had the great privilege to play with some of the men portrayed here or at least stood in awe in the presence of Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and others. And I know all these writers and admire their passion for our game’s great history—passion obvious in each turn of phrase, each word of praise. No false flattery here. The authors of the eighteen essays here know their men and their times. Past greatness simply flows from their pens, chapter after chapter, leaving the warm afterglow of having met excellence, in its own time.
I hope you will savor the treats presented within the covers of this outstanding compilation as much as I did.

Enjoy!

Robert Trent Jones, Jr.
Palo Alto, California, March 2003

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