John Feinstein’s latest, Tales from Q School: Inside Golf’s Fifth Major, finds the noted sportswriter in characteristic investigative mode. The PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament ( Q School ) is a grueling annual event in which both aspiring and erstwhile pro golfers compete for precious few available slots on the PGA Tour. Feinstein covers the 2005 Q School in a narrative rich with round-by-round reportage and engaging stories about the participants from fresh-faced guys right out of college to former champs like Larry Mize, who won the 1987 Masters but, now in his late 40s, willingly suffers the somewhat ignominious Q School regimen in order to return to the greens of his past glory. Feinstein’s general theme is that, in its own way, Q School is more inherently dramatic than any major tournament, mainly because, for these players, there is no tomorrow. Serious fans of the pro game will find this an engrossing read.

Former golf pro Steve Eubanks’ Golf Freek: One Man’s Quest to Play as Many Rounds of Golf as Possible. For Free. offers a marvelous series of adventures in which the author, trading on his connections, set out to play rounds of golf either on courses new to his experience or with amazing golf personages. Eubanks’ travels take him from the foothills of the Himalayas to Zurich, Switzerland, from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail in Alabama to the Yatera Seca Golf Course near the Guant‡namo naval base in Cuba. Typified by sharp wit and indelible good will, Eubanks’ Everyman-style memoir serves up keen reflections about the game but, more importantly, delivers ripe tales of fascinating folks, such as blind golfer David Meader, Korean female golfer Jeong Jang, retired pro Al Geiberger and the irrepressible Leo Luken, an 88-year-old legend who has shot his age more than 500 times. A poignant family encounter involving Eubanks’ dad and his Marine recruit son concludes the text, and helps humanize what is otherwise a delightful busman’s holiday of a book.

The U.S. of the 1950s has traditionally been viewed as wholesome and peaceful, dominated by the sober presidency of Dwight Eisenhower. Ike’s recreational penchant contributed mightily to that image, since he completed more than 800 rounds of golf during his eight years in the White House. Catherine M. Lewis’ Don’t Ask What I Shot: How Eisenhower’s Love of Golf Helped Shape 1950’s America makes interesting contributions both to golf lore and to sociopolitical history. In eminently readable prose, Lewis profiles Eisenhower the man, the key events during his terms in office and the general cultural landscape, which encompassed a nation transitioning from an era of white male dominance to a more pluralistic society. The serious analysis of Ike’s presidential conduct including his conflicts with Southern politicians over school integration is balanced nicely with a sense of America’s broadening golf fanaticism, typified by Ike’s ongoing affiliations with celebrities and pro athletes such as Bob Hope, Arnold Palmer and Bobby Jones. We also learn plenty about Ike’s golf game: He was lucky to break 90, he took many a mulligan, and he was not averse to sending Secret Service agents out into the rough in search of his errant tee shots. The book’s title is a quote from Ike himself, indicating that the Prez had no illusions about his struggles on the fairway.