Golf's Best Short Stories (Sporting's Best Short Stories series) | Chicago Review Press

A Curated Collection of Golf Tales Across the 20th Century

This volume assembles standout golf stories from the early 1900s through mid-century and beyond, featuring voices that have shaped the game’s literary landscape. From P. G. Wodehouse’s sparkling wit to John Updike’s precise, intimate prose, these tales celebrate golf with humor, nuance, and unmistakable affection.

Readers encounter a spectrum of tones and settings: sun-warmed fairways, smoky clubhouse banter, quiet mornings on the practice green, and tense finales that hinge on a single putt. The narratives offer a truthful, often wry look at golf’s frustrations, perplexities, embarrassments, and the small, luminous delights that keep players coming back to the links.

Authored by a roster of celebrated writers, the collection spans the evolution of golf writing—from early sport humor to modern, intimate observations. The bridging voices invite readers to compare styles, sense the era's social currents, and savor how each story uses the course as a stage for human drama.

What you’ll find inside

• Stories spanning comedy, tragedy, mystery, action, introspection, and romance by Wodehouse, Gallico, Marquis, Updike, and others
• Iconic character types—British duffers, amateur sleuths, pros, hustlers, plodders, cheaters, starry-eyed lovers, and crass finaglers
• Short formats designed for quick immersion, ideal for reading between rounds or during a commute

Why readers love this collection

• A cross-section of golf culture across decades, told with warmth, wit, and depth
• A celebration of the game’s rituals and rebellions, from the hopeful to the hard-earned
• Flexible reading that suits book clubs, gifting, or solitary escapes with a good story

Whether you seek a witty vignette after a difficult hole, a moody reflection on the sport’s intangible pull, or a page-turning mystery that unfolds on a greenside stage, this volume offers thoughtful, well-crafted narratives that honor the game without sermonizing. It’s a reading companion built for golf lovers who appreciate craft, character, and conversation as much as the scorecard.