{ "item_title" : "The Story of Golf in France in 21 Questions", "item_author" : [" Doug Gelbert "], "item_description" : "From an imported pastime in spa towns and seaside resorts to one of continental Europe's richest golf cultures, France made golf its own in a characteristically French way. The Story of Golf in France in 21 Questions explores how the game first took root at Pau, Biarritz and Paris, why it remained an elite preserve for so long, and how the nation finally opened the fairways to a broader public after the Second World War.Along the way you'll meet the pioneers, the champions, the visionary architects and the club professionals who carried the game through war, fashion and social change. From Arnaud Massy and the first French women stars to Tom Simpson's architectural legacy, the rise of Le Golf National and the improbable paths by which France produced champions, this is the definitive guide to how France embraced golf - and gave it a style all its own. How did postwar France finally turn golf from an aristocratic curiosity into a middle-class sport?How did a country with virtually one first-class woman golfer produce back-to-back British champions?How did Tom Simpson save France from missing out on the Golden Age of golf architecture completely?Who was the first Frenchman to play in the United States Open?How did France start an international team competition 13 years before the Ryder Cup?What makes French golf unmistakably French?What makes French golf unmistakably French is that France never allowed golf to become too important.The game arrived as a British eccentricity, flourished among aristocrats and holidaymakers, produced magnificent courses long before it produced masses of players, survived two wars, slowly escaped the country club, and eventually became a substantial middle-class sport without ever becoming a national obsession.Along the way France absorbed golf rather than surrendering to it. It turned British links into forest, heathland, mountain and resort golf; turned a collection of private clubs into a powerful national federation; built its own national course when history had neglected to provide one; embraced compact courses when 18 holes seemed unnecessarily cumbersome; and produced an extraordinary succession of women who were never merely supporting characters in the national story.Its greatest figures seem equally appropriate: Arnaud Massy, the Basque fisherman who mastered Britain's game; Catherine Lacoste, who conquered America's greatest women's championship and saw no reason to turn professional; Jean Van de Velde, who turned one of golf's greatest disasters into an exhibition of grace; and Céline Boutier, French, Thai, American-trained and completely international.French golf has always lived with one foot inside golf and one foot outside it.Perhaps that is why France could become one of the world's largest golfing nations without ever quite becoming a golf nation.And perhaps that contradiction-not Pau, not Massy, not Morfontaine, not Lacoste, not Le Golf National-is the most French thing about French golf of all.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/93/577/185/193577185X_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "9.99", "online_price" : "9.99", "our_price" : "9.99", "club_price" : "9.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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