The Long Golden Afternoon tells the story of the transformative generation of golf that followed the rise of Young Tom Morris - an era of sweeping change that saw Scotland´s national pastime become one of the rare games played around the world.
It begins with the first epochal performance after Tommy - John Ball´s victory at Prestwick in 1890 as the first Englishman and the first amateur to win the Open Championship - and continues through the outbreak of the Great War. If Tommy ignited the flame of golf in England, Ball´s breakthrough turned that smoldering fire into a conflagration.
The generation that followed would witness the game´s coming of age. It would see an explosion in golf´s popularity, the invention of revolutionary new balls and clubs, the emergence of professional tours, the organization of the game and its rules, a renaissance in writing and thinking about golf, and the decision that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews must always remain the sport´s guiding light.