Conclusion to Miracle at Merion by David Barrett

After finishing Miracle at Merion by David Barrett, I can say it is one of my favorite non-fiction books that I have ever read. Golf is my passion and something that I never get bored of, so being able to immerse myself in golf history through reading this book was truly enjoyable. Previous non-fiction sports books that I have read haven't especially impressed me mostly because of it all being based in factual information. This brings to mind a discussion we had in a reading workshop lesson about the crossover between fiction and non-fiction. In this book the author uses chronological order to tell the story of the 1950 U.S. Open and the events leading up to it. This is a technique very often found in fiction books that authors use to build suspense in their stories, but finding this in a non-fiction book is not so common. I enjoyed the use of this technique in a story like this, one that revolves around an event that only lasted a few days, so through using a chronological order build up it allows readers to feel the excitement of the tournament. Another aspect of this book that I really enjoyed is the way the author detailed the tournament as if he were doing a live television coverage of the tournament. For example the author says, "Here is how the leaders stood with nine holes remaining, passing through the ninth hole at various times: Hogan four over; Mangrum and Middlecoff six over; Harrison, Kirkwood, and Nary seven over; Fazio, Ferrier, and Palmer eight over; and Ransom nine over." (p. 241) This kind of description really sets the scene for readers to understand where the tournament stood. I would recommend this book to anyone who knows a decent bit about the game of golf, solely because the book uses phrases and concepts that would only make sense to people who understand the game of golf. All in all, this book about a historic golf tournament was truly fantastic.