Really? “The Story of Golf at The Country Club” Wins 2009 USGA Herbert Warren Wind Book Award**

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According to the USGA Museum website, The Herbert Warren Wind Book Award...

recognizes and honors outstanding contributions to golf literature. Named in honor of the famed 20th-century American golf writer, the award acknowledges and encourages outstanding research, writing, and publishing about golf. The award attempts to broaden the public’s interest and knowledge in the game of golf.

With that in mind, we learned today that John de St. Jorre's “The Story of Golf at The Country Club” won the 2009 prize. Now, I've never seen the book, know nothing about it and have little doubt that it's a wonderful piece of work worthy of some form of recognition.

But is a book not available for sale to the general public really broadening the public's interest and knowledge in the game of golf? Is a club history something that has the power to advance the public's passion for golf literature?  Of course not and I don't think it's a stretch to say that the selection committee has done the USGA much of a service here (then again, there should be an annual club history award just to prevent this kind of thing from happening).

It's also rather sad that an award designed to bring awareness to quality research, writing and publishing about golf not only picks a privately published volume, but fails to recognize some of the other finalists on the off chance someone would like to know what other worthy efforts were published. You know, on the off chance they aren't invited to The Country Club and given a free copy as a guest of a member.