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Quote by Alistair Cooke

“Sir Guy Campbell's classic account of the formation of the links, beginning with Genesis and moving step by step to the thrilling arrival of 'tilth' on the fingers of coastal land, suggests that such notable features of our planet as dinosaurs, the prairies, the Himalayas, the seagull, the female of the species herself, were accidental by-products of the Almighty's preoccupation with the creation of the Old Course at St. Andrews.”

Quote by Alistair Cooke

Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
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Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements

This book compiles a series of insightful essays by Alistair Cooke, focusing on the cultural significance and personal experiences associated with sports and leisure activities. Cooke's wit and perspective offer a unique look into the world of sports and entertainment, reflecting on both the historical and contemporary aspects of these subjects. more

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Alistair Cooke
Alistair Cooke

Alistair Cooke was a distinguished British journalist, recognized for his extensive career in broadcasting. Born on November 20, 1908, Cooke spent much of his life in the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He is best remembered for hosting the BBC Radio 4 program 'Letter from America', which ran for 58 years, making it one of the longest-running radio series in history. Cooke passed away on March 30, 2004. more

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“More than anything else, though, to anyone who would write about it, golf offers a four-hour drama in two acts, which becomes memorable even in the tape-recorded reminiscenses of old champs, and which - in the hands of someone like Herb Wind - can become a piece of war correspondence as artfully controlled as Alan Morehead's account of Gallipoli.”

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Book:Fun & Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
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“For many years I had an impression of my golf swing, which was that I vividly resembled Tom Weiskopf in the takeaway and Dave Marr on the downswing. Unfortunately, there came a day when I was invited to have my golf swing filmed via a video camera. Something I will never do again. When it was played back, what I saw - what you would have seen - was not Weiskopf and Marr but a man simultaneously climbing into a sweater and falling out of a tree.”

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Book:Fun and Games with Alistair Cooke: On Sport and Other Amusements
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“When that happens [the demise of golf], old men will furtively beckon to their sons and, like fugitives from the guillotine recalling the elegant orgies at the court of Louis XV, will recite the glories of Portmarnock and Merion, of the Road Hole at St. Andrews, the sixth at Seminole, the eighteenth at Pebble Beach. They will take out this volume from its secret hiding place and they will say: "There is no question, son, that these were unholy places in an evil age. Unfortunately, I had a whale of a time."”

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Author:Alistair Cooke
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“What other sport holds out hope of improvement to a man or a woman over fifty? True, the pros begin to falter at around forty, but it is their putting nerves that go, not their swings. For a duffer like [me], the room for improvement is so vast that three lifetimes could be spent roaming the fiarways carving away at it, convinced that perfection lies just over the next rise. And that hope, perhaps, is the kindest bliss of all that golf bestows upon its devotees.”

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“"Hit it with the back of your left hand" was the first swing thought I ever heard, brusquely bu not unlovingly put to me by the aunt-in-law who had moments before placed a golf club in my virgin grip. I was twenty-five, and had spent my youth in a cloisterd precinct of teh middle class where golf was a rumoured something, like champagne breakfasts and divorce, that the rich did.”

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