Bernard Darwin on Golf (Edited and with a new preface by Jeff Silverman)

Bernard Darwin could easily have settled into a privileged life as a respected lawyer - one who also just happened to be the grandson of Charles Darwin.

But his conventional upbringing didn't prevent him from choosing a different path, abandoning the relative security of the law to follow his first and only passion - golf.

While Darwin was no slouch on the links - captain of his golf team at Cambridge and twice in the semifinals of the British Amateur Championships - he achieved far greater notoriety with his pen than with his club. Starting as a weekly columnist for The Times of London (always signing his columns "Our Golf Correspondent"), he was soon acknowledged as one of the finest essayists in Britain.

He was the first writer ever to elevate the discussion of golf beyond a simple reportage of events.

He was also a regular contributor to Country Life and a frequent contributor to The Atlantic Monthly.