Once a year, when the U.S. Open is played, the United States Golf Association picks a course and then modifies it wickedly, so that even the world's best golfers often must scramble to avoid triple-bogeys. "Nobody wins the Open," a player once said. "It wins you."Now golf writer John Strege reveals how over the past fifty years the USGA has venomously transformed already difficult courses into "monsters." With relish, he also tells what happened to the pros -- Nicklaus, Palmer, Player, Woods, Snead, Hogan, among others -- who hooked shots into the rough, missed putts, and routinely finished over par in this grueling annual competition.When the 1963 U.S. Open was won with the score of nine over par, Arthur Daley of the New York Times wrote, "Every hacker had to rub his hands in unholy glee at such mass discomfiture." Once again, in this irresistible account, today's golfers can experience the same pleasure. Read Less