I’ve read two other Frost books about golf (The Greatest Game Ever Played and The Match); both are two of my favorite nonfiction books ever. So it’s no surprise I picked up The Grand Slam, an account of the life of Bobby Jones, the greatest amateur golfer (and one of the greatest golfers) ever. Frost traces Bobby’s attachment to the game – from the first time he picked up a golf club; through his teen years as a prodigy; through his early years as one of the world’s best golfers searching for his first championship; through the 1920’s when he won 13 championships in 7 years, including the 1930 Grand Slam (US and British Opens and Amateurs); and then finally through his retirement from the game but his lifelong connection to it. Frost does a great job of describing Bobby’s closest relationships (like the one to his mentor Pop Keeler, the journalist) and his emotional state during each part of his life (especially the pressure he felt in providing for a family balanced against remaining an amateur golfer and making no money from his success). Frost’s character portrayals always feel real and unique full of nuance. However, for me, this was my least favorite of his three golf narratives. First, this book was far more biography-like than his other two books. In the other two, there was a particular event that acted as the central framework of the book, and the biographies of the protagonists were interwoven with a detailed account of the event – a great blend of action and backstory. In this book, there is no central event until we get to the Grand Slam in the last third of the book. The accounts of the golf matches prior to the Grand Slam are very quick, and even once we get to the Grand Slam events, the accounts of the rounds were less engaging for me than the accounts from the other two works. Secondly, I felt Frost’s focus was lacking for much of the book due to the inclusion of too many details that were only circumstantially related to Bobby Jones or to golf. For example, Frost explains that some of the British and US golf events were canceled during WWI – but then goes into extraordinary detail about what caused WWI (even a whole page devoted to Mata Hari). In another example, he spends pages discussing the life of Jack Dempsey simply as a sidenote in discussing the rise of sports icons in the early part of the century. Finally, when describing iconic characters I get that it is difficult to refrain from using superlatives. I noticed Frost’s (over)use of superlatives and hyperbole in his other two works (especially in The Match when he writes about Lord Byron and Ben Hogan). But in The Grand Slam, I felt he went overboard; throughout the book we get a particular shot described as the greatest iron ever hit in a major championship, or a particular performance as the most dominant display of match play golf ever, or the Grand Slam as the greatest achievement in golf or sports ever, etc. Again, with Bobby Jones, what is truth and what is hyperbole is a real question, I understand. Still, I found some places too overly gushing for my tastes. Still a recommended read, especially for fans of sports nonfiction books; I just expected more from one of my favorite authors.