What do you think?
Rate this book
The Golf 100: A Spirited Ranking of the Greatest Players of All Time
A rollicking ranking of the greatest golfers of all time, past and present, brimming with the intimate stories and perspective only a longtime golf writer like Michael Arkush can muster.
So, who’s the best of 'em all? Tiger Woods? Jack Nicklaus? Bobby Jones? Ben Hogan? Golf fans will disagree until the end of time, but one thing is For well over 100 years, the sport has provided its share of spectacular careers and indelible moments. And what about fan favorites such as Phil Mickelson, Nancy Lopez, and Lee Trevino? Where do they rank on the list? Or modern players like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Nelly Korda, and Justin Thomas. Did they make the final cut—and if so, where?
In a joyride through golf history itself, New York Times bestselling author Michael Arkush establishes a ranking system that places a heavy emphasis on the game’s major championships and profiles the most accomplished and impactful golfers ever—men and women, known and unknown. Arkush captures the flair, as well as the flaws, of athletes who are intensely competitive, funny, peculiar, or larger-than-life. Crafted from hundreds of interviews and longtime relationships developed over a quarter century, The Golf 100 is an immensely entertaining listen.
So, who’s the best of 'em all? Tiger Woods? Jack Nicklaus? Bobby Jones? Ben Hogan? Golf fans will disagree until the end of time, but one thing is For well over 100 years, the sport has provided its share of spectacular careers and indelible moments. And what about fan favorites such as Phil Mickelson, Nancy Lopez, and Lee Trevino? Where do they rank on the list? Or modern players like Scottie Scheffler, Rory McIlroy, Xander Schauffele, Jordan Spieth, Nelly Korda, and Justin Thomas. Did they make the final cut—and if so, where?
In a joyride through golf history itself, New York Times bestselling author Michael Arkush establishes a ranking system that places a heavy emphasis on the game’s major championships and profiles the most accomplished and impactful golfers ever—men and women, known and unknown. Arkush captures the flair, as well as the flaws, of athletes who are intensely competitive, funny, peculiar, or larger-than-life. Crafted from hundreds of interviews and longtime relationships developed over a quarter century, The Golf 100 is an immensely entertaining listen.
- GenresSports
384 pages, Hardcover
Published April 1, 2025
6 people are currently reading
103 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 9, 2025
Gather round children and allow me to tell you a tale of long long ago in a land called Basic Cable. Our princess Kelly had just birthed a child who never slept and there was no such thing as social media or podcasts or You Tube or even streaming services to pass the time while she endlessly rocked the baby. Desperate times called for desperate measures so she tuned in to the only thing that seemed to be on all day every day during the summer - golf. Then she fell in love with a Tiger and they all lived happily ever after …. or something like that.
Seriously though, I did become an avid golf fan while on maternity leave and last year I decided to start using some vacation time in order to eat pimento cheese sandwiches and bask in the azaleas for the duration of The Masters.
What better accompaniment than this reader copy from @doubledaybooks? Are you a golfer or a watcher? Do you have a fave? I cheer for so many, but ever since Tom Kim took a little swim at the PGA Championship he’s had my heart.
Seriously though, I did become an avid golf fan while on maternity leave and last year I decided to start using some vacation time in order to eat pimento cheese sandwiches and bask in the azaleas for the duration of The Masters.
What better accompaniment than this reader copy from @doubledaybooks? Are you a golfer or a watcher? Do you have a fave? I cheer for so many, but ever since Tom Kim took a little swim at the PGA Championship he’s had my heart.
August 12, 2025
The insurmountable challenge of sports books is to stay current, and this one unfortunately falls victim. The 2025 season saw Scottie cement the place he should have had on this list with wins at the PGA and Open Championships, and Rory’s Masters win to complete the career grand slam likely would bump him up the list.
This book also has the unfortunate fate of being compared to The Baseball 100. Arkush writes in the same conversational style as the other ____ 100 books, but I often times found myself reading about the blunders of these great golfers, often at the hands of other members of this very list. While golf is a game of losing more often than winning, I would have preferred the book celebrating the great comebacks and fortunes, as opposed to rehashing the meltdowns and bad luck.
Overall, I enjoyed reading some new stories about golfers I knew of, and meeting some that I did not. For the avid golf fan it’s worthy of a read to start debates or rehash some old memories.
This book also has the unfortunate fate of being compared to The Baseball 100. Arkush writes in the same conversational style as the other ____ 100 books, but I often times found myself reading about the blunders of these great golfers, often at the hands of other members of this very list. While golf is a game of losing more often than winning, I would have preferred the book celebrating the great comebacks and fortunes, as opposed to rehashing the meltdowns and bad luck.
Overall, I enjoyed reading some new stories about golfers I knew of, and meeting some that I did not. For the avid golf fan it’s worthy of a read to start debates or rehash some old memories.
April 12, 2025
A buncha short stories on golfers about their triumphs in victory and heartbreak in defeat that borders the line between reality and myth as sports so often do, what’s not to love… totally not boring (u know who u r 😉)
August 7, 2025
A fun read. Athough I disagreed a bunch with his rankings, that shouldn't stop me from praising him for taking on an impossible task!
July 8, 2025
Rankings have been a staple of the publishing industry for as long as there’s been a publishing industry: colleges, vacation destinations, mountain peaks, etc. One of the most effective ways to sell printed material is to use a headline that promises to rank something. However, the gambit was given new life in 2021 when veteran baseball journalist Joe Posnanski published The Baseball 100, a collection of one hundred essays that purported to rank the best baseball players in the history of the game. Posnanski's unique take on this familiar format was a playful approach to his rankings. While primarily a serious effort to rank athletes, Posnanski allowed himself some creative freedom. For instance, Greg Maddux's ranking at number 31 corresponded to his jersey number, and Joe DiMaggio was placed at number 56, reflecting the length of his legendary hitting streak.
Now, virtually every sport has a book that follows Posnanski’s format. One of the most recent of these is The Golf 100 by long-time golf journalist Michael Arkush. Subtitled A Spirited Ranking of The Greatest Golfers of All Time, with “spirited” serving as Arkush’s signal to the reader that he, like Posnanski, takes some creative liberty with his rankings. However, as he explains in the Author’s Note, this is a mostly serious effort to quantitatively rank the best players ever to play the game. The quantitative basis for his rankings is a point system of his own creation, which awards players 2,000 points for winning a major, all the way down to 50 points for fifth place and 300 points for winning a non-major tournament.
The author's challenge is that he attempts to rank golfers from the earliest days of organized golf, a time when the amateur game was much more significant and the "majors" weren't yet well-defined. To make things even more complicated, he includes female golfers in his rankings, which seems more like a nod to political correctness than a serious effort to rank the game's elite players. It's these challenges that call for the author to take a great deal of poetic license in his rankings and why it's best not to take the list too seriously.
The author’s love for the history and lore of the game of golf is evident, and he discusses players from the 19th century with as much passion and knowledge as those from the 21st century. Political boundaries hold little sway; European and American players are given equal prominence. If anything, his reverence for the game's British origins is apparent. His obsession with the British Open (never "The Open") is evident, and many of his anecdotes about golf's greatest moments revolve around the Claret Jug.
The author conducted exhaustive research, offering stroke-by-stroke accounts of golf tournaments dating back over a century. The author also does a good job of putting the reader in the gallery, vividly describing moments such as the emotionally charged reception of 54-year-old Ben Hogan at the 1967 Masters. Fans cheered so enthusiastically at every hole on the back nine that Hogan struggled to control his emotions, a moment that was one of the most poignant in the book.
Until we reach the top ten, most of these essays focus on what might have been. What if Jordan Spieth (#59) and Rory McIlroy (#25) had fully realized their early career potential? (This book was published before McIlroy achieved the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters.) How many more tournaments might Phil Mickelson (#13) have won if he had tempered his aggressive play? And what if Greg Norman (#36) hadn't suffered his infamous collapse in the final round of the 1996 Masters?
While Norman is notorious for faltering in crucial moments, the book highlights that golf history is filled with similar stories. Double bogeys on the back nine of a major's final round have derailed not just tournaments but entire careers. Many golfers are forever haunted by a single bad Sunday afternoon at Augusta, Torrey Pines, or St. Andrews. Competitive golf is a fickle game, full of demons, and not for the faint of heart.
We also learn that despite the game’s reputation as a pastime for the upper class, many of the game’s elite players came from poor families. They were drawn to the sport not because of its blue-blooded image but because it allowed them to earn a living. Many of them were introduced to golf as teenagers while trying to earn a few extra dollars as caddies and, at least early in their careers, could not have afforded the membership dues at the elite golf courses they would someday dominate.
My only complaint, and it's a big one, is the author's conversational writing style. His attempt at an informal tone, similar to a friend recounting a tale, frequently devolves into digressions and unnecessary throat clearing ("So, here's what happened..."). While this might be amusing for a magazine article, it becomes tiresome over the course of a 350-page book. His editor should have told him to stop being cute and get on with the story.
Of course, there’s plenty of room for debate, but I think the author does a commendable job of ranking the game’s best golfers, especially the top ten. If every sport is destined to have a “Top 100” book, Michael Arkush has provided an excellent entry for the game of golf.
Now, virtually every sport has a book that follows Posnanski’s format. One of the most recent of these is The Golf 100 by long-time golf journalist Michael Arkush. Subtitled A Spirited Ranking of The Greatest Golfers of All Time, with “spirited” serving as Arkush’s signal to the reader that he, like Posnanski, takes some creative liberty with his rankings. However, as he explains in the Author’s Note, this is a mostly serious effort to quantitatively rank the best players ever to play the game. The quantitative basis for his rankings is a point system of his own creation, which awards players 2,000 points for winning a major, all the way down to 50 points for fifth place and 300 points for winning a non-major tournament.
The author's challenge is that he attempts to rank golfers from the earliest days of organized golf, a time when the amateur game was much more significant and the "majors" weren't yet well-defined. To make things even more complicated, he includes female golfers in his rankings, which seems more like a nod to political correctness than a serious effort to rank the game's elite players. It's these challenges that call for the author to take a great deal of poetic license in his rankings and why it's best not to take the list too seriously.
The author’s love for the history and lore of the game of golf is evident, and he discusses players from the 19th century with as much passion and knowledge as those from the 21st century. Political boundaries hold little sway; European and American players are given equal prominence. If anything, his reverence for the game's British origins is apparent. His obsession with the British Open (never "The Open") is evident, and many of his anecdotes about golf's greatest moments revolve around the Claret Jug.
The author conducted exhaustive research, offering stroke-by-stroke accounts of golf tournaments dating back over a century. The author also does a good job of putting the reader in the gallery, vividly describing moments such as the emotionally charged reception of 54-year-old Ben Hogan at the 1967 Masters. Fans cheered so enthusiastically at every hole on the back nine that Hogan struggled to control his emotions, a moment that was one of the most poignant in the book.
Until we reach the top ten, most of these essays focus on what might have been. What if Jordan Spieth (#59) and Rory McIlroy (#25) had fully realized their early career potential? (This book was published before McIlroy achieved the career Grand Slam at the 2025 Masters.) How many more tournaments might Phil Mickelson (#13) have won if he had tempered his aggressive play? And what if Greg Norman (#36) hadn't suffered his infamous collapse in the final round of the 1996 Masters?
While Norman is notorious for faltering in crucial moments, the book highlights that golf history is filled with similar stories. Double bogeys on the back nine of a major's final round have derailed not just tournaments but entire careers. Many golfers are forever haunted by a single bad Sunday afternoon at Augusta, Torrey Pines, or St. Andrews. Competitive golf is a fickle game, full of demons, and not for the faint of heart.
We also learn that despite the game’s reputation as a pastime for the upper class, many of the game’s elite players came from poor families. They were drawn to the sport not because of its blue-blooded image but because it allowed them to earn a living. Many of them were introduced to golf as teenagers while trying to earn a few extra dollars as caddies and, at least early in their careers, could not have afforded the membership dues at the elite golf courses they would someday dominate.
My only complaint, and it's a big one, is the author's conversational writing style. His attempt at an informal tone, similar to a friend recounting a tale, frequently devolves into digressions and unnecessary throat clearing ("So, here's what happened..."). While this might be amusing for a magazine article, it becomes tiresome over the course of a 350-page book. His editor should have told him to stop being cute and get on with the story.
Of course, there’s plenty of room for debate, but I think the author does a commendable job of ranking the game’s best golfers, especially the top ten. If every sport is destined to have a “Top 100” book, Michael Arkush has provided an excellent entry for the game of golf.
September 6, 2025
Anytime a book will try to list the greatest athletes or teams in any sport, it will generate debate by readers. Many will disagree with the author and many will argue amongst themselves about who should be ranked where. This book by Michael Arkush, an accomplished golf writer, is one of the better ones that takes on this task.
What I like best about this book is that Arkush bases his rankings and opinions on how each golfer fared against their competitors during their era and their gender. He didn’t try to compare Tiger Woods against Bobby Jones or Anika Sorenstam against Babe Diedrikson. If the golfer was great during their time and won major tournaments (this was Arkush’s main measuring stick) they would make these rankings.
Why he used this logic in grading these legendary golfers was best said by one of the all time greats, Bobby Jones: “I think we must agree that all a man can do is beat the people who are around at the same time he is. He cannot win from those who came before any more than he can from those who may come afterward.”
Of course, this book would not be as good as it was without the excellent stories told about each golfer. Whether it was about Old Tom Morris and the early days of the sport, Mickey Wright’s swing that many consider to be the most pure one ever, or some of the biggest errors of judgement made that cost some of these great players even more major victories. Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson both rank fairly high on this list but Arkush would often refer to their bad moments, especially Norman. He also would mention when he felt golfers actually were underachieving despite all the wins they racked up.
Even with these criticisms of golfers, this was one of the best books on ranking athletes I have read. Between the avoidance of comparing different eras, the excellent stories on eac one and the conversational style of the writing, it is one that is recommended for any golf reader.
I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
What I like best about this book is that Arkush bases his rankings and opinions on how each golfer fared against their competitors during their era and their gender. He didn’t try to compare Tiger Woods against Bobby Jones or Anika Sorenstam against Babe Diedrikson. If the golfer was great during their time and won major tournaments (this was Arkush’s main measuring stick) they would make these rankings.
Why he used this logic in grading these legendary golfers was best said by one of the all time greats, Bobby Jones: “I think we must agree that all a man can do is beat the people who are around at the same time he is. He cannot win from those who came before any more than he can from those who may come afterward.”
Of course, this book would not be as good as it was without the excellent stories told about each golfer. Whether it was about Old Tom Morris and the early days of the sport, Mickey Wright’s swing that many consider to be the most pure one ever, or some of the biggest errors of judgement made that cost some of these great players even more major victories. Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson both rank fairly high on this list but Arkush would often refer to their bad moments, especially Norman. He also would mention when he felt golfers actually were underachieving despite all the wins they racked up.
Even with these criticisms of golfers, this was one of the best books on ranking athletes I have read. Between the avoidance of comparing different eras, the excellent stories on eac one and the conversational style of the writing, it is one that is recommended for any golf reader.
I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
November 2, 2025
(3). As an avid golfer, I was very interested to get into this book. I was not aware that it was a co-ed evaluation, but that certainly added to its value. Even though I am a pretty solid golf historian, Arkush comes up with a couple of individuals I had never heard of and I learned quite a bit about several that I had just a passing knowledge of. The actual rankings of the last 15 or so were not important to me for their numerical status, and the information here was very interesting to say the least. A must read for true golf nuts. Good stuff.
November 4, 2025
Um, everyone’s an underachiever. I understood when he went after Fred, Dustin, OK, I think also he went after Nick Price, definitely Tom Watson (won all his majors early, if you’re interested), but Tiger? Hear me out, he says. Tiger? Guy won the US Open, eleven footer to tie on hole 72, winner in next day 18 hole playoff on a fractured leg Tiger? Underachiever? Jesus.
April 18, 2025
Fantastic book for anyone who loves golf.
May 23, 2025
This was a fun speed read!
May 26, 2025
Thoroughly enjoyable. Would have given it 5 but then there is nowhere to go but down.
Read
September 12, 2025A history and ranking of the world’s best golfers. Fun to read about backgrounds and stories of different players
September 17, 2025
Very easy read. I don't agree with all of his rankings, but I respect how much research Arkush did.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews