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I recently received my copy of the 2008 edition of The World of Professional Golf, the comprehensive worldwide volume originated in 1967 by the late sports mega-agent Mark McCormack.  I have a more-than-sneaky feeling that like most everything else McCormack did in the late 1960s, the initial purpose of publishing this annual was to enhance his marketing of Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Arnold Palmer, much as the Official World Ranking was panned in later decades as a tool of McCormack’s monolithic IMG in the selling of Greg Norman.  Further, I will stipulate that in this era of professional golf – any professional golf, on any continent – being only a mouse click away, the importance of McCormack’s title must, by definition, be diminished a bit from that of its first three decades.

And yet it is still, without question, tremendous.

The format of The World of Professional Golf  hasn’t changed much over the years.  The book generally opens with an overview of the previous season worldwide, then provides long and highly detailed recaps of each of the four Major championships.  It then travels the world, tour by tour, providing somewhat more concise portraits of every single event, adding up to a uniquely descriptive (not to mention comprehensive) chronicle of the golfing year.  Finally, after providing a table of the top 200 players in the final Official World Ranking of the previous season, it offers a massive tour-by-tour appendix listing the final results of every event played – though in most cases, these ledgers only include those players making the cut.

Today, the book’s primary value is convenience; the information contained can all be found on the internet, but having it in one easy-to-reach place can come in handy.  But the older volumes – say from the 1967 debut right up into the early 1990s – represent a uniquely valuable resource, a comprehensive history of the professional game as dedicated to events played in South Africa, Japan and Australia as the United States and Europe.  It as also well worth noting that The World of Professional Golf has seldom been a dry, textbook-like read; indeed, McCormack and his team of stringers/writers/editors have generally possessed a pleasant, easy-to-read style not averse to including bits of local and tournament color.  This quality, it seems to me, has diminished a bit since McCormack’s 2003 death, but was initially strong enough to make those early volumes, even today, a pleasant, nostalgic read.

For writers, researchers and truly dedicated fans, the entire collection can be acquired – albeit piece-by-piece – from websites like abebooks.com at relatively low prices.  But clear some room on the bookshelves; most editions measure out at 500-600 pages, meaning that the full collection essentially requires a bookcase of its own.