Quick Take
- Narration: George Newbern delivers Posnanski’s storytelling with understated precision, letting the drama of each tournament breathe without overplaying the sentiment.
- Themes: Rivalry and friendship, sporting greatness, legacy and aging
- Mood: Warm and elegiac, with the pacing of a long afternoon round
- Verdict: A compact but deeply felt portrait of two men who brought out the best in each other across five decades.
I finished this one on a Saturday morning with a cup of coffee that went cold while I was listening, which is about the best endorsement I can give any audiobook. Joe Posnanski’s writing has that quality of making you forget you were supposed to be doing something else, and The Secret of Golf has it in abundance. At just under six hours with George Newbern narrating, it is the kind of listen that goes down easy and stays with you longer than you expect.
The premise is built around the relationship between Tom Watson and Jack Nicklaus, two golfers whose rivalry and eventual friendship defined professional golf for more than a decade. Posnanski has been following both men across many years of interviews, and the access shows. This is not a book assembled from press clippings. It has the texture of someone who was actually in the room.
Our Take on The Secret of Golf
What Posnanski does well here, and it is the central achievement of the book, is to make the rivalry feel inevitable in retrospect while also capturing how unlikely it seemed at the start. Nicklaus at twenty-seven was already the best golfer in the world. Watson at seventeen was a high school student from the Midwest who hit the ball, in Posnanski’s words, all over the place. Their contrasting styles, Nicklaus all control and precision, Watson improvisational and instinctive, made them natural foils, and the book traces how that contrast produced some of the greatest head-to-head competition in golf history. The “Duel in the Sun” at Turnberry in 1977 gets extended treatment, as it deserves, but Posnanski is equally interested in the quieter chapters: the slumps, the father-son dynamics on both sides, the way each man’s relationship to the game shifted as they aged.
One reviewer noted that the book covers “these men’s lives over five decades from childhood to their Senior tour days,” and that breadth is both its strength and the source of some listener frustration. At under six hours, there is not room for everything, and some episodes get compressed. The three major tournaments where Watson and Nicklaus truly battled are the narrative anchors, and Posnanski is honest about that constraint. The moments he chooses to linger on, though, are invariably the right ones.
Why Listen to The Secret of Golf
Posnanski is one of the best sportswriters working, and this audiobook is a showcase for what makes his writing distinctive: the ability to hold biography, sports reporting, and genuine emotional investment at the same time without any of the three elements compromising the others. Watson’s near-victory at Turnberry as he approached sixty, decades after the original duel, is handled with a restraint that makes it more affecting. Posnanski does not tell you how to feel about it. He just shows you what happened and trusts you to bring your own weight to it.
George Newbern’s narration fits the material. His voice has a quality of quiet authority that suits a story about men whose greatness expressed itself through discipline and endurance rather than flash. He does not perform the tension; he lets it accumulate.
What to Watch For in The Secret of Golf
Listeners who are not already invested in golf history may find some of the tournament detail less engaging than dedicated fans will. Posnanski assumes a certain baseline familiarity with the sport’s culture and context, including the significance of the major championships and the particular texture of links golf at Turnberry. The book rewards that prior knowledge but does not require it to be enjoyed.
One reviewer mentioned finding the book “a little short,” and it is a fair observation. Posnanski has written about Watson and Nicklaus at greater length in other contexts, and there are moments here where you sense a longer book has been edited down. The decision to keep it compact makes it accessible; it also means some secondary figures, including the fathers of both men, who are described as among the book’s most interesting characters, get less space than they might deserve.
Who Should Listen to The Secret of Golf
Golf fans who lived through the Watson-Nicklaus era will find this a rich and often moving account. Listeners new to golf who are drawn to stories about sporting rivalry, male friendship, and what it means to chase greatness across a lifetime will get something from it too. This is not a technical book; it is a human one. Skip it if you want detailed swing analysis or statistical breakdown. Come to it for the story of two men who needed each other more than either probably admitted at the time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do you need to be a golf fan to enjoy The Secret of Golf?
Not strictly, but some familiarity with professional golf will deepen your appreciation. Posnanski explains context clearly enough that newcomers can follow the narrative, but the emotional resonance of the Turnberry rivalry lands harder if you already understand what those majors mean.
Does the book cover Watson’s near-miss at the 2009 British Open, when he almost won the Championship at age 59?
Yes. Posnanski uses Watson’s 2009 Turnberry appearance as a bookend for the whole narrative, connecting it back to the 1977 Duel in the Sun. It is one of the most affecting parts of the audiobook.
Is George Newbern’s narration well-suited to sports reportage and biography?
Yes. Newbern has a measured, grounded delivery that works well for Posnanski’s prose style, which relies on understatement rather than dramatic buildup. He does not oversell the emotional moments.
How does this compare to Posnanski’s longer works like ‘The Baseball 100’ or ‘Paterno’?
It is considerably shorter and more focused. Think of it as a long feature piece rather than a full biography. It has the same quality of writing but operates at a different scale.
