Top golf landscape artist and top golf writer combine talents to produce a glorious visual book about the places we worship in the game of golf. Here are the green "cathedrals," sublime arenas of the sport, courses where giants have walked and stars have been born. Hallowed Ground is divided into three sections: "U.S. Championship Courses," "The Beautiful Golf" (the eight courses of the British Rotation), and in a stunning section of its own, "The Augusta National Golf Club." Renowned golf writer Jaime Diaz brings to this book his encyclopedic knowledge of the sport, the courses and the players, with wit and wisdom. Combined with Linda Hartough's lush and meticulously researched landscapes, Hallowed Ground is the most unique golf book published in years.
Linda Hartough was born in New Jersey and raised in Delaware. Although her father was an avid golfer, Linda had absolutely no idea what fate had in store for her art career. After attending the University of Louisville and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Linda started selling her paintings (with non-golf themes) at art fairs in the Chicago area. She soon moved to the South Carolina area and took commissions to paint portraits, landscapes and horses. She entered into golf landscape painting with a commission from Augusta National to paint the 13th hole. Hartough was able to approach golf landscapes with an understanding but objective eye. She instinctively knew that each work had to be more than a view of a golf course; it also had to work as a landscape painting. Her success in the genre has been extraordinary. Both the United States Golf Association and the Championship Committee of the Royal Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews chose Linda for ongoing commissions; she creates the official course paintings that are exhibited at the U.S. and British Opens. Five of her paintings were included in The Most Dramatic Holes in Golf, an ABC-TV special hosted by Jack Nicklaus and Jack Whitaker. Perhaps the highest accolade for her work came from renowned golf course designer Robert Trent Jones Sr. When asked what one thing he would save from a fire, he chose Hartoughs painting of the 16th hole at the Hazeltine National Golf Course.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jaime Diaz has been writing for the Golf Plus section since it was started in 1993. His previously spent seven years covering all sports for
Sports Illustrated and four as the golf writer for
The New York Times. Diaz attended the University of San Francisco, where he was a member of four poor to very bad golf teams. He currently holds a 4 handicap that he can't play to at Bear Creek Golf Club outside Temecula, Calif., where he and his wife, Stephanie, live with two dogs and two horses.
A regular contributor to CNNSI.com, Diaz has won several awards for his work from the Golf Writers Association of America. He is the author of three books: Hallowed Ground (with artist Linda Hartough), The Elements of Scoring (with Raymond Floyd), and The World Golf Hall of Fame (with Tim Rosaforte).
Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), also known as "The Golden Bear", is one of the most successful professional golfers of all time. Nicklaus currently holds the record for the most victories in major championships. After winning two U.S. Amateur Championships in 1959 and 1961, and challenging for the 1960 U.S. Open, Nicklaus turned professional towards the end of 1961.
The 1962 U.S. Open was both Nicklaus's first major championship win, and his first professional win. This win over Arnold Palmer began the on-course rivalry between the two. In 1966, Nicklaus won the Masters Tournament for the second year in a row, becoming the first golfer to achieve this, and also won the Open Championship, completing his career slam of major championships. After failing to win a major for two years, Nicklaus won another Open Championship in 1970.
Between 1971 and 1980, he would win a further nine major championships, as well as overtaking Bobby Jones's record of 13 major championships. At the age of 46, Nicklaus claimed his 18th and last major championship at the 1986 Masters Tournament, becoming the oldest major championship winner.
Nicklaus joined the Senior PGA Tour (now known as the Champions Tour) in 1990, when he became eligible, and by 1996 had won ten of the tour's tournaments, including eight of that tour's majors. He continued to play the four PGA Tour majors until 2005, when he made his final appearances at The Open Championship and the Masters Tournament.
Nicklaus has also taken part in many off-course activities, including golf course design, book writing, and running his own tournament on the PGA Tour, the Memorial Tournament. His golf course design company is one of the largest in the world. Nicklaus's book writing varies from instructional to autobiographical, and his book Golf My Way is considered one of the best instructional golf books of all time.
