East Cottage Press

Once called "The Most Powerful Person in Golf" former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman transformed the Tour into the success story it is today. "Golf's Driving Force" offers an intimate portrait of Beman as Commissioner: his shift from Tour winner to executive of change. In 1974 Beman inherited a Tour that owned as its largest capital asset an IBM typewriter. Over the course of his 20-year tenure Schupak chronicles how Beman transforms a loosely-knit association of tournaments into the envy of the sports world. Using never-before-seen documents and candid interviews with hundreds of players associates and corporate chieftains Schupak details how Beman survives a coup led by Jack Nicklaus and Arnold Palmer got 415 acres for 1 and built TPC Sawgrass home of the most photographed hole in golf and created a business model that turned broadcasting golf from the most expensive to the most profitable for the networks. "Deane Beman has had more influence on professional golf than any man in history" said Jerry Tarde editor-in-chief of Golf Digest. "Among sports commissioners he rates ahead of Landis and Rozelle. They built it; he invented it. If you care about the game you'll want to read this book.