For golf’s true enthusiasts, the game is far more - and far more complex - than a simple hobby, commodity, or slice of the sports industry. It is a physical and mental place to be, a community. It has a history, a hierarchy, laws, a language, and a literature. And in Richard J. Moss, it has a chronicler. 

From its beginnings in the northeastern United States in the 1880s, golf has seen its popularity, and its fortunes, wax and wane, affected by politics and economics, reflecting tensions between aristocratic and democratic impulses. The Kingdom of Golf in America traces these ups and downs, ins and outs, in the growth of golf as a community. Moss describes the development of the private club and public course and the impact of wealth and the consumer culture on those who play golf and those who watch. He shows that factors like race, gender, technology, suburbanization, and the transformation of the South that shaped the nation also shaped golf. The result is a unique and uniquely entertaining work of cultural history that shows us golf as a community whose story resonates far beyond the confines of the course.

The book is published by University of Nebraska Press. The audiobook is published by University Press Audiobooks.

“The best study we have yet of golf’s by turns snobby, democratic, and in any event surprisingly large place in the fabric of American life.” (Orin Starn, author of The Passion of Tiger Woods)

“A richly detailed and brilliantly nuanced account of the game’s social growth in America.” (James Dodson, author of Final Rounds and The Modern Age of Golf)

"Richard J. Moss's own love for the game is infectious." (Wall Street Journal)