Walter Iooss is one of the most celebrated sports photographers in history.  As their senior sports photographer he has contributed over 300 Sports Illustrated covers to the magazine over his illustrious 40 year career.

This book is a compilation of over 200 black and white and color images that catalog the personalities of the greatest players in golf in the modern era.  In an arena where shutter clicks are verboten during a player’s swing, Iooss somehow stealthly captured the swings of the greatest players in the game in full action.

Hogan, Palmer, Venturi, Chi-Chi, Nicklaus, Trevino, Watson, Miller, Crenshaw, and Tiger-they are all here and so many more.  The common denominator is images of players-their swings, their personas, their unfiltered emotions.  In these photos Iooss captures the drama of the moment as well as the nature of the man in the heat of competition.   With his personal collection, Iooss should have his own room in the USGA museum in Far Hills, New Jersey.

Arnie and Jack   Ligonier, Pa 1965   (walteriooss.com)

As you look through this book you cannot help but shake your head, time and time again, saying to yourself, “I remember that picture, I remember that look”.  It is like a personal bit of time travel for those of us who have religiously followed the game for so long.

Dan Jenkins said, “In this splendid book, Walter Iooss makes the sport of golf look as colorful and thrilling as it actually was in the second half of the twentieth century”.

If you can find this book you should add it to the stack under the coffee table in your family room.  You will find yourself picking it up regularly for another joyous walk down memory lane.

(Click here to review Walter Iooss’s Golf Portfolio on walteriooss.com)

Classic Golf-The Photographs of Walter Iooss Jr.

Walter Iooss (2004)