Introducing Mike Keiser’s newest book
From golf’s most acclaimed course developer comes a comprehensive, firsthand account of restoring the inherent satisfactions of this centuries-old game.
In The Nature of the Game, Stephen Goodwin and Mike Keiser, authors of Dream Golf, the Making of Bandon Dunes, further explore the phenomenon of dream golf, which has spread far beyond the sandy shores of Oregon. Travel to Cape Breton Island, the sandy pinelands of Wisconsin, and the windswept shores of Tasmania to meet the evangelists who have joined Keiser on his quest to bring a timeless vision of golf to wild lands that unlock the mind and the spirit.
In this book, you’ll be introduced to Keiser’s sons and the business partners, course designers, caddies, and staffers who light their outposts with color and character. Thanks to them, dream golf is more than an idea, more than a place. It is a pursuit that will enrich the lives of generations of golfers for centuries to come.
An avid golfer with a demanding career in the greeting card business, Mike Keiser found a new calling on the authentic links courses of Scotland and Ireland. Seized by the beauty of the landscape and the holes running through it, he determined this was how golf was meant to be: inclusive, not private; played on foot, not riding a cart; the courses natural, neither lavish nor contrived. Vowing to transplant this experience to the States, Keiser left the card business and built a course development firm from the ground up. His first project: Bandon Dunes, a links course on the southern Oregon Coast that has redefined the game in the U.S. and become a destination for golfers everywhere.
Those same convictions have produced other top-ranked courses whose magical allure demonstrates what the world’s most gifted golf course architects can accomplish by working on designs that hew to the natural landscape. Keiser’s further commitments—to the caddies, greens crews, and staff at his resorts; to the communities in which they’re located; and to deep environmental stewardship—enhance the singular appeal of these immensely popular courses.
At once an account of inventing a new, life-changing business, a guide to historic course design, and a paean to the sport that has recently experienced a surge of growth, The Nature of the Game is essential reading for every golfer.