The Unconquerable Game: My Life in Golf and Business

Golf club manufacturer Callaway, who died in 2001 at age 82, reflects on his career in this solid memoir. His father introduced him to golf at age 11, hoping the game’s solitary nature would instill self-reliance. After graduating from Emory University in 1940, he joined the Army Reserve Corps and was assigned to the Philadelphia Quartermaster Depot. He learned the ins and outs of making apparel there and parlayed that knowledge into a career at the textiles company Burlington Industries, rising to the position of president in 1968 before exiting amid tensions with the CEO in 1973. His substantial severance package allowed him to open a vineyard and winery later that year. In 1982, he came across a wedge with a hickory shaft that impressed him so much he bought the manufacturer and renamed it after himself. The granular discussions of the legal maneuverings behind Callaway’s ouster from Burlington and the grape-growing techniques at his winery are a bit dull, but golf lovers will appreciate the detailed chronicle of the Callaway Golf Company’s development of their signature Big Bertha driver, which entailed lots of tinkering with materials and design elements in an effort to develop a club that would “significantly improve the average golfer’s chances of hitting a good shot.” It’s a competent account of an entrepreneurial life. Photos. Agent: Andrew Wylie, Wylie Agency. (Mar.)