The Ambassador: Alexander Findlay and Pioneer Golf in America
£27.00
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Ambassador is the first book-length study of Alexander Findlay’s life and his contributions to the game of golf. Findlay was the best golfer in New England, one of the best in the U.S, the most prolific and important golf course designer on the east coast in the early years of American golf, and the most well-regarded representative of the game in America. He played exhibition matches and tournaments in front of hundreds of thousands, helped establish over 100 separate golf clubs, was the first man who hit a golf ball on film, met with the Pope about establishing a golf course in the Vatican, and built golf holes in the shadows of the pyramids in Egypt. Even today, tens of thousands of Americans play golf on courses that were designed by Findlay. For the American golfer, he was a teacher and a mentor during the fragile, early years of the game in the country.
Despite his early fame and his enduring significance, there is no existing biography of Alex Findlay. His story has never been fully told. As a result, he is a footnote in the histories of American golf that are regularly published. The Ambassador is an attempt to fix that mistake. For the dozens of active golf clubs that claim an Alexander Findlay heritage, it is an attempt to tell part of their story while endeavoring to tell part of the pre-USGA
history of golf in America. It is the story of a man who lived an extraordinary life—the humble salesman who, in his time, came to meet and know Queen Victoria, Chief Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill Cody, Harry Vardon and every other great golfer of the age, six U.S. presidents, and all the Gilded Age titans of industry. He lived a life worth living.
ADVANCED PRAISE FOR The Ambassador: Alexander Findlay and Pioneer Golf in America
“Casto dives deeply into all of this and more in this exhaustively researched and lucidly written biography—a long overdue book that rightfully places Findlay on a pedestal as the true father of American golf. He dives particularly deeply into Findlay’s work in golf course architecture, his studies of classic courses abroad, and the contributions he made to what is now known as the Golden Age of Golf Course Design. Anyone who reads this book will come away, as Casto clearly did from his research, with a burning question: When it came time to tell the story of golf, how could it be that Findlay was overlooked?" —STEPHEN PROCTOR, from his Foreword
"A lot of people have led interesting golf lives, but Alexander Findlay's might top them all. This thoroughly researched story beautifully depicts an absolute force of golf's golden age, too often overlooked. Golf is indebted to Findlay, and a book like this is a fine thank you to a figure who deserves one." —TOM COYNE, New York Times-bestselling author, senior editor of The Golfer's Journal
"Bill Casto’s depth of the research, which he conducted over five long years, is astounding: he poured over archives, scoured historical documents, unearthed photographs and correspondence, walked existing and no-longer-existing courses, compiled a thorough timeline, and talked to golf historians and experts across the country and abroad. He even visited Montrose, Scotland, where Alex learned the game, allowing Bill to envision young Alex’s life. How Bill translated that extensive research onto the page, is amazing.
After reading Casto’s book, again and again, I now realize that I never knew the full extent of my grandfather’s contributions to American golf. This book brings it all together: not just for me and my family, but for the entire golf world. When I think of great writers these days, there are few who stand out above the rest, and Bill is one of them. He has worked tirelessly to revise, correct, and expand the history of American golf. I now feel like my grandfather has been returned to his rightful place in the story of the game." —RICHARD B. FINDLAY, from his Afterword
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
WILLIAM J. CASTO lives in the Philadelphia suburbs with his wife, Danielle and daughter Penelope. He earned a PhD in English from the State University of New York at Albany. He currently works in IT and studies golf history in his spare time. He plays the game and serves as the club historian at the Alexander Findlay-designed Coatesville Country Club.
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