I was at my local Waterstones store lately during lunchtime. It was a Friday and I was about to leave London for my weekend break in the evening. And I passed the book shelves that say SPORTS and usually you see lots of Arsenal London, Chealsea or Manchester United books in there, possibly next to books about cricket, horse riding and gardening – oops that was the next section!

Anyway, there were a couple of golf books too, as you could imagine for a nation that claims to be the inventor of this beautiful sport. At least if you take the UK as one nation, which is often not the case in people’s minds. There were many books for golf beginners, that I wasn’t interested in, how to swing, how to stand, how to grip, this kind of stuff; boring. Next to that there were some books that focussed on the mental part of the game, “playing better through thinking better”, something like this. Titles like “The 15th Club”, “Inner Game of Golf”, “Fearless Golf”, “Find the Zone”… No need for that! My brain works perfectly fine and I don’t need physiological advice!

What I am interested in is how people really achieved to get better, about professional play and true stories of golf. I found one great little book and started reading in the tube on my way to the airport. I continued reading it on the plane (no need to switch off the iPad during start and landing!) and finished the last page of the book in Frankfurt at the baggage claim. That was a quick one! But definitely worth a read.

The name of the book is “Breaking 80” by David Godwin and the blurb reads like this: “Forget the Ryder Cup, forget Rory McIlroy, forget keeping your head still and correcting your putting stance. Forget eagles and albatrosses and definitely forget holes-in-one. David Godwin has a dream, the same dream held by millions of amateur golfers. He’s not aiming to break on to the pro circuit, he’s not aiming to break par. David Godwin is going to break 80. Or it’s going to break him.”

I couldn’t resist and bought it. The narrator is a fairly old gentleman who starts playing golf and his obvious wish is to play better and to control the game, breaking 80 (which I never did so far by the way). It’s a nice little story, very personal, very much focussed on golf, so perfect for a little read to stay in the mood.