
Playing Lesson
A Duffer's Year Among the Pros
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $18.74
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Bamberger
About this listen
You are cordially invited to join Michael Bamberger on a year-long golfing adventure—playing alongside the pros of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, LIV Golf, and more—as he seeks to unlock golf’s most stubborn secrets in various and surprising ways, all in the name of…improvement!
Nearly fifty years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf—playing, caddying, competing, volunteering, and interviewing—looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum.
In The Playing Lesson: A Duffer’s Year Among the Pros, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve heard about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game. You’ll mooch off the lessons Bamberger takes from instructors, famous and obscure, who teach golf in novel ways. You’ll learn how to buy a better golf game.
Maybe you’ve had club fittings, but not like the one Bamberger experiences in various tour trailers. In a pro-am, Bamberger gets driving tips from one of the tour’s longest hitters, Jake Knapp. He receives a putting lesson from Brad Faxon. He learns how to hit hook wedges from Gary Player. He lives through the intense pain of Rory McIlroy’s misses and rejoices at Lydia Ko’s triumphs. He plays Pebble Beach and Royal Oak, a down-home nine-hole public course in Detroit with perfect greens. He receives an unexpected hug from Greg Norman at a LIV Golf event in Miami, along with the words, “Come on in here, you asshole.” He spends a lot of time at driving ranges, some of it productive.
What Bamberger has done here, when you get right down to it, is create his own tour. The Playing Lesson is a report on a real-life golfing safari, with stops inside the heads of the game’s high priests, his own—and yours.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Men in Green
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One night in a Chicago restaurant, Michael Bamberger draws up a list of golf heroes. Nine are living legends, like Arnold and Jack. Nine are secret legends, like Dolphus "Golf Ball" Hull: a windblown tour caddie from Jackson, Mississippi. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug. Accompanied by a sidekick and friend, a former tour player who is a secret legend himself, Bamberger seeks to locate and get to know these luminaries.
-
-
Great stories, hard to follow
- By DR5901 on 06-02-16
-
To the Linksland (30th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: Michael Bamberger
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Linksland is the captivating memoir of Bamberger’s golfing pilgrimage/extended honeymoon. From an all-night caddie bus on the back roads of southern Europe to Stark’s secret six-hole course in the Scottish Highlands, Bamberger takes you on a journey into the heart of golf. This thirtieth-anniversary edition of Bamberger’s classic, lyrical tale of discovery is bookended with a new introduction by Michael Murphy and a new afterword by Bamberger.
-
-
Why golf?
- By Cyril Muller on 09-20-24
-
The Ball in the Air
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: David Morse
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ball in the Air is reported with Bamberger’s you-are-there intimacy and captures the sweep of time. Pratima finds her way from Nepal to a university golf team in Southern California. Ryan and his father caddie in minor-league events while sleeping in tents, a preamble to Ryan’s becoming the godfather of the popular Monday Qualifier Twitter feed. Sam Reeves, born in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes a cotton king, the oldest amateur to make the cut at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and the ultimate man for all seasons.
-
-
A Game for All, A Book for All
- By Anonymous User on 08-23-23
-
The Art of Winning
- Lessons from My Life in Football
- By: Bill Belichick
- Narrated by: Bill Belichick
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one embodies winning more than Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach of all time. Over the past fifty years, Belichick has been a man of notoriously few words, believing that a coach should keep a low profile. After he left the Patriots in 2024, he briefly became a coach without a team. He spent that year writing down the principles he learned from his father, Navy football, and from his forty-nine-year coaching career. Belichick’s philosophy goes far beyond football.
-
-
Great insight into a life of success
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-25
By: Bill Belichick
-
Calvin Peete
- Golf's Forgotten Star
- By: Gordon Hobson
- Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His story is unprecedented in the world of golf. Born to a family of migrant laborers, Calvin Peete dropped out of school in the eighth grade, went to work picking crops, first swung a golf club at the age of twenty-three-and rose to the top of the PGA. In Calvin Peete: Golf's Forgotten Star, Gordon Hobson tells for the first time Peete's incredible story. Calvin Peete's story is inspiring, but it also reveals the struggles many Black golfers endured even after the Caucasian—only clause was removed from the PGA's bylaws.
-
-
good but many errors
- By Sara K. on 03-03-25
By: Gordon Hobson
-
Rory Land
- The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon
- By: Timothy M. Gay
- Narrated by: Brandon Pollock
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy M. Gay writes that four-time major champion Rory McIlroy is "golf's ageless Opie Taylor," a superstar whose charm transcends national boundaries and enlivens the game. His swing is so powerful that Tiger Woods is teaching his own son to mimic Rory's action. But a charismatic persona and a pretty swing don't translate into winning championships. Rory has failed to win another major and fallen short of achieving the career Grand Slam. Rory Land tells the saga of a compassionate superstar living in a world where "money has no conscience."
By: Timothy M. Gay
-
Men in Green
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One night in a Chicago restaurant, Michael Bamberger draws up a list of golf heroes. Nine are living legends, like Arnold and Jack. Nine are secret legends, like Dolphus "Golf Ball" Hull: a windblown tour caddie from Jackson, Mississippi. What they all share is a game that courses through their collective veins like a drug. Accompanied by a sidekick and friend, a former tour player who is a secret legend himself, Bamberger seeks to locate and get to know these luminaries.
-
-
Great stories, hard to follow
- By DR5901 on 06-02-16
-
To the Linksland (30th Anniversary Edition)
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: Michael Bamberger
- Length: 7 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To the Linksland is the captivating memoir of Bamberger’s golfing pilgrimage/extended honeymoon. From an all-night caddie bus on the back roads of southern Europe to Stark’s secret six-hole course in the Scottish Highlands, Bamberger takes you on a journey into the heart of golf. This thirtieth-anniversary edition of Bamberger’s classic, lyrical tale of discovery is bookended with a new introduction by Michael Murphy and a new afterword by Bamberger.
-
-
Why golf?
- By Cyril Muller on 09-20-24
-
The Ball in the Air
- By: Michael Bamberger
- Narrated by: David Morse
- Length: 9 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Ball in the Air is reported with Bamberger’s you-are-there intimacy and captures the sweep of time. Pratima finds her way from Nepal to a university golf team in Southern California. Ryan and his father caddie in minor-league events while sleeping in tents, a preamble to Ryan’s becoming the godfather of the popular Monday Qualifier Twitter feed. Sam Reeves, born in rural Georgia during the Depression, becomes a cotton king, the oldest amateur to make the cut at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, and the ultimate man for all seasons.
-
-
A Game for All, A Book for All
- By Anonymous User on 08-23-23
-
The Art of Winning
- Lessons from My Life in Football
- By: Bill Belichick
- Narrated by: Bill Belichick
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No one embodies winning more than Bill Belichick, the greatest football coach of all time. Over the past fifty years, Belichick has been a man of notoriously few words, believing that a coach should keep a low profile. After he left the Patriots in 2024, he briefly became a coach without a team. He spent that year writing down the principles he learned from his father, Navy football, and from his forty-nine-year coaching career. Belichick’s philosophy goes far beyond football.
-
-
Great insight into a life of success
- By Amazon Customer on 06-17-25
By: Bill Belichick
-
Calvin Peete
- Golf's Forgotten Star
- By: Gordon Hobson
- Narrated by: Jaime Lincoln Smith
- Length: 4 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His story is unprecedented in the world of golf. Born to a family of migrant laborers, Calvin Peete dropped out of school in the eighth grade, went to work picking crops, first swung a golf club at the age of twenty-three-and rose to the top of the PGA. In Calvin Peete: Golf's Forgotten Star, Gordon Hobson tells for the first time Peete's incredible story. Calvin Peete's story is inspiring, but it also reveals the struggles many Black golfers endured even after the Caucasian—only clause was removed from the PGA's bylaws.
-
-
good but many errors
- By Sara K. on 03-03-25
By: Gordon Hobson
-
Rory Land
- The Up-and-Down World of Golf's Global Icon
- By: Timothy M. Gay
- Narrated by: Brandon Pollock
- Length: 13 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Timothy M. Gay writes that four-time major champion Rory McIlroy is "golf's ageless Opie Taylor," a superstar whose charm transcends national boundaries and enlivens the game. His swing is so powerful that Tiger Woods is teaching his own son to mimic Rory's action. But a charismatic persona and a pretty swing don't translate into winning championships. Rory has failed to win another major and fallen short of achieving the career Grand Slam. Rory Land tells the saga of a compassionate superstar living in a world where "money has no conscience."
By: Timothy M. Gay
-
Big Dumb Eyes
- Stories from a Simpler Mind
- By: Nate Bargatze
- Narrated by: Nate Bargatze
- Length: 6 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nate Bargatze used to be a genius. That is, until the summer after seventh grade when he slipped, fell off a cliff, hit his head on a rock, and “my skull got, like, dented or something.” Before this accident, he dreamed of being “an electric engineer, or a doctor that does brain stuff, or a math teacher who teaches the hardest math on earth.” Afterwards, all he could do was stand-up comedy.* But the “brain stuff” industry’s loss is everyone else’s gain because Nate went on to become one of today’s top-grossing comedians, breaking both attendance and streaming records.
-
-
Nate's Vandy is my Chicago Bears- I feel ya Nate
- By Amazon Customer on 05-14-25
By: Nate Bargatze
-
How Champions Think
- In Sports and in Life
- By: Dr. Bob Rotella
- Narrated by: Dr. Bob Rotella
- Length: 8 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From best-selling author Bob Rotella, America's preeminent sports psychologist, a groundbreaking guide to success in all aspects of life - not just sports - from business to relationships to personal challenges of every variety.
-
-
A good purchase.
- By H. Peterson on 04-24-19
By: Dr. Bob Rotella
-
Dream Golf
- The Making of Bandon Dunes: Revised and Expanded
- By: Stephen Goodwin
- Narrated by: Dan Calley
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a wild, windblown bluff high above the Pacific sits one of America's premier golfing destinations, Bandon Dunes. Golf enthusiast Mike Keiser had the dream of building this British-style "links" course on a stretch of Oregon's rugged coast, and Dream Golf is the first all-inclusive account of how he turned his passion into a reality.
-
-
A walk through golf Heaven
- By A.D. on 12-06-23
By: Stephen Goodwin
-
Source Code
- My Beginnings
- By: Bill Gates
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton, Bill Gates
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Everyone is programmed a little differently, and Bill Gates' unique insight led to business triumphs that are now widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education.
-
-
Horrible narrator
- By purchaser on 02-10-25
By: Bill Gates
-
Who Knew
- By: Barry Diller
- Narrated by: Barry Diller
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Writing in his own singular voice, Barry Diller delivers both an astute and entertaining business memoir and a surprisingly frank coming-of-age story. After starting his career in the mailroom of the William Morris Agency, Diller went on to have one of the most extraordinary ascents in show business history, inventing the TV Movie of the Week for ABC at age twenty-seven, becoming CEO of Paramount Pictures at age thirty-two, and launching the Fox TV network at age forty-four.
-
-
What an amazing book!
- By Barbara W. on 06-10-25
By: Barry Diller
-
Rainmaker
- Superagent Hughes Norton and the Money Grab Explosion of Golf from Tiger to LIV and Beyond
- By: Hughes Norton, George Peper
- Narrated by: Hughes Norton
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When twenty-one-year-old Tiger Woods stunned the world by winning The Masters by a mind-blowing twelve strokes, the first thing he did was embrace the three most important people in his life: his father, his mother, and Hughes Norton. Now, in Rainmaker, Norton offers “the most amazing ‘behind the curtain’ view ever written about the world of sports management” (Jim Nantz, CBS Sports). This is an engaging and unforgettable memoir that explores golf as never before.
-
-
Voice was not made for audio book.
- By Brian Benko on 06-02-25
By: Hughes Norton, and others