Herbert Warren Wind (August 11, 1916 – May 30, 2005) was an American sportswriter noted for his writings on

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

Early years

Born in

Brockton, Massachusetts Brockton is a city in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States; the population is 105,643 as of the 2020 United States Census. Along with Plymouth, Massachusetts, Plymouth, it is one of the two county seats of ...

, Wind began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played whenever he could. He graduated from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

, where he contributed to campus humor magazine ''

The Yale Record ''The Yale Record'' is the campus humor magazine of Yale University. Founded in 1872, it became the oldest humor magazine in the world when ''Punch'' folded in 2002."History", The Yale Record, March 10, 2010. http://www.yalerecord.com/about/histo ...

''. He earned a master's degree in

English Literature English literature is literature written in the English language from United Kingdom, its crown dependencies, the Republic of Ireland, the United States, and the countries of the former British Empire. ''The Encyclopaedia Britannica'' defines E ...

from the

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

. At Cambridge, Wind became friends with the noted British golf writer

Bernard Darwin Bernard Richard Meirion Darwin CBE JP (7 September 1876 − 18 October 1961) a grandson of the British naturalist Charles Darwin, was a golf writer and high-standard amateur golfer. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. Biography ...

, a grandson of evolutionist

Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended fr ...

. Wind was a low handicapper who played golf well enough to compete in the 1950

British Amateur Championship The Amateur Championship (sometimes referred to as the British Amateur or British Amateur Championship outside the UK) is a golf tournament which has been held annually in the United Kingdom since 1885 except during the two World Wars, and in 19 ...

, and maintained a lifelong interest in the sport.

Life and career

Wind began writing for ''

The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...

'' in 1941, covered golf and sometimes other sports for that weekly magazine from 1947 until 1953, and again from 1960 until his retirement in 1990. From 1954 to 1960, he covered golf and sometimes other sports for ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' magazine. Although associated with golf, Wind wrote articles on a wide range of sports including tennis, basketball, and football. In 1958, Wind coined the phrase 'Amen Corner' to describe the second shot at the 11th, all of the 12th, and the tee shot at the 13th hole at the

Augusta National Golf Club Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does n ...

, site of the annual

Masters Tournament The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first maj ...

. That nickname, which is derived from a 1935 song that Wind had heard while a student at

Yale Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...

, "Shoutin' in that Amen Corner" written by Andy Razaf, which was recorded by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, vocal by Mildred Bailey (Brunswick label No. 6655). Wind covered more than 30 Masters tournaments. His first book wa
''The Story of American Golf''
which first appeared in 1948, and was updated and re-issued twice, the most recent in 1975. This book was the most comprehensive history of American golf to that juncture. Along with

Ben Hogan William Ben Hogan (August 13, 1912 – July 25, 1997) was an American professional golfer who is generally considered to be one of the greatest players in the history of the game. He is notable for his profound influence on golf swing theory and ...

, Wind co-authored ''Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf'' in 1957. This book has become one of the all-time classics of golf instruction, and has been re-issued many times. He was a co-author of the 1976 book ''The World Atlas of Golf'', a popular survey of the world's top golf courses, which has been re-issued since in several revised editions. In 1983, with the help of Robert Macdonald, Herbert Warren Wind co-founded and curated th
Classics of Golf Library
��a collection of the world's greatest golf literature. Under the guidance of Wind, the Classics of Golf Library was created to preserve and make available the works of the leading authors of early and modern golf literature. Wind and Macdonald reprinted these classic golf books and added Forewords and Afterwords to provide insight and perspective to the great literary works.
Sixty-nine books
make up the Classics of Golf Library today, which is featured in th
USGA Museum
In 1992, the

PGA of America The Professional Golfers' Association of America (PGA of America) is an American organization of golf professionals that was founded in 1916. Consisting of nearly 29,000 men and women members, the PGA of America's undertaking is to establish ...

honored Wind with its lifetime achievement award. The

United States Golf Association The United States Golf Association (USGA) is the United States national association of golf courses, clubs and facilities and the governing body of golf for the U.S. and Mexico. Together with The R&A, the USGA produces and interprets the rules ...

presented Wind with the Bob Jones Award, its highest award, in 1995, the centennial of the USGA. He is the only writer to receive the award. In 2006, the United States Golf Association renamed its annual Book Award in his honor. Wind was elected to the

World Golf Hall of Fame The World Golf Hall of Fame is located at World Golf Village near St. Augustine, Florida, in the United States, and it is unusual among sports halls of fame in that a single site honors both men and women. It is supported by a consortium of 26 go ...

in 2008 in the Lifetime Achievement category.Career female amateur joins World Golf Hall of Fame
Wind died in Bedford, Massachusetts at age 88.

Selected books

Wind wrote or edited a number of books in addition to his numerous articles for magazines. His ''The Story of American Golf'' is considered a seminal work on the subject. *''The Complete Golfer'', by Herbert Warren Wind, New York,

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, 1954. *''Game, Set, and Match: the Tennis Boom of the 1960s and 70s'', by Herbert Warren Wind, New York, E.P. Dutton, 1979, . *''The Gilded Age of Sport'' *''Great Stories from the World of Sport'', co-editor with

Peter Schwed Peter Schwed (1911–2003) was an American editor and the editorial chairman and a trade book publisher for Simon & Schuster. Among the authors he edited were P.G. Wodehouse, Irving Wallace, Harold Robbins, David McCullough and Cornelius Ryan. S ...

*''The Greatest Game of All'' with

Jack Nicklaus Jack William Nicklaus (born January 21, 1940), nicknamed The Golden Bear, is a retired American professional golfer and List of golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus, golf course designer. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest go ...

*''Herbert Warren Wind's Golf Book'', by Herbert Warren Wind, New York,

, 1971, . *''Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf'', by

and Herbert Warren Wind, 1957, . *''On the Tour with Harry Sprague: Letters of a Golf Pro to His Sponsor, with an introduction by

Jimmy Demaret James Newton Demaret (May 24, 1910 – December 28, 1983) was an American professional golfer. He won 31 PGA Tour events in a long career between 1935 and 1957, and was the first three-time winner of the Masters, with titles in 1940, 1947, and ...

'', New York, Simon and Schuster, 1960. *''Playing Through'' *''The Realm of Sport'', editor *''The Story of American Golf'', by Herbert Warren Wind, Classics of Golf, 1948 (1st ed.) and 1975 (3rd ed.), . *''Thirty Years of Championship Golf'' with

Gene Sarazen Gene Sarazen (; born Eugenio Saraceni, February 27, 1902 – May 13, 1999) was an American professional golfer, one of the world's top players in the 1920s and 1930s, and the winner of seven major championships. He is one of five players (along ...

*''Tips from the Top'', editor *''Following Through'', by Herbert Warren Wind, New York, Ticknor & Fields, 1985, . *''The Encyclopedia of Golf'', by Donald Steel and Peter Ryde American Advisory Editor: Herbert Warren Wind, New York, The Viking Press New York, 1975, . *''The World of

P.G. Wodehouse Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, ( ; 15 October 188114 February 1975) was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the 20th century. His creations include the feather-brained Bertie Wooster and his sagacious valet, Jee ...

'', by Herbert Warren Wind, Praeger, 1972, .

Articles

* *

References

External links

Warren Wind papers (MS 1823). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wind, Herbert Warren 20th-century American historians American male non-fiction writers Alumni of the University of Cambridge American male golfers Golf writers and broadcasters Golfers from Massachusetts Historians from Massachusetts Historians from New York (state) Sportswriters from Massachusetts Sportswriters from New York (state) Tennis writers The New Yorker people World Golf Hall of Fame inductees Writers from Brockton, Massachusetts Writers from New York City Yale University alumni 1916 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American male writers