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FOCUS ON JOHN UPDIKE’S PEERLESS GOLF PROSE: RICHARD GILLISmakes a case for the writer many see as the finest chronicler of golf's delusions and delights

WHEN JOHN Updike died in January, the tributes were unanimous: here was one of the greatest, and most prolific writers of the 20th century, someone whose influence was matched only by a very small handful of American literary icons. “He has done more to enrich us than all of Wall Street’s bankers and brokers.” said the writer Peter Conrad, “and his books, unlike the papery profits of the Stock Exchange, will not lose their value.”