Golf in Muskoka

Muskoka, home to more than thirty golf courses, for the weekend hacker to the professional golfer, from fully public to ultra-private is a golf-holiday destination Scattered throughout Muskoka, golfers can find championship courses designed by some of the world's best golf course architects, including Nick Faldo (The Rock), and Robert Cupp (Deerhurst Highlands).

In Back Spin the fourth novel from Harlan Coben's award-winning Myron Bolitar series, Coben proves again why he is one of today's must-read suspense authors. This time the sports agent and sometime sleuth probes the mystery of a teenager's disappearance and finds a family whose darkest secrets explode into murder. The boy was born and raised on the tony Main Line. But he vanished on Philadelphia's mean streets. For Myron Bolitar, his client, golf superstar Linda Coldren, comes first - and that means unraveling the mystery of her son's kidnapping. But when Myron goes after the missing boy, he crashes through a crowd of lowlifes, blue bloods, and liars on both sides of the social divide. And as Linda's golf-pro husband suddenly makes a run at the U.S. Open championship, the family's skeletons burst out of the closet. Myron is about to find out just how deadly this game can get. In an ingenious thriller that crackles with wit and suspense, whose characters all but leap alive from the page,

Golf My Own Damn Way : A Real Guy's Guide to Chopping Ten Strokes Off Your Score by John Daly who approaches the game of golf from a slightly different perspective than your average two-time major winner. "How different? Well, for starters, Long John thinks the PGA Tour ought to permit Bermuda shorts, make carts mandatory, let him wear his hair down to his butt if he wants to, and strip-search tournament patrons at the entrance gate to keep cameras and cell phones off the course." Not your typical golf instruction manual, Daly’s take on how to improve your game of golf, will sure to have you laughing out loud as he gives solid, practical ideas to cure ‘bunkerphobia’, advice as to why you should occasionally leave your big dog in your trunk, the best way to ‘grip it so you can rip it’, how to watch your weight, and what golf and sex have in common. Daly also tells you why you should keep your head out of the game, let your belly lead your hands, listen to your right foot, check your ball position - and buy a hybrid. Still hankering for more of the Big Guy? John Daly’s autobiography My Life In and Out Of The Rough : The Truth Behind All That Bull**** You Think You Know About Me gives a rip-roaring account of his roller-coaster life and career. Daly's play-it-as-it-lies approach drives his candid memoir.

Featuring an eight-page photo insert, and written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Don Van Natta, Jr., Wonder Girl is the extraordinary story of a nearly forgotten American superstar athlete. Born in Texas in 1911, Babe Didrikson Zaharias won Olympic gold in track and field, could throw a nasty curveball, achieved all-American status in basketball, was an expert diver, played billiards like a shark and won more consecutive golf tournaments than any player in history. Even in an era that frowned on women’s sports, she was celebrated as a true superstar. At the height of her fame, she was diagnosed with cancer. Babe would then take her most daring step of all: go public and try to win again with the hope of inspiring the world.

His ability made him a star but it was his passion that made him a legend. Robert "Bobby" Tyre Jones Jr. was perhaps the most naturally gifted golfer in the history of the game. Battling a disabling illness and a volcanic temper Jones struggled through a succession of early defeats to reach the pinnacle of his sport - becoming at age 28 the only man ever to win the coveted Grand Slam of golf (four top tournaments in less than four months) in 1930--as a passionately committed golfer who silently endured chronic pain (a spinal disorder prompted his early retirement at age 28), stomach ailments, emotional torment, and borderline alcoholism while maintaining amateur status in the sport he so magnificently dominated. But it was his devotion to his wife Mary that led to the astounding announcement that shocked the world in this inspirational true story of one of sport's greatest icons. Jim Caviezel plays the leading role in, Bobby Jones, Stroke of Genius, with a supporting cast of Jeremy Northam, Walter Hagen, Malcolm McDowell, and Claire Forlani.

Perhaps you can’t find anything funny about your golfing abilities but many authors have used golf and humour as the basis for their novels. A Match Made in Heaven by Bob Mitchell falls in this category. Elliott Goodman, having just suffered a serious heart attack, receives a visit from God in the emergency room. Asking him why he deserves to live, God decides to offer Elliott a chance at salvation by playing a golf game against opponents such as Shakespeare, Socrates, Freud, and Picasso.

Missing Links by Rick Reilly is the story of four middle class buddies who live outside of Boston and for years have been utterly obsessed with golf and a regular foursome at Ponkaquoque Municipal Course, and Deli, the single worst golf course in the US. Just adjacent to these municipal links lies the Mayflower Country Club, the most exclusive private course in all of Boston and a major needle in their collective sides. Frustrated by the Mayflower's finely manicured greens and snooty members, they set up a bet: $1,000.00 apiece, and the first man to somehow finagle his way on to the Mayflower course takes all. Shanks for Nothing is Reilly’s madcap sequel and little has changed at the Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Club. Both Missing Links and Shanks for Nothing are tremendously funny and fun-spirited novels about the smaller pleasures in life and enjoyable reads for anyone who is even remotely in love with the game of golf.

Free golf workshop on August 4 at 6:30 Golf: The tools of the trade in your golf bag and how to use them with CPGA Pro Douglas M. Reid. Pre-registration preferred. Ages 14+ Bring your own golf bag. 705-765-5650

Rock the library! Introduce yourself to the latest fitness craze with personal trainer/kinesiologist Chelsey Peatling on August 4. Zumba combines Latin and International music with a fun and effective workout system. This introduction to Zumba is for participants 10+ and will be held after hours at the upper level of the library. FREE but space is limited so please pre-register.

Yoga in a Muskoka Chair with Sue Brown August 16, 11am . Introduce yourself to the gentle ancient art of yoga. FREE but space is limited so please pre-register.

Have you checked out the fundraising Silent Auction yet? The bidding closes on August 18, the 10th anniversary celebration day of the opening of the Norma and Miller Alloway Muskoka Lakes Library.