Anytime a book will try to list the greatest athletes or teams in any sport, it will generate debate by readers. Many will disagree with the author and many will argue amongst themselves about who should be ranked where. This book by Michael Arkush, an accomplished golf writer, is one of the better ones that takes on this task.

What I like best about this book is that Arkush bases his rankings and opinions on how each golfer fared against their competitors during their era and their gender. He didn’t try to compare Tiger Woods against Bobby Jones or Anika Sorenstam against Babe Diedrikson. If the golfer was great during their time and won major tournaments (this was Arkush’s main measuring stick) they would make these rankings.

Why he used this logic in grading these legendary golfers was best said by one of the all time greats, Bobby Jones: “I think we must agree that all a man can do is beat the people who are around at the same time he is. He cannot win from those who came before any more than he can from those who may come afterward.”

Of course, this book would not be as good as it was without the excellent stories told about each golfer. Whether it was about Old Tom Morris and the early days of the sport, Mickey Wright’s swing that many consider to be the most pure one ever, or some of the biggest errors of judgement made that cost some of these great players even more major victories. Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson both rank fairly high on this list but Arkush would often refer to their bad moments, especially Norman. He also would mention when he felt golfers actually were underachieving despite all the wins they racked up.

Even with these criticisms of golfers, this was one of the best books on ranking athletes I have read. Between the avoidance of comparing different eras, the excellent stories on eac one and the conversational style of the writing, it is one that is recommended for any golf reader.

I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are strictly my own.

Ranking the top 100 performers in any sport seems to be a popular book form right now. I've gone through versions for baseball and football, and been entertained. Basketball is in my Kindle and standing by the scorer's table, waiting to check into the game. But first, there's the matter of golf.

The first two spots in golf's historical rankings are relatively easy. We know that Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods probably rank at the top of anyone's list. It's just a matter of what you value in a career. If you consider the longest great career, Nicklaus is the clear winner. But if it's the "pick one player for a winner-take-all match between Earth and Mars," Woods in his prime would be a worthy choice.

It's the other 98 spots on the list that are the problem. Happily, Michael Arkush is up to the challenge. He's taken the time (a considerable amount, I should mention) to rank the best ever from 1 to 100. It's all included in his very readable book, "The Golf 100."

There are two surprises that come up right off the bat. Arkush's list includes the best 100 golfers of any type. In other words, there are several women on the list. That's less of a problem that you might think. Arkush is comparing accomplishments on the golf course here, and not how everyone would do in a tournament at the local country club. That makes some sense when you consider that a male player who was winning championships 110 years ago couldn't come close to today's pros, but he did the best he could (which was really good) under the circumstances. So it works out well to put everyone under the same brightly colored golf umbrella. By the way, Mickey Wright is the only woman to crack the top 10.

The other is in the introduction, as Arkush comes up with a point system to try to rank all of the players. Players pile up the points by winning major championships in any competition, with a few consolation points handed out for near-misses. Yearly titles (player of the year awards, most wins, etc.) also count. The author adds some bonus points for certain circumstances, which actually makes a lot of sense.

From there, Arkush forgets all about the points more or less. That's fine. Get to the good parts as soon as possible. So we are off on a journey that starts with No. 100, John McDermott. The story immediately became a little personal for me.

I knew very little about John McDermott, except for the fact that he won the United States Open in Buffalo in 1912. The course is literally a left turn, a left turn and a right turn from my house. - a few miles at most. McDermott made it two Opens in a row on that course, which is rare air, and he was the first to finish the tournament under par. A few years later, McDermott suffered a nervous breakdown, and never really recovered. His life went downhill, and he never competed with golf's best in the pros.

But there's one nice story that Arkush tells about the 1971 United States Open near Philadelphia. McDermott, looking less than well dressed, was essentially kicked out of the clubhouse when Arnold Palmer happened to be walking by. Palmer welcomed him and had a good initial chat with the former champion. Then he made McDermott his special guest for the week, making sure he had full clubhouse privileges. It's another reason to love Arnie.

I suppose you could argue about where a particular player should rank. But as with all of these books, it usually doesn't matter much if someone is No. 48 (Ben Crenshaw) or No. 47 (Johnny Miller). You want to hear about each player and why they are so good, and Arkush usually delivers. You'll learn a bit about all of the players.

My favorites in the group might be the "what ifs?" of golf history. We can probably say in looking back that Phil Mickelson would have been rated higher if he hadn't played in the Woods Era - and hadn't let a few majors get away. We also can also wonder where Nancy Lopez and Sam Snead might have ranked had they put a few U.S. Open trophies in their den.

It's tough to say how this will go over with anyone who doesn't have a good sense of golf history. But Arkush certainly put in the work to make "Golf 100" work well for those who qualify. As they say on the course, it's well played.