Palm Beach Par 3 to host signing for new book featuring golf's greatest players

Ann Liguori is an award-winning journalist who has covered golf for the past 25 years and interviewed the iconic athletes of the past half-century from all sports.

When she decided to write a book about what now is her passion, golf, her purpose was to relay inspirational life lessons from the game's greats.

"I wanted it to have very uplifting messages because golf needs that," she said. "It is sad to see how much turmoil there's been in the golf world the last couple of years with LIV Golf, all the confrontation, LIV stealing all these players and then the PGA Tour doing a 180. "

Liguori's book, "Life on the Green: Lessons and Wisdom from the Legends of Golf," includes insights from 12 Hall of Famers, six women and six men, including locals Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player and Bernhard Langer.

Liguori will be signing books from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Palm Beach Par 3 golf course in Palm Beach. Published by Hatherleigh Press, the book will be released on April 2 and is available online.

"You will be inspired by the life lessons that the greatest names in golf share — wisdom that we all can embrace for a lifetime of success and happiness," CBS Sports' Jim Nantz wrote in the foreword.

Liguori is the first female to host her own call-in sports talk show on the first all-sports radio station, WFAN-NY; and the first woman to host a prime-time show on the Golf Channel. Her show, "Talking Golf with Ann Liguori," on WFAN won a 2023 Gracie Award, which recognizes exemplary programming created by, for and about women in radio, television, cable and interactive media.

One month after covering her 26th Masters in April, Liguori will be inducted into New York's Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame, a tribute to a career that also includes a library of more than 500 interviews from her show, "Sports Innerview," that aired for 17 years. Interviews with such legends as Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Billie Jean King, Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain and others.

Gaining the trust of sports royalty, including those in the golf world, is something she has been doing her entire career.

In the book, Liguori brings us stories from Amy Alcott, Ben Crenshaw, Padraig Harrington, Langer, Nancy Lopez, Nicklaus, Dottie Pepper, Player, Renee Powell, Annika Sorenstam, Jan Stephenson and Tom Watson.

"I wanted to go after Hall of Famers, real true legends and those who were experienced enough to be able to share wisdom … what they learned from their iconic golf careers that they bring to their day-to-day lives," she said.

The book not only is for the golfer who is familiar with these legends and wants to learn more about them but for the nongolfer because of its universal themes.

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Nicklaus, the 18-time major winner from North Palm Beach, talks about integrity and how he always put family first. Nicklaus occasionally would fly home during the middle of a tournament to attend his son's football games and then fly back to finish the event.

"He said golf gave him his lifestyle because he made a couple 4-foot putts," Liguori said. "But family is what's most important to him much more than golf."

Player , from Jupiter Island, is 88 and plays golf regularly. He talks about pursuing your passion.

"He said if you're going to do anything you might as well do something you love," Liguori said.

Boca Raton's Langer is the all-time leader on the PGA Tour Champions with 46 wins. His message is about "divine intervention and faith."

Doctors told Langer's mother during her pregnancy with Bernhard "she would run a high risk of losing the child and maybe killing herself," if she gave birth, Langer told Liguori.

But Walburga Langer was Catholic and did not believe in abortion. Not only did mother and child survive the birth but Bernhard also survived a period as a child where he had such a high fever doctors believed he would die.

"And there were other instances where it's a miracle that I'm actually alive," Langer, 66, told Liguori. "So here we are, I'm still enjoying it and doing well."

Alcott's message is to be the captain of your own ship, don't let people sway your decisions. Liguori said Alcott took up golf on her own and would sneak onto the Bel-Air Country Club in Los Angeles and play with the guys.

Powell's inspirational story is about overcoming obstacles. She was the second African-American female to play on the LPGA Tour and learned on a course in Canton, Ohio, that her father built so golf would be available to all races and genders.

Stephenson learned at an early age how important it was to set goals. She came to the U.S. from Australia, alone and in the spotlight because of her sex appeal the LPGA used to promote their tour.

Harrington says he brings fear to the tee box every time he plays and embraces that feeling. Crenshaw believes golf "is a great lesson in life in learning how to treat people."

Lopez is all about positivity and "happy golf." Sorenstam preaches patience on the golf course which she applies to her daily life as a mother. Pepper talks about preparation, which she still embraces today in her career as a television analyst. Watson's chapter is titled, "Learn from the best, stay humble, and stay in the present."

"Golf is a microcosm of life," Liguori said. "And you learn so much on the golf course that you bring to your day-to-day life."

Tom D'Angelo is a senior sports columnist and golf writer for The Palm Beach Post. He can be reached at tdangelo@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Palm Beach Par 3 to host signing for new book featuring golf's greatest players