My picks: Robert Trent Jones Jr.
Favorite poetsJones is best known for having designed more than 245 courses on six continents, but he also has written hundreds of poems. He sees a connection.
“I believe my work as a golf course architect has benefited from my experiments with poetry, and vice versa,” he says. “And the poet’s credo could also be that of the competitive golfer: ‘Go in, take blood, get out.’ Like golf, poetry expresses ruthless truth, but it can also be fun and pleasurable.”
Here are Jones’ five favorite poets:
1. John Keats: The lyrical poet was unknown when he died young, in Italy, and much later his work was discovered and helped establish, posthumously, the Romantic school of poetry. He didn’t care about position or money; he cared about truth and pursued it.
2. William Butler Yeats: I love Yeats because he was a rambunctious revolutionary who could really turn a phrase. I also love his Irish spirit, which I see in people like Padraig Harrington. Poets like Yeats remind us that you have to be fearless to be a champion.
3. Dylan Thomas: Thomas and I are both Welsh by heritage. Also, I’m a visual person, and his images of nature are quite vivid. I’ve always loved his “A Child’s Christmas in Wales.”
4. Billy Collins: Billy, a poet laureate of the U.S., is a personal friend, and his work exudes a lightness and playfulness, just like golf does. He has a poet’s eye and a golfer’s heart – or maybe the other way around. He’s a pretty good golfer, too.
5. Walt Whitman (pictured): Whitman understood America’s potential, as well as its dark side. His poems are exuberant, lusty and provocative while embodying the reality of the way land and nature work. Plus, his most famous poem, “Leaves of Grass,” sounds like a golfer’s poem.
Posted: 10/20/2008
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