Playing Dirty

Greed and self-preservation have overtaken professional golf, with factions battling to buy and control its ecosystem without accounting for the cost and collateral damage of their ambitions. As the top level of golf threatens to tear itself in two, Golf Digest senior writer Joel Beall travels to Scotland, the birthplace of golf, to see if the soul of the sport is intact.

Here, far from the boardroom battles, the game still breathes as it was meant to—pure and democratic. Links and life intertwine without ceremony. Duck into any pub and you'll find half the day's tee sheet has preceded you, scorecards spread across tables like battle maps, pints marking the spots where glory was found or lost.

This is golf's last pure kingdom, where wealth is measured not in gold but in twilight rounds, where every weary wanderer can find refuge. Where the past feels present and the game never gets old, because good things never do.Not perfect, mind you; nothing wrapped in human hands ever is, yet Scotland golf is as unadulterated of a product as we get. It reminds us that all that is good with this beautifully dumb sport can continue in the face of the unknown.

Whatever happens with the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia ... well, professional golf tournaments come and go, but Scotland golf is forever. With a hyper focus on the towns and courses and people that ensure the game of golf remains a game of the people, Beall examines golf’s roots hoping to find an answer to where the sport is headed, who decides its fate, and if the game can truly be bought ... before golf swallows itself whole.

ADVANCED PRAISE FOR PLAYING DIRTY
“There is a deep contrast in modern golf between the sacred and the profane, and though many writers have explored the gulf, none have done it with such eloquence and insight as Joel Beall in his tremendous work Playing Dirty. A masterful examination of where golf went wrong at the professional level, and how salvation must come from its historical roots. This book is the reckoning we needed, and it comes with a bold and bracing refusal to let the mistakes of the past define the future. Like so many fans, I have spent the last few years wondering where golf's heart has gone. ... Joel Beall has found it.”
—SHANE RYAN, New York Times-bestselling author of Slaying the Tiger

“Nobody in golf marries world-class reporting and storytelling as well as Joel Beall. He hunts down facts that nobody else has discovered and weaves them together with the aplomb of a novelist. In a world where everything in golf hurtles toward uniformity, Joel's writing stands out as supremely unique. He is truly a one of one in the modern golf media landscape, and his hunt for golf's soul amid all the chaos reflects this reality.”
—KYLE PORTER, founder of Normal Sport, formerly with CBS Sports

“Joel Beall is one of the last great golf writers. He is uncorrupted and without conflict, riding above a sea of influence peddlers arguing positions borne only of self-interest. He is also a great storyteller. ... Beall mixes that in-the-know reporting and great writing style to deliver this informed commentary, Playing Dirty, that golf diehards, casuals, and curious alike should read to understand this incomparably historic moment in the game.”
—BRENDAN PORATH, the Fried Egg

“This here is an act of love. Joel Beall was meant to write this book, what amounts to a journey of how we square all the realities of a game that's ours to play, but controlled by forces beyond our grasp. You can’t have golf without history, ... without feeling angst over what it’s been twisted into. And you can’t have those feelings without a personal relationship with the game. That’s all here.”
—BRENDAN QUINN, senior enterprise writer for The Athletic/New York Times

JOEL BEALL is a Senior Writer at Golf Digest. He has been called " the best feature writer in golf" and " golf's top profiler." Beall has won over a dozen honors from the Golf Writers Association of America, and his story on golf and autism was named one of 2021's best sports features by The Athletic.

Beall covers the sport with a focus on longform storytelling, columns, news, investigations and in-tournament coverage. His pieces have helped rescue a golfer from a war zone while putting a con man behind bars.

Beall also shepherds the popular monthly " Undercover Caddie" column and has contributed to the Normal Sport book series along with the book What's Great About Golf.

Prior to joining Golf Digest in 2015, Beall worked for FOX Sports, the Cincinnati Enquirer and WhatIfSports.com. Beall was born in Ohio and now lives in Connecticut with his wife, dog, and broken short game.