Book Review by Jeffrey Reed
Why Lawyers Love Golf
Author: Craig Brown

University of Western Ontario law professor Craig Brown, a native New Zealander living in London, Ont., has enjoyed hundreds of rounds of golf over the past 30 years. It was a logical move, then, for him to pen the late-2007 released book, Why Lawyers Love Golf.

With tongue in cheek, the lawyer specializing in insurance law says, “In a malicious way, it delighted me to find so much litigation in the field.”

Resulting from a decade of research, Brown’s Why Lawyers Love Golf is a detailed yet entertaining account of close to 500 cases involving golf and the law. The 150-page paperback covers the gamut – land law, ownership, easements, leases, mortgages, zoning, personal property, trademarks, taxes, patents, bankruptcy, criminal cases, municipal law and of course, tort cases: personal injury.

Take the 1963 case of the doctor whose duck hook tee shot hit a golfer at an adjacent hole in the eye. There wasn’t time to yell, ‘Fore!’ The Ontario High Court in Ellison v. Rogers considered everything from architect accounts of course angles and elevations, to golf pro explanations as to why golfers hook or slice.

In the end, the court ruled in favour of the doctor turned hooker. The reason? As Brown explains, “The defendant had all his regular playing companions swear (under oath) that he never did anything but slice the ball. But on the day in question, it hooked and hit the plaintiff in the head.”

The judge concluded that a hook “was quite unforeseeable,” and evidence was heard that stated 85 per cent of all golfers slice rather than hook.

In total, there are 12 chapters in, Why Lawyers Love Golf – 18 would have been more appropriate. Subjects range from golf inventions, course construction, legal headaches for clubhouse managers, members’ grievances, golf and taxes, injuries on and off the course, caddie woes, golf and crime, and equipment patents and trademarks.

For example, when Aldila Inc. introduced its golf equipment in 1978, Adidas objected. It was overruled, citing there was no resemblance in the sound of the names, nor in logos. Case dismissed.

Despite the sometimes over-detailed descriptions of legal matters, don’t dismiss this book. Judge it as a good addition to your golf library. Brown has written an entertaining yet informative book which really does prove (as he writes), “On every fairway, in every stretch of rough, in every clubhouse, in every golf bag, at every swing at the ball, in every set of plans for a new course, in every application for club membership, there lurks a potential lawsuit.”

Why Lawyers Love Golf
By Craig Brown
Illustrations by Rick Bigwood
Scribblers Publishing
ISBN 978-0-9750737-9-7
$29.95 plus $8 postage at www.scribblerspublishing.com