Questions with Bob Sansevere: local author Rick Shefchik

FROM FIELDS TO FAIRWAYS author Rick Shefchik interviewed in the Pioneer Press.

Shefchik_From coverThe unofficial start to the Minnesota golf season tees off in earnest Thursday, April 5, with the first round of the Masters. It seemed like a good time to get in touch with Rick Shefchik, author of "From Fields to Fairways: Classic Golf Clubs of Minnesota." As you might have guessed, it's a book about some of the storied golf courses in the state. Once a colleague at the Pioneer Press, Shefchik has written his first non-fiction book after four novels.

Shefchik, who has a book signing planned for Saturday, April 14, in the clubhouse at Theodore Wirth Golf Course at 2 p.m., talked to me Wednesday, April 4, about the book.

BS: Is it safe to say you have to be passionate about golf to write a book like this?

RS: It's hard to answer that question any other way. I think I started from a position of knowledge to start doing a book like that. I've been playing golf for 50 years of my life.

BS: During your research, what did you find most fascinating?

RS: I had some questions I wanted to answer. For instance: White Bear Yacht Club and who designed it. The club always has maintained it was Donald Ross who designed the course. I found out from newspaper accounts from that era he did visit the course and work on it. I also found out that William Watson also was very involved in the very beginning of designing that course. I was glad to get closer to the answer of that one. There's a guy named William D. Clark, who I had always heard about.

Read the full article.

Published in: Pioneer Press
By: Bob Sansevere