The Stylish Life: Golf

I’ve alluded a couple of times (especially if you follow me on Twitter) to a golf book I wrote, and today is the official release date, so I’m pleased to finally share what it’s all about.

The book is called “The Stylish Life: Golf” and is part of a new sports series from the publisher, teNeues. Like Assouline and Taschen, teNeues produces image-driven coffee-table books, and has the interesting backstory of being founded in Germany in the 1930s. The book will also be available in German and French.

“The Stylish Life” series was conceived in-house and takes a lifestyle approach to traditional (and upper crust) sports such as tennis, skiing, yachting and equestrian. The editor had worked with me previously at Ralph Lauren Magazine, and since then I had launched GolfStyle.guru (which, let’s admit, was a bit too nichey — rhymes with Nietzsche — to attract much of a following). They wanted someone with an informed take on style to do the golf book, “not someone ESPN,” and so I got the gig.

Given that it’s a picture book, I wasn’t asked to write a lot — basically the equivalent of a long magazine article. But it was a lot of fun and you’ll find a passage or two that definitely shows it was written by me:

In sun-drenched Palm Beach, golf and fashion comingled in different ways. Prominent Northeastern families who escaped to Florida during the winter adopted new resort looks which they brought back to their country clubs. The postwar “man in the grey flannel suit,” color-deprived Monday through Friday, brought out all manner of brightly colored shirts and trousers on the weekend, which were sold at traditional establishments such as Brooks Brothers and J. Press, right alongside the acceptable uniform for lawyers and financiers. A generation later this bright country club attire would form the backbone of the look we call preppy.

And then there’s my bio on the dust jacket:

Christian Chensvold is the only known native Californian to discover golf after moving to New York City. On the tenth hole of life he hit his first golf ball on the third-floor simulator at the Brooks Brothers flagship on Madison Avenue, and three years later broke 80 (and outdoors, no less). He’s a luxury and men’s lifestyle writer best-known for his Web projects, including the leading traditional American menswear site Ivy-Style.com, and his latest project, GolfStyle.guru, which celebrates classic attire on the course.

Here’s a link to the book on Amazon, though you can certainly order the book through your local independent bookstore. And lest I be accused of shameless self-promotion, I won’t be buying a set of new clubs with the royalties from your purchase: I was paid a flat fee. — CHRISTIAN CHENSVOLD