Michael Bamberger – författare

As Davis Love III walked the fairways of the Oakland Hills Country Club, in contention during the final round of the 1996 U.S. Open Championship, he had a powerful ally on his side. For the rest of the nation the day may have been Father's Day, but for Love every day on a golf course is father's day. It was Davis Love, Jr., master professional and legendary teacher, who taught his son the game in all its beautiful complexity. As a child, Davis III was encouraged just to play, to enjoy the game as he grew and developed his athletic skills, to find the pleasure in the game that can lead to the desire for improvement. But when, early in his teens, Davis III declared himself ready to take golf seriously, to put in the time to learn and understand the physical and mental components of the game that turn a golfer into a champion, his father was delighted, determined, and ready. With every shot he takes, Davis Love III provides a tribute to the strength and the value of his father's teachings. And in Every Shot I Take, he shares with us the lessons he learned about how to play golf with power, with skill, and with joy. Those lessons range widely, from the psychological ("Let your attitude determine your golf game; don't let your golf game determine your attitude") to the physical ("To hit the ball far, hit the ball straight; I try to hit the ball at 80 percent of my overall power, because at 80 percent I have a much better chance of hitting the ball with the center of the clubface") to the technical ("When you begin your downswing, and your left foot returns to the ground, put your cleats in the same holes they were in originally"). They include drills like the Hitchhike Drill, where you place your right hand behind your back and your left thumb on your right shoulder, then in a spinning motion move your thumb to your left shoulder -- that's the golf swing in miniature! There are the Ten Commandments of Putting, six steps to successful long bunker shots, and tips for playing in the wind and rain, on fast greens, or out of long rough. Yet all are ultimately about something more than golf. Golf was, for Davis, Jr., a way of being a father, of teaching his sons how to learn, how to approach whatever they might choose to do with knowledge and with care, how to overcome obstacles through dedication and understanding. It was the vehicle through which he taught the most important lesson of all: "Follow your dream, and enjoy the trip." Through this moving tribute to his father's love, Davis III passes along the benefits of those lessons in a gem of a book that will improve your golf game -- and enhance your life.

Project sustainability has received considerable attention in recent years. The increased awareness stems from a growing concern with social development issues such as poverty reduction, project sustainability, the equal participation of women, and the social costs of economic development. This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the wide range of techniques available for monitoring and evaluating the main kinds of social development programs. The authors highlight or review a number of topics that have been overlooked in earlier evaluation publications, such as: -The organization of monitoring and evaluation at the project, sectoral, and national levels -The management of the databases required to elect, design, and implement new social projects and programs -The monitoring and evaluation of project sustainability -Simple and cost-effective methods of estimating project impact. The authors also discuss methods for identifying potential beneficiaries and their information needs and ways of managing evaluations.

Much of the early work on poverty was highly quantitative. It became increasingly clear, however, that while numbers are essential for policy and monitoring purposes, it is also important to understand people's perception of poverty and their mechanisms for coping with poverty and other situations of extreme economic and social stress. Researchers have recognized over the past few years that quantitative analysis of the incidence and trends in poverty, while essential for national economic development planning, must be complemented by qualitative methods that help planners and managers understand the cultural, social, political, and institutional context within which projects are designed and implemented. This report is based on a two-day workshop held in June 1998, where outside research specialists and World Bank staff discussed the importance of integrating these research methods. The participants reviewed experiences in the use of mixed-method approaches in Bank research and project design. This report is a result of those discussions. The report examines the need for integrated research approaches in social and economic development, presents case studies of integrated approaches in practice, and talks about lessons learned.

One of the greatest and most beloved golf books ever written is triumphantly back in print, with a new introduction by Golf in the Kingdom author Michael Murphy, a new afterword, and never-before-seen photographs.Thirty years (and counting!) after publication, To the Linksland still enthralls readers who pick it up for the first time—or return to the book for the sheer pleasure of it. In 1991, Michael Bamberger, a newspaper sportswriter, gave up his apartment, took a leave of absence from his job and his life, and, joined by his newlywed wife, set off to explore the wide world of golf. Bamberger’s first step in this madcap golfing adventure was to become a caddie on the European golf tour, where he encountered the game’s most dynamic players up close and personal, including golf’s greatest artist, Seve Ballesteros. Crisscrossing the Continent with his bride, Bamberger caddied for a true original, Peter Teravainen, a Yale-educated golfer with a workingman’s spirit and a knack for making brilliant, on-the-spot observations about the game (“Good shots must come in groups of two”). Over the course of one unforgettable year, Bamberger caddied in the national championships of Portugal, France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Ireland, and, finally, Scotland, golf’s ancestral home. Once there, Bamberger fell under the spell of one of golf’s great teachers and thinkers, John Stark. To the Linksland is the captivating memoir of Bamberger’s golfing pilgrimage/extended honeymoon. From an all-night caddie bus on the back roads of southern Europe to Stark’s secret six-hole course in the Scottish Highlands, Bamberger takes you on a journey into the heart of golf. This thirtieth-anniversary edition of Bamberger’s classic, lyrical tale of discovery is bookended with a new introduction by Michael Murphy and a new afterword by Bamberger, with a trove of new photographs in between. Gloriously back in print, To the Linksland is a “great book for your golfing soul” (Golf Monthly).

You are cordially invited to join Michael Bamberger on a year-long golfing adventure—playing alongside the pros of the PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, LIV Golf, and more—as he seeks to unlock golf’s most stubborn secrets in various and surprising ways, all in the name of…improvement!Nearly fifty years after taking up the game, Michael Bamberger made a pair of startling discoveries: golf had never meant more to him, and he knew almost nothing about it. He decided to cover himself in green in a whole new way. He spent a year inside the ropes of professional golf—playing, caddying, competing, volunteering, and interviewing—looking for a door into the sport’s sanctum sanctorum. In The Playing Lesson: A Duffer’s Year Among the Pros, Bamberger goes on the ultimate golfing bender. You’ve read about St. Andrews before, but here you will experience the home of golf in a whole new way. You’ll join the author as he volunteers in one tournament, caddies in others, plays in men’s and women’s pro-ams, and conducts intimate interviews with elite figures in the game. You’ll mooch off the lessons Bamberger takes from instructors, famous and obscure, who teach golf in novel ways. You’ll learn how to buy a better golf game. Maybe you’ve had club fittings, but not like the one Bamberger experiences in various tour trailers. In a pro-am, Bamberger gets driving tips from one of the tour’s longest hitters, Jake Knapp. He receives a putting lesson from Brad Faxon. He learns how to hit hook wedges from Gary Player. He lives through the intense pain of Rory McIlroy’s misses and rejoices at Lydia Ko’s triumphs. He plays Pebble Beach and Royal Oak, a down-home nine-hole public course in Detroit with perfect greens. He receives an unexpected hug from Greg Norman at a LIV Golf event in Miami, along with the words, “Come on in here, you asshole.” He spends a lot of time at driving ranges, some of it productive. What Bamberger has done here, when you get right down to it, is create his own tour. The Playing Lesson is a report on a real-life golfing safari, with stops inside the heads of the game’s high priests, his own—and yours.

Gloriously available again, forty years after it was first published—now with a new introduction by Brad Faxon, a new afterword by the author, and a batch of newly discovered time-capsule photos—The Green Road Home is the classic account of a young caddie on the PGA Tour, and the book that launched Michael Bamberger as a bestselling author.In 1985, Michael Bamberger was a twenty-something college grad and golf nut with a daunting dream: to become a caddie on the PGA Tour. His hope was to travel widely and deeply, to see the game up close and personal, and to be accepted into the vagabond guild of professional caddies. When the great golf writer Dan Jenkins heard about Bamberger’s gig, he said, “Finally, an Ivy Leaguer carrying the bags of other people.” Bamberger had his own take. He was looking for adventure. As William Least Heat-Moon had his blue highways, Bamberger had green ones. The Green Road Home, first published in 1986, takes you inside the ropes, and inside the heads of the players Bamberger caddied for. You’ll hang with the author in New York and New Orleans and Las Vegas. You’ll get to know a wide range of golfers, legends like Al Geiberger (the first player on Tour to shoot 59) and George Archer (winner of the 1969 Masters), as well as Steve Elkington (future winner of the PGA Championship) and Bill Britton (future golf coach at Monmouth University). The author gets road and life advice from a colleague named Killer. He caddies in the US and British Opens and in the vicinity of Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson. He plays in the Tour’s annual Caddie Classic golf tournament and the caddie-player softball game. The Green Road Home is a funny and heartfelt account of what it takes to make it as a touring pro—and as a touring caddie. This book is about the 1985 season on Tour. Turns out, it was a pivotal one. We now know what we didn’t then, that Bamberger was witnessing the end of the line for the Tour as a mom-and-pop operation. (In ’85, the annual tournament in Pebble Beach was still named for Bing Crosby. A year later, it became the AT&T.) Whether you’ve been following the game all your life or are new to it, The Green Road Home is a window into a magical time in the pro game. In this charming book, a young writer finds his own voice, and a young man finds his own way.

This timely book explores how Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data contribute to the evaluation of the rule of law (covering legal arrangements, empirical legal research, law and technology, and international law), and social and economic development programs in both industrialized and developing countries. Issues of ethics and bias in the use of AI are also addressed and indicators of the growth of knowledge in the field are discussed.Interdisciplinary and international in scope, and bringing together leading academics and practitioners from across the globe, the book explores the applications of AI and big data in Rule of Law and development evaluation, identifies differences in the approaches used in the two fields, and how each could learn from the approaches used in the other, as well as differences in the AI-related issues addressed in industrialized nations compared to those addressed in Africa and Asia.Artificial Intelligence and Big Datais an essential read for researchers, academics and students working in the fields of Rule of Law and Development, and researchers in institutions working on new applications in AI will all benefit from the book’s practical insights.