o You can’t get lost on a golf course . . . by Francis Scheid, Ph.D., a.k.a.
Professor Golf
[$28.95, ISBN 1-888964-03-9; $16.95, ISBN 1-888964-03-0; 1998, 6 x 9, 168 pages; 36 pen & ink illustrations "by the students of Lobster Regional School and Daycare Center" and golf course layout diagrams, all actually drawn by Dr. Scheid]

Dr. Scheid has written several textbooks, but You can’t get lost on a golf course is a leap into another universe. This book is a tantalizing amalgam of golf course design ideas (and questions), humorous viewpoints, and tales about playing the game.
Dr. Scheid’s tenure in the mathematics department of Boston University included 12 years as department chairman. He was a consultant at the MIT Instrumentation Lab and in the 1960-70s, created more than 100 television programs for the Harvard Commission on Extension Courses, used primarily by the U.S. Navy.
Dr. Scheid’s interest in golf began in 1961 while a Fulbright professor in Rangoon, starting in the dry season and continuing through the monsoon when the course was mercifully shortened.
The combination of math and golf triggered a study of golf statistics — ongoing still — that led to articles in Golf Digest and presentations at technical meetings including the prestigious St. Andrew’s (Scotland) Scientific Congresses of Golf in 1990 and 1994. It also led to charter membership on the Handicap Research Team of the U.S. Golf Association, the think tank (of which he is probably one grandfather) that developed the USGA Slope system. He is a past seniors champion of the Plymouth (Mass.) Country Club, belongs to the Society of the South Pole, is a Salty Highliner, an Honorary Tail Hooker, an enthusiastic sailor (at the helm of his schooner Great Circle), a past commodore of the Plymouth Yacht Club, has been listed in "Who’s Who in America." His handicap is no longer the 6 it once was, but he still hopes to shoot his age.

o Golfers come in many Shapes and Sizes . . . by Francis Scheid, Ph.D., a.k.a. Professor Golf
[$19.95 — ISBN 1-888964-16-2 — 2002 — 6 x 9, 148 pages; 20 pen & ink illustrations by Lobster Regional School students (actually, by Dr. Scheid) and numerous charts and tables. ]

The first book by Professor Golf (above) was a discussion of topology — "rubber sheet geometry," in Dr. Scheid's words. (See his background summary in entry above.)
This second book traces the efforts over more than a century to measure a golfer's ability, compare it to the golfer on the next tee and thus invent the handicap idea.

.o Student of the Game . . . by Francis Scheid, Ph.D., a.k.a. Professor Golf
[$19.95 — ISBN 1-888964-17-0 — 2004 — 6 x 9, 138 pages; 18 pen-and-ink illustrations by Lobster Regional School students (Prof. Scheid, of course), and dozens of charts and graphs

The third of Francis Scheid’s books about golf delves into some of the nuances that make the game so addictive, fascinating and – of course – frustrating.Tips from golfmath —
• What can a player do for a better short game . . . better putting?
• How the hole’s “shadow” can improve your putting.
• Would a performance analysis by THE CURVE improve your game?
• Could a bit of physics help?

o Kingston: The Jones River Village — as seen by Emily Drew . . . Doris M. Johnson, editor
[$16.95 — ISBN 0-9628738-7-X — 9 x 6, 85 pages; map; 53 photos, many of them from the 19th century; index; LCCCN 95-76286; 1995]
Emily Drew was born April 10, 1881 in the Jones River Village section of Kingston, which was settled by the Mayflower’s Pilgrims in the 1620s and separated from the town of Plymouth in 1726. Miss Drew lived in the neighborhood where numerous members of the Drew clan had lived for over two centuries and died in Dec. 1950.
Trained at Smith College as a teacher, Miss Drew preferred taking care of the books at C. Drew & Co., the makers since 1837 of shipbuilders favorite tools. She was also a skilled photographer who left a rich legacy to her beloved town in the form of hundreds of catalogued photographs and glass slides with descriptive narrative. This book includes the images and narrative from an illustrated "vignette" presented by Miss Drew to the Jones River Village Club (now Historical Society) on Feb. 26, 1994, plus her 1932 research on the houses of Kingston Center. Editor Doris Johnson was Kingston’s official town historian, 1978-1998.