text: Typical Feinstein ("A Season on the Brink" excepted).  Quick, gossipy, superficial, fawning, etc., etc.  This book is about the 2002 U.S. Open Golf Championship at the Bethpage Black Golf Course, a New York State Park course on Long Island.  The subtitle, "Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black," is used here as a figure of speech, meaning "behind the scenes."  ("Inside the ropes" is normally used in the context of a professional golf tournament to refer to the actual playing area itself -- spectators are separated from the golfers, caddies, officials, and other chosen few by thin ropes that tell the spectators how close they can get to the action.)  Feinstein's purpose is to give the reader a look at the unfolding of a golf tournament from its conception to its completion.  We see U.S Golf Association (the organization that conducts the tournament) leaders in action and learn something about the logistics of putting on a golf tournament (e.g., 4,850 people willing to volunteer their time so that the professional golfers and U.S.G.A. can have a huge payday), about random qualifiers and random competitors, and about the resurrection of the Black golf course.  Yet the book does not fulfill its promise.  My guess is that Feinstein's indebted to too many golf people for both his past and anticipated future lifestyle to offer the kind of critical insights and analysis I had hoped for
  