Bound To The Game

PEPPER PIKE, OHIO | Alastair Johnston was a 21-year-old intern at IMG in Cleveland when he started collecting books. And quite accidentally, too.

“The year before, during the 1968 Open Championship at Carnoustie, I had met IMG founder and chief executive Mark McCormack and suggested rather cheekily that if he ever wanted to open a European office, I was his man,” recalls Johnston, who hails from Glasgow. “Mark didn’t take me up on my offer but asked that I stay in touch, which I did. Then, the following year, he invited me to work for IMG in the States. I came over for three months and stayed during that time at the home of one of his assistants. I didn’t really know anybody, and didn’t have much to do at night. So, I gathered up some books I found at the office, by Arnold Palmer and Gary Player, as well as Jack Nicklaus, Bob Charles and Bruce Devlin. I read them at night, and when I tried to give them back to Mark, he told me to keep them. So, I brought them home when my internship ended.”

Fifty years later, Johnston is still a...