Wind was born in Brockton, Massachusetts. He began golf at age seven at the Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton, and played whenever he could. He graduated from Yale University, and earned a Master's degree in English Literature from the University of Cambridge.

Wind was a low handicapper who played golf well enough to compete in the 1950 British Amateur Championship, and maintained a lifelong interest in the sport.

Wind began writing for The New Yorker in 1941, covered golf and sometimes other sports for that weekly magazine from 1947 until 1953, and again from 1960 until his retirement in 1990. From 1954 to 1960, he covered golf and sometimes other sports for Sports Illustrated magazine.

In 1958, Wind coined the phrase 'Amen Corner' to describe the second shot at the 11th, all of the 12th, and the tee shot at the 13th hole at the Augusta National Golf Club, site of the annual Masters Tournament. That nickname, which is derived from a 1935 song that Wind had heard while a student at Yale, -- namely "Shoutin' in that Amen Corner" written by Andy Razaf, which was recorded by the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, vocal by Mildred Bailey (Brunswick label No. 6655) -- stuck. Wind covered more than 30 Masters tournaments.

His first book was The Story of American Golf, which first appeared in 1948, and was updated and re-issued twice, the most recent in 1975. This book was the most comprehensive history of American golf to that juncture. Along with Ben Hogan, Wind co-authored Five Lessons: The Modern Fundamentals of Golf in 1957. This book has become one of the all-time classics of golf instruction, and has been re-issued many times.

He was a co-author of the 1976 book The World Atlas of Golf, a popular survey of the world's top golf courses, which has been re-issued since in several revised editions.

Wind died in Bedford, Massachusetts at age 88. In 2006, the United States Golf Association renamed its annual Book Award in his honor.

Wind was elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008 in the Lifetime Achievement category.