Final Rounds

Zusatztext "A beautiful! deeply moving tribute to the love between father and son and their shared passion for golf. I have never read a more eloquent book about golf as a game where hearts can meet." --Michael Murphy! author of Golf in the Kingdom "James Dodson is a gifted writer who clearly understands and loves golf! but more importantly! he understands people and relationships. In the truest sense! final rounds is a moving love story." --John Feinstein! author of The Majors "A gripping! loving! and moving story...James Dodson is an excellent writer who understands golf...better than most." --Ely Callaway! founder and chairman of Callaway Golf " Final Rounds is about much more than the game itself. It is a journey of discovery for a father and son and for their relationship." -- USA Today "You will enjoy this powerful and touching story between a father and son! and you will never read a sweeter testimony of that love." --Ben Crenshaw Informationen zum Autor James Dodson is a regular columnist for Golf magazine and an editor of Departures magazine. His work has appeared in Gentleman's Quarterly , Travel & Leisure , Outside , and numerous other national publications. He won the Golf Writers of America Award for his columns in 1995 and 1996. Klappentext James Dodson always felt closest to his father while they were on the links. So it seemed only appropriate when his father learned he had two months to live that they would set off on the golf journey of their dreams to play the most famous courses in the world. Final Rounds takes us to the historic courses of Royal Lytham and Royal Birkdale! to the windswept undulations of Carnoustie! where Hogan played peerlessly in '53! and the legendary St. Andrews! whose hallowed course reveals something of the eternal secret of the game's mysterious allure over pros and hackers alike. Throughout their poignant journey! the Dodsons humorously reminisce and reaffirm their love for each other! as the younger Dodson finds out what it means to have his father also be his best friend. Final Rounds is a book never to be forgotten! a book about fathers and sons! long-held secrets! and the lessons a middle-aged man can still learn from his dad about life! love! and family. Final Rounds is a tribute to a very special game and the fathers and sons who make it so. Thus is the earth at once a desert and a paradise, rich in secret hidden gardens, gardens inaccessible, but to which the craft leads us ever back, one day or another. Life may scatter us and keep us apart; it may even prevent us from thinking very often of one another; but we know that our comrades are somewhere "Out there"--where, one can hardly say--silent, forgotten, but deeply faithful. And when our path crosses theirs, they greet us with such manifest joy, shake us so gaily by the shoulders! Indeed we are accustomed to waiting. --Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it. --Bobby Jones Prologue: A Father's Voice Toward the end of the afternoon, Tom Watson sits in his office talking to a golf writer. The golf season has just ended. The golf writer is me. We have been talking for almost two hours. There is a thin skin of ice on the pond in the park across the street. Traffic is a muted sigh in the winter shadows of Kansas City. Christmas presents for his children are stacked neatly in a shopping bag at his feet. Watson's wariness of the press is famous, but he has been relaxed and generous, talking about the Ryder Cup team he will soon lead to Britain, about his life, career, children, heroes, even making self-deprecating jokes about his well-publicized putting woes. This p...

Auteur
James Dodson is a regular columnist for Golf magazine and an editor of Departures magazine. His work has appeared in Gentleman's Quarterly, Travel & Leisure, Outside, and numerous other national publications. He won the Golf Writers of America Award for his columns in 1995 and 1996.

Texte du rabat

James Dodson always felt closest to his father while they were on the links. So it seemed only appropriate when his father learned he had two months to live that they would set off on the golf journey of their dreams to play the most famous courses in the world.

Final Rounds takes us to the historic courses of Royal Lytham and Royal Birkdale, to the windswept undulations of Carnoustie, where Hogan played peerlessly in '53, and the legendary St. Andrews, whose hallowed course reveals something of the eternal secret of the game's mysterious allure over pros and hackers alike.

Throughout their poignant journey, the Dodsons humorously reminisce and reaffirm their love for each other, as the younger Dodson finds out what it means to have his father also be his best friend. Final Rounds is a book never to be forgotten, a book about fathers and sons, long-held secrets, and the lessons a middle-aged man can still learn from his dad about life, love, and family.

Final Rounds is a tribute to a very special game and the fathers and sons who make it so.

Échantillon de lecture
Thus is the earth at once a desert and a paradise, rich in secret hidden gardens, gardens inaccessible, but to which the craft leads us ever back, one day or another. Life may scatter us and keep us apart; it may even prevent us from thinking very often of one another; but we know that our comrades are somewhere "Out there"--where, one can hardly say--silent, forgotten, but deeply faithful. And when our path crosses theirs, they greet us with such manifest joy, shake us so gaily by the shoulders! Indeed we are accustomed to waiting.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Wind, Sand and Stars

It is nothing new or original to say that golf is played one stroke at a time. But it took me many years to realize it.
--Bobby Jones

Prologue: A Father's Voice

Toward the end of the afternoon, Tom Watson sits in his office talking to a golf writer. The golf season has just ended. The golf writer is me. We have been talking for almost two hours. There is a thin skin of ice on the pond in the park across the street. Traffic is a muted sigh in the winter shadows of Kansas City. Christmas presents for his children are stacked neatly in a shopping bag at his feet. Watson's wariness of the press is famous, but he has been relaxed and generous, talking about the Ryder Cup team he will soon lead to Britain, about his life, career, children, heroes, even making self-deprecating jokes about his well-publicized putting woes. This pleases me, confirms my best hopes. Watson is forty-three, five years my senior, the best golfer of my generation, now a lion in winter. In my former life as a political journalist, it would have been deemed grossly unprofessional to admit I am my subject's fan. But golf, unlike politics, as Alister Mackenzie is supposed to have once said, is at least an honest game. I am Watson's fan because he played with such honesty and heart during his golden days, and because of how he conducts himself now that the glory has faded and his game seems almost mortal.

Sometimes during these conversations, I find myself unexpectedly wondering with pleasure how I got here. For me, a kid who tagged after his golf heroes and was lucky enough to grow up and be able to sit and talk with them, it's a dream job and a question rooted perhaps as much in philosophy as journalism. All philosophy begins in wonder, and the wonder of what Watson suddenly, intimately reveals of himself in our conversation is both thought-provoking and surprising. I ask if he can identify the worst moment of his career, and he responds by telling me about once rushing out of the locker room at the World Series of Golf, brushing off a boy seeking his autograph. The boy's father followed him and tapped him on the back.

"He looked me straight in the…