Dodson - A Son of the Game: a Story of Golf and Fatherhood

Praise for A Son of the Game

[A] gentle and glorious memoir Seminal and inspiring [Dodsons] diction is clear, honest and awesome A Son of the Game is a gift from a son to his father and from a father to his son. Its a deeply personal present for families to treasure and pass down.

The Louisville Courier-Journal

What do you get when you combine an engaging rites of passage story together with interesting golf history as relayed by a skilled storyteller? The answer would be A Son of the Game by James Dodson This wise memoir reveals many interesting facts and anecdotes relating to the Pinehurst area golf scene from the perspective of a passionate golf insider This is a good read and would be a great gift for the golfing father or son!

Golf Today

In his warm, personal new book, A Son of the Game, James Dodson brings together the charm of both the game and the place in a story that you need not be a golfer to appreciate Dodsons gift is in feeling and sharing the attachment to a game that is as bewitching as it is maddening Like a leisurely round of golf with friends, Dodsons book is time well spent. It captures the spirit of a game and a place that has captured so many of us.

The Raleigh News and Observer

My good friend Jim Dodson seems to come up with one good book after another. But he produces something particularly powerful, something extra, when he writes about his own life experiences, as in his first book, the highly acclaimed Final Rounds, and his latest, A Son of the Game. He is now the father, passing on to his son, Jack, the love and contentment he has rediscovered in golf and family. Once again, Jim touches the heartstrings.

Arnold Palmer

Dodson is humorous, self-effacing and reverent in his effort to create a family golf legacy.

Fairways and Greens

Highly recommended Dodsons style is down-home and folksy, but his deep insights into human nature and his propensity to lay bare his most personal thoughts one after another make this book a wonderful way to learn about your own life.

New England Golf Examiner

Painted in a glossy, buttery hue of such vintage nostalgia that its all the reader can do by the end to not immediately light out for the central North Carolina hill country.

Publishers Weekly

[Dodson] puts to the test the supposed mysterious healing powers said to be an integral part of the Sandhills region. All the while he is surrounded by a host of Sandhills characters that bring humor and compassion to a story that turns out to be a little bit about golf and a lot about life.

Our State (NC)

A Son of the Game is a magical memoir of midlife crisis, teenage uncertainty and the power of a legacy gently handed down. Whether you love the game of golf or cant tell a sand wedge from a six iron, Dodsons book will put the spell of Pinehurst on your hearta spell that is simply the call of home.

BookPage

A thoughtful memoir You dont need to be a golfer or a Southerner to enjoy the story about hurdling a midlife wall, appreciating old and new friendships, and shaping a family legacy.

The Modesto (CA) Bee

Dodsons vision of golf and of small-town life is entirely mythic and traditional.

Golfweek

Draws on the deep, near-archetypal feelings that dedicated golfers have for the game, its history, and their own connections to the fathers and mentors who first put clubs in their hands.

Booklist

Although A Son of the Game will have natural appeal to avid golfers, it truly can be enjoyed by anyone because of its compelling stories of the people Dodson has encountered in his golf life. The father and son storyline is sincere, revealing and heartwarming, and you do not have to be a son of the game to relate to that.

ForeWord magazine

Dodsons cleanly carpentered prose still has all the familiar beveled edges.

Golfchannel.com

A humane, insightful memoir of elemental composure and meaning regained.

Kirkus Reviews

Jim Dodson has in his many books shown a rare ability to take the reader into landscapes both physical and mental, and burrow deeply into each. He again accomplishes this in A Son of the Game, and demonstrates that he is a virtuoso in conveying why Pinehurst is a special place in the golfing firmament and, moreover, why it provides the ideal setting for him to resolve matters within himself, and with his own son. This memoir will make you feel as if you are in Pinehurst with the author, and it will reveal timeless truths about the game, and human nature, as they seep through and out of the soil of one of golfs timeless places.

Lorne Rubenstein, author of A Season in Dornoch:
Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands

Jim Dodsons new memoir reveals the depth of his love for golf, fatherhood, and his ancestral homethe Sandhills of North Carolina. A Son of the Game also showcases Jims amazing skill with a pen, and his wisdom about the human condition. This is a wonderful book.

Curt Sampson, author of The Slam:
Bobby Jones and the Price of Glory

ALSO BY JAMES DODSON

Final Rounds

A Golfers Life (with Arnold Palmer)

The Road to Somewhere

The Dewsweepers

Faithful Travelers

Ben Hogan: An American Life

Beautiful Madness

The Story of Seminole

JAMES DODSON

Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill

Published by
Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill
Post Office Box 2225
Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27515-2225

a division of
Workman Publishing
225 Varick Street
New York, New York 10014

2009 by James Dodson. All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

EISBN: 978-1-616-20005-3

To my friends Max, Myrtis, and Jean;
To Tom, Ilana, and Bryan;
For opening your hearts and doors.
But most of allto Jack, my best golf pal of all.

Every man is the son of his own works.

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES SAAVEDRA

Tell your story of hard luck shots,

Of each shot straight and true;

But when you are done, remember, Son

That nobody cares but you!

EPITAPH OF JOE KIRKWOOD, GOLF GREAT AND TRICK SHOT ARTIST

You, yesterdays boy,

To whom confusion came:

Listen, lest you forget who you are.

It was not pleasure you fell into,

It was joy.

RAINER MARIA RILKE

TOWARD THE END of a clear winter afternoon, I reached the front porch of the Pine Crest Inn and put down my travel bag. A small orange cat got up from a final patch of sunlight and walked over to greet me.

Hello, Marmalade, I said, stooping to scratch her behind the ears. Long time no see. Looks like youve put on some weight, old girl. That makes two of us.

You two must be old friends, a woman said pleasantly.

She was sitting in a white rocking chair a few yards away, dressed for dinner and enjoying a glass of white wine. A group of other well-dressed guests sat by the outdoor bar at the far end of the hotels porch, laughing and talking about their days golf adventures.

We are, I confirmed, though she probably doesnt know me from Greg Normans house cat.

Marmalades unique talent, I explained, was an ability to recognize anyone who loves golf and keeps returning to Pinehurst year after year, which could pretty much describe every person who arrives on the porch of the Pine Crest.