Dewsweepers: Seasons of Golf and Friendship

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
At the age of 46, golf scribe James Dodson faced a peculiar manifestation of the midlife crisis -- he no longer enjoyed hitting the links. How Dodson got his swing back, despite personal issues that spray like hooks and slices off a three-iron, is the subject of The Dewsweepers.

The eponymous Dewsweepers are seven middle-aged men who tee off early Saturday mornings at Onondaga Golf and Country Club outside of Syracuse, New York. Led by the charmingly irreverent Jon Sager, the Dewsweepers practically kidnap Dodson, reinvigorating his passion for the sport while supplying the divorcé with a series of blind dates. Even as he falls in love again, however, Dodson's state of "stupid happy" is interrupted by his mother's declining health and his brother's delinquent behavior.

Surprisingly, as Dodson fights through personal issues, golf does not fall by the wayside. His fellow Dewsweepers have their own midlife problems. The sport of golf and the camaraderie of the outings offer them all not only a much-needed diversion but a valuable point of perspective. When Dodson's dying mother tells him to play the following day, you get the feeling that is really what she wants him to do.

Dodson's award-winning golf writing has provided him with golfing partners that common hackers would die for. Humorous and poignant anecdotes of playing alongside Arnold Palmer, esteemed golf architect Rees Jones, the Dewsweepers, and his own son are lobbed with the delicacy of a nice pitching wedge. As Dodson describes playing the nicest courses in the United States and Europe, we should all be forgiven our envy! (Brenn Jones)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

James Dodson, one of the most critically acclaimed and beloved golf journalists of all time, tells the story of an eclectic, eccentric group of men who call themselves the Dewsweepers-so named because they are the first players off the tee every weekend morning at an old club in upstate New York. "Adopted" by the Dewsweepers, Dodson sets out through the seasons of one all-too-brief golf year to try and get back in touch with the simpler joys and uncomplicated leisures that once made him fall madly in love with the royal and ancient game. As friendship deepens and each man's tale movingly and sometimes hilariously unfolds, the author's own life is ultimately tested, examined, and changed-for the better. Through laughter and tears, he reveals intimate details, and finds that each Dewsweeper-including and maybe especially the author himself-needs golf and friendship at the core of his life.

Author Biography: James Dodson is the author of Final Rounds, the 1996 bestseller that was named the "Golf Book of the Year" by the International Network of Golf. He is also the author of Faithful Travelers and A Golfer's Life, a collaboration with Arnold Palmer that was a New York Times bestseller, a four-time winner of the prestigious Golf Writers of America Award for his column in Golf Magazine, and the recent recipient of the 1998 "Golf Reporter of the Year" Award by the International Network of Golf.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Dodson, author of bestsellers Final Rounds and the Arnold Palmer bio A Golfer's Life, confronts his own mid-golf-life crisis in a sprightly study of the "royal and ancient" game. Now in his mid-40s, Dodson finds his handicap has slipped from a two to a nine (on a good day); more importantly, golf has ceased to be fun. Personal and professional commitments (he writes an award-winning column for Golf magazine) have left him little time to play. He decides to work less and play more for one year to reconnect with the game he loved so much before he made writing about it his career. Dodson is aided in his quest by the "Dewsweepers," a group of "white, rich, Republican" men (some retired, some not), who live in Syracuse, N.Y., and are the first two foursomes off the tee at their home course every weekend thus "sweeping" the dew from the fairways. Dodson pays homage to the camaraderie, dirty jokes and male bonding during the year as he joins the Dewsweepers, finds a fianc?e, loses his mother, is estranged from and then reconciled with his brother and eventually rediscovers the joy of golf as his young son decides to take up the game. Despite entertaining writing and the truly humorous banter of the Dewsweepers, Dodson himself admits his problem may appear "shallow." A thin read that loses track of the appealingly curmudgeonly Dewsweepers, the book strays into personal revelations that were perhaps better left to a memoir. (Oct.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

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