Summary:

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In Final Rounds, James Dodson offers a touching, heartfelt, often humorous tribute to his father and the game they both loved as he tells the poignant story of his fathers last days and how they set out to celebrate them with the golf tour of a lifetime.

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With his father approaching eighty, Dodson planned a dream golf trip through England and France, where the elder Dodson had first discovered his love for the game some fifty years earlier as an airman during World War II. But when he learned his father was suffering from an advance form of cancer, the trip took on an added urgency. For Braxton Dodson had been given only a month or two to live.

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Final Rounds takes us to Royal Lytham, where Bobby Jones roared home on the back nine to capture the first of his three Open championships in 1926; to the Royal Birkdale, where the same rains that swirled around Arnold Palmer in 61 fall upon the Dodsons; to the windswept undulations of Carnoustie, where Hogan played peerlessly in 53; to the famous Prince of Wales Hotel, where father and son stage a putting contest in the hallway; and finally to the legendary St. Andrews, where the younger Dodson finally discovers something of the secret of the games mysterious allure over pros and hackers alike.

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But like golf itself, Final Rounds is about much more than just a game: it is about a journey of discovery between a father and a son, about long-held secrets finally shared, and about the valuable lessons a middle-aged man could still learn from his father on the importance of life, love, and family

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Reviews:

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"Final Rounds is 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

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"A gripping, loving, and moving story about a man who does something for himself and for his father that all of us should o before its too late. James Dodson is an excellent writer who understands golf, mankinds most difficult game, better than most others writing on golf."

- Ely Callaway, founder and chairman of Callaway Golf

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"James Dodsons Final Rounds further illustrates how synonymous the terms golf and life have always been. 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

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"James Dodson has accomplished something in Final Rounds that every writer earns to experience. He has written a story that lives triumphantly on and of the page, one that elevates the craft of writing to mastery. It is not a book about golf. It is a book about who we may be in the best of our moments. And it is unforgettable."

- Terry Kay, author of To Dance with the White Dog