American Triumvirate

March 1, 2012
Evoking a Golden Age of American golf. Within a span of a few months in 1912, three golfing legends were born: Byron Nelson, Sam Snead and Ben Hogan. The trio would transform the game of golf, bringing it greater popularity than ever before and paving the way for the sport's mainstream acceptance in the United States. This "American Triumvirate" competed furiously against one another from the Great Depression through World War II and, at least as far as Hogan and Snead were concerned, well into the 1950s. At various time each man could stake a claim to being the world's best golfer. In this triple biography, golf writer Dodson (A Son of the Game, 2010, etc.) explores the inevitably intertwined lives of these three giants, exploring their personal foibles and struggles as well as their golf careers, and he conjures a picture of how golf came into its own in the American sporting firmament. With crisp prose, the author captures the feel of mid-century America and the game of golf before an era of multimillion-dollar endorsement deals, unimaginable tournament purses and 24-hour global TV coverage. Indeed, Dodson clearly shows how Nelson, Hogan and Snead essentially created the world of golf as it exists today. Occasionally the author gets caught up in vague pronoun usage within the overlapping paths of his protagonists, and only true golf fans will find all of the blow-by-blow accounts of significant tournaments compelling. Nonetheless, the book is a fine example of sports history and popular American history. There may well never be an American golfing trio to compare with Nelson, Snead and Hogan. Thanks to Dodson we now have a much better idea of why they were so vital to a sport that continues to simultaneously fascinate and vex millions of people across the country and the world.

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October 1, 2011

Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, Ben Hogan: three near-mythic golf champions dominant from the 1930s to the 1950s. They were all born in 1912, so what better time than their centenary to celebrate their accomplishments? From Dodson, a former Golf magazine writer responsible for Hogan's authorized biography; with a four-city tour.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from February 15, 2012
Most of golf history has been dominated by threesomes, from Englishmen Harry Vardon, J. H. Taylor, and James Braid at the turn of the last century; through Walter Hagen, Gene Sarazen, and Bobby Jones in the 1920s; to Sam Snead, Byron Nelson, and Ben Hogan in the mid-twentieth century; and on to Arnold Palmer, Gary Player, and Jack Nicklaus in the 1960s and 1970s. Dodson, author of Ben Hogan: An American Life (2004), focuses here on those midcentury titans, all born in 1912, who rescued a Depression- and war-ravaged professional golf tour and launched the game's modern age. Alternating between accounts of the careers of the three very different menthe quiet, pious Nelson; the outgoing, free-and-easy Snead; and the demon-haunted, practice-obsessed Hoganthe author effectively re-creates an era when professional golfers competed for paltry sums, carpooled across the country, and were forced to play on many courses that bore little in common with the well-manicured clubs of today. The triumphs of Snead, Hogan, and Nelson changed all that, and the competition among the three gave postwar golf the headline-appeal it needed, setting the table for the game to be launched into the television era on the broad shoulders of Arnold Palmer. Dodson makes the most of the rich history he recounts with first-rate narrative skill, developing the surprisingly complex characters of his three protagonists with the care of a fine historical novelist. Absorbing reading for anyone who follows professional golf.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)