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Final Rounds: A Father, a Son, the Golf Journey of a Lifetime | 
 enlarge | Author: James Dodson
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $21.95
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $21.94 (100%)
New (13) Used (73) Collectible (2) from $0.01
Rating:  30 reviews
Sales Rank: 1004625
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.6 x 0.9
ISBN: 0553100033
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.352092
EAN: 9780553100037
ASIN: 0553100033
Publication Date: October 1, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com Review
The Dodsons always knew where to go to solve their problems: the golf course. For decades, father and son took refuge there together; in the game, they found connection. Dodson fils's memoir of his last lyrical golf excursion with his father, taken through England and Scotland in the months before his father's death, is alternately heartwarming and heartbreaking. Final Rounds is as straight a shot into the heart of golf's magnetic hold on golfers--and the tie that binds fathers and sons--as a 300-yard drive that splits the fairway.
Product Description
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. -->
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 25 more reviews...
 This one hits home January 8, 2008
This book really hits home as a story of a grown son and his dad. They plan a final great trip together in the twilight of the dad's life. It is about life and is a great golf story also in that the story is intertwined with the history of golf on a personal basis.
My dad is gone so I gave a copy to my son. I also gave a copy to a couple of friends whose fathers are now growing old. They are golfers who learned the game growing up and playing golf with their dads. If you fit this description, I highly recommend this book.
 Final Rounds June 19, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
ISBN 0553375644 - I started reading this book hoping for the touching story of the father and son and was vaguely disappointed. Not to say the story isn't there, because it is in it's own way, but the golf far overshadows Dodson and his father, making this a far better book for golf fans than non-fans.
James Dodson and his father finally get around to planning that dream trip: all the best courses in great company. Just before they are to leave, his father calls with bad news - the trip will have to be postponed because the cancer of years ago is back. With a small laugh, the man Dodson calls "Opti the Mystic" tells him the prognosis: he has a month, maybe two, to live. Dodson realizes that this means that the trip may never happen, but another call comes soon after and the trip is on. There are conditions and one of them is that when his father says it's time to go home, it's time to go home, no argument. Opti has "things to do", clearly the tying up of loose ends in his life.
The men set out on the golf trip of a lifetime and, honestly, will bore the non-golf-fan cross-eyed with the details of games and players. If you've gotten that far, barrel through - the point of the book isn't the game, or the courses, it's the relationship between father and son. Golf is just the medium in which they relate to one another. Knowing, all along, that Opti is going to die doesn't detract from the sorrow when the time comes and, oddly, his death doesn't detract from the happier side of the story. Opti the Mystic, with an eye always for the silver lining, gives his son some incredible gifts and Dodson does his best to share them with the reader.
I'm not a fan of golf and found myself just skimming very big sections of the book. The stories OFF the course were far more interesting and I wish they'd been given more ink, but Final Rounds is still a very good book.
Final Rounds: A Father, A Son, The Journey Of A Lifetime. March 8, 2007
Fanstic read. This will touch the heart of any golfer that has ever had the chance to play with their Dad.
Inspiration for a trip with my sons January 26, 2006
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I lost this book while I was vacationing with my wife in Italy for her 40th birthday. I couldn't wait to get home to buy another copy and finish it. That was 9 years ago. I was so moved by the story that I made a pledge to try and take my sons on a similar trip one day. Well, I've lost 3 jobs since then and have been paying college expenses for 6 years, the last 4 years for 2 kids at a time. However, my current job allowed me to go to Aberdeen, Scotland 6 times last year alone. While reading the book again, I dog earred places I wanted to include on my trip. I have also been saving magazine articles as well as itineraries from acquainteses who have made similar golf excursions. And during my trips to Scotland I've developed friendships and they have helped with insights to add my catalog of information.
Well, the trip is planned. I compiled a notebook for both my sons with our planned itinerary, a route map showing the courses along our journey and website information on all the courses. I gave it to them for Christmas. They are pumped. Both are very good players and we have played alot together. My oldest is getting married in October and my yougner son plays for his college team and will graduate in May. For their birthdays they each will get a copy of Final Round to read as a prerequiste to the trip schedlued June 6-21. We will play both the famous and the hidden gems. We'll play Carnoustie on Father's Day and then drive down to St. Andrew's and watch the final round of the US Open in a pub 100 yards off the 18th green of the Old Course. Our last round will be on the Old Course. This book provided a dream for a once in a lifetime trip. I'm going to share it with two of my favorite people.
A great story for father and sons regardless if they golf May 16, 2005
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I picked up this book at a used book sale on a lark. I love Scotland and thought a book on a father and son golf trip to the old courses would be fun. What I didn't expect was such a great book about the relationship between a very optimistic father and his earnest son. Just before the trip the father discovers he has cancer and not long to live. They go on the trip anyway and we get to know two interesting people and how life's lessons can come in many places including on a golf course. I lost my father a few months before I read this book. I took my time reading it, not wanting it to end. It helped ease the pain of my loss and to direct my energies and lessons I have to offer to my sons.
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