John J. McDermott & the 1971 U.S. Open

By: Paul Cervantes

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

John J. McDermott was an American golf professional. He broke the stranglehold that European players had on the U.S. Open by becoming the first American to win the tournament in 1911. He won the event again in 1912 but soon after slipped away from the world of competitive golf. McDermott had mysteriously self-committed himself to a series of mental institutions, where he would live out the rest of his life. In John J. McDermott & the U.S. Open of 1971 the last months of McDermott's life are sketched out among the country clubs of the Philadelphia area. We also meet people who McDermott could have crossed paths with him on his journey to his final U.S. at Merion in the early summer of 1971. Golf is the backdrop for this book yet it's not a golf book at its essence. It's a book about relationships. It's a book about seeking new directions as characters reached middle age. It's a book about the brightness of small kindnesses and shadowy regrets about the past. It's about the chance for redemption. And, it's about the communion that can occur when two men, professionals from different eras, walk together: "It was the kind of round and day that made the course feel like a vast, perfect, green playground for the soul, the mind and the body. The soul was nourished by the silence and the soft green of the grass and the majesty of the trees and the rise and fall of the land. The mind embraced the expectation of journey, from one shot to the next and one hole to the next, and the quiet planning the game encouraged. The body was blessed with the sense of the earth and the sights and smells. Each shot conveyed a feeling of gravity and speed and impact. Once in flight, the eye gauged how well the shot fit not only its task but also with the intention formed by the mind. On a day like this, time might lose its inevitable force for a little while, leaving two men to commune with the game and themselves."