Book review on Draw in the Dunes by Floyd author, Neil Sagebiel Draw in the Dunes Thomas Dunne Books. 320 pages. $26.99. Posted: Sunday, October 19, 2014 12:00 am By Ralph Berrier Jr. ralph.berrier@roanoke 981-3338 British golfer Tony Jacklin lined up for the most pressure-packed putt of his life. The Ryder Cup and the pride of a nation were on the line. He had to sink that two-footer on the final hole to tie his match with the great Jack Nicklaus and forge a draw with the mighty American team. Then, Nicklaus did the unthinkable: He picked up Jacklin’s ball marker and conceded the putt to his opponent. The 1969 Ryder Cup, one of the most dramatic tournaments in professional golf history, ended in a tie. The two countries shared the cup, which was almost as good as a victory for the regularly beaten Brits. “I don’t believe you’d have missed that putt,” Nicklaus said as he extended his hand to his opponent, “but I would never give you the opportunity in these circumstances.” That’s how the ’69 Ryder Cup ended, but Nicklaus’ famous concession is just the beginning of “Draw in the Dunes,” the enjoyably readable piece of sports history from Neil Sagebiel, a nationally prominent golf blogger and author from Floyd who has a reputation for digging up interesting golf stories and telling them as deftly as a PGA pro handles a 9-iron around the green. Sagebiel’s previous golf book, “The Longest Shot,” was one of Booklist’s top 10 sports books of 2012 and earned him worthy comparisons to other top golf writers such as John Feinstein. “Draw in the Dunes” also tells the back story that led to the Ryder Cup’s dramatic conclusion that day on the wind-swept Royal Birkdale course in Southport, England. Before 1969, a string of hapless British teams had been routinely thrashed by Americans in the Ryder Cup, a match-play tournament founded in 1927 by Englishman Samuel Ryder, a rich seed merchant and golfer. (“Draw in the Dunes” also serves as a concise history of the Ryder Cup.) After a few evenly matched tournaments, American teams won 13 of 14 of the biannual Ryder Cups, a blow to national pride in the United Kingdom, the birthplace of golf. The 1967 tournament in Houston had been a complete rout in favor of the Yanks. Two years later, the Brits, under the leadership of the inspirational captain Eric Brown, believed they had a chance to take back the cup. The tournament would be played on home soil, and they were supported by a rabid British golf press that produced fawning stories that bordered on sports propaganda. They also had Jacklin, a golfer perhaps not so well-known now, but who was one of the top players in the world in 1969. What resulted was a close tournament that was so tense, opposing players nearly came to blows on one of the greens. Sagebiel tells the tournament’s story in a clear, straightforward manner, while sprinkling in details from numerous interviews conducted with the players who were there. Readers who are not sports fans will probably get lost in the gallery of names and perhaps have difficulty comprehending the scoring and details of the matches, but golf aficionados will surely enjoy reading about Nicklaus, Lee Trevino, Gary Player and the Virginia-born legend Sam Snead, the American captain in 1969 who apparently was miffed about Nicklaus’ concession. The details, interviews, research and clear writing make “Draw in the Dunes” an ace of a read for fans of good golf writing.
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 11:30:19 +0000
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