A golf novel for all time.
“In The Professional, Evan Mandery brings to life a veteran Tour pro with both prodigious talent and a prodigious work ethic. What he lacks is a purpose in life. The novel is a compelling saga of golf obsession and, ultimately, of redemption through golf. Mandery knows the game inside and out, especially all that goes on inside a golfer’s head.”
—John Paul Newport, author of The Fine Green Line
“The Professional is a terrific tale of redemption with a great cast of characters. Not only does Mandery capture the life of journeyman tour pro to a tee, but his non-linear storytelling technique keeps the reader riveted.”
—Tom Cunneff, National Golf Writer:
“Engrossing…an intense assessment of how this game can upset a life or provide it with satisfaction and meaning… Mandery offers a conclusion equal to ‘hitting it pure.’”
—Les Schupak, Met Golfer
“Golf is more than a game of a lifetime, it is a round-by-round mirror of its participants’ character. Evan Mandery masterfully captures the raw emotion, struggles, joys, despair, romance, failure, triumph, evolution and redemption of a golf professional. The Professional gently transports us to days of our youth when we walked the fairway with a loved one and how important it is that we cherish those fleeting moments.”
—Bob Denney, PGA Historian Emeritus
As a 16-year-old, David is told by his West Latrobe High School English teacher that he is a gifted writer, and should attend a summer workshop, but David’s controlling, abusive father demands that he spend the summer preparing for the Pennsylvania State Open, forcing David to decide whether to live his father’s dream or his own.
Later, as a forty-something journeyman pro, David experiences a mid-life crisis during the final round of a tournament, causing him to question the meaning of golf and how he has spent his life. Long-brewing feelings of failure surface, and David is tempted towards a potentially catastrophic affair with a beautiful Alabama housewife.
Finally, as an old man, golf presents David with an opportunity for redemption in the form of Billy Conway, an immensely talented but raw young player, who turns to David for help and offers him a path to redemption.
The Professional’s life intersects with the greats of the game—Nicklaus, Watson and Palmer (in whose shadow David is raised) and the novel asks the questions that everyone who loves golf has asked. What are the conditions that produce virtuosity? Does a single-minded devotion to a skill preclude the possibility of a happy life? Does the game ultimately become a job?
The characters who animate the novel are unforgettable: Rabbit Lindner, David’s obsessive-compulsive caddie; Mal Howard, his father, who has patterned his life on his own hero, Deacon Palmer; Bobby Rancourt, a rising star with a single-minded focus on golf; Aaron Richardson, a fallen star playing his last rounds as he battles leukemia; and Billy Conway the young orphan through whom David finds redemption.
Told with humor, charm, and a devotion to the history of the game, The Professional is truly a golf novel for the ages.
