May 1, 2000
Reminiscent of Harry Hurt III's Chasing the Dream, journalist Newport's chronicle of a year of golf is the latest, but not the greatest, of the Q-School sagas. Newport's narrative is driven by two objectives: to see how much better he can get at golf in 12 months' time (he starts with a 2.7 handicap) and to test himself at the end of the year by entering the PGA Tour's qualifying school. He tackles the first objective by taking lessons from respected teacher Michael Hebron, who points out plenty of flaws in Newport's swing, as well as the fundamental flaw in his objective: there's just no way he's going to improve his game all that much inside a year--no one could. But Newport won't be dissuaded, so he embarks on a long series of mini-Tour events to get a sense of playing under pressure. Many of the people the author meets at these tournaments are interesting, but it grows tiresome to read his nearly shot-by-shot accounts of dozens of butchered rounds and holes, all lashed together with doses of desperate wisdom, self-pity, disgust and anger. By the time he finally reaches Q-School, the reader knows Newport is going to self-destruct, which he does, denying the book a satisfying resolution. Newport's objectives are compelling. It's unfortunate that his experiences weren't commensurate.