John Haines

Danny Mo a Novel John Haines

DANNY MORAN found it fun and freeing to rank himself "top-five worldwide" at life's more mundane tasks (sorting socks, opening stubborn jar lids, etc.) while embracing the joys and challenges of family life, running a business, and preserving his legendary status in competitive amateur golf. But when long-made plans are destroyed and longer-held routines are rendered meaningless, it marks the beginning of a brand new life for Danny Mo.

After three years away from golf to deal with a world he never could have anticipated, Danny returns to competition and to his hometown for one more, mostly ceremonial, appearance in the State Open. The championship is to be held at a controversial new course, The Majesty in Rock Harbor, situated along the bayside bluffs and dramatic shoreline property of Wisconsin's famed Door County. Possessing a significant advantage with his knowledge of the land, Danny acts on a long-harbored temptation and attempts something in the final round of the Open that no one - not Tiger, not Phil, nor Jack nor Arnie in their prime - could even think of pulling off. What transpires stuns the harbor community and puts Danny at the center of a national story in Sport's Illustrated that, even as it informs and enlightens, creates far more questions than it answers.

Family, health, work and a passion for sports and competition are precariously balanced against elements of faith, regret, mortality and infinite possibility in a familiar world that becomes harder to recognize as the challenges mount. Yet hope remains and redemption beckons for a family galvanized by love and loathing and come what may.