His Ownself: A Semi-Memoir

Dan Jenkins is somewhat of a polarizing character, seen by some of the more tightly-wound in the world of sports and sportswriting these days as a politically-incorrect dinosaur, but there's no denying his bonafides as a sportswriter. In a career that has spanned 65 years - so far - he has written about golf and college football, mostly, and other sports when called upon to do so, for the Fort Worth Press, Dallas Herald, Sports Illustrated, and Golf Digest, with a few years of providing a sports column to Playboy magazine as well. He has covered more of golf's major tournaments than any writer living, and speaking of that, he is one of only three golf writers to have been inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame (the others being Herbert Warren Wind and Bernard Darwin) and the only one inducted, in his words, "while still vertical".In "His Ownself: A Memoir", Jenkins reaches into his formidable memory and comes back with tales of his early life growing up in a sports-crazy town, Fort Worth, Texas, in a sports-crazy time, the 1930s. College football and golf were the most important sports of his formative years, with the TCU Horned Frogs in town and the SMU Mustangs just down the road in Dallas, not to mention that two of the greatest golfers ever to swing a club, Ben Hogan and Byron Nelson, were also Fort Worth native sons.Jenkins began his career with the Fort Worth Press, starting on the job as an incoming college freshman. Over the years he met and wrote about all the greats - he got to know Ben Hogan while still a college golfer and sportswriter for the Forth Worth Press, and came to know the great man very well over the years. Besides innumerable columns and sidebars, he has penned eleven novels - three of which that have been made into movies, with varying degrees of success - and nine nonfiction books. At age 84 he is still writing for Golf Digest, and attending golf's major tournaments - the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship - to provide eager readers with his unique insights.Readers of this book who have read his other work - and I cannot imagine that they won't have - will recognize the tenor of his fictional tales in the stories he tells of his early life and subsequent career. Many characters and personalities, and even thinly-disguised versions of real-life incidents from his own life, have made their way into his fiction over the years, and the dedicated Jenkins reader will be delighted to discover these serendipities as they read this book. I'm sure that some more critical readers, encountering the real-life incidents in this memoir that have been reflected in Jenkins' fiction will lambast him for the roman-a-clef qualities of his novels, but personally, I delighted in discovering these matchups between real life and fiction.The bottom line is that anyone who is a fan of sportswriting, especially where it pertains to golf from the days of Hogan, Nelson, and Snead to the present, is doing themselves a disservice if they don't read "His Ownself: A Memoir". Over the years, Dan Jenkins saw it all, knew them all - and wrote about it all, in the kind of brash, sometimes cynical, sometimes playful - but always insightful - prose that is a rare commodity in these tip-toeing days of million-dollar tournament paychecks and big-buck corporate sponsorship. No sports fan's library is complete without this book.

Maybe I am just jealous of the life that Dan Jenkins has led. As a retired journalist, I certainly never got to do half the thingsJenkins did as a writer for the Fort Worth Press, Sports Illustrated, Golf Digest and Playboy magazine. But the dizzying ride Jenkins take us on in His Ownself practically exhausted me and made me wonder when he ever had time to write his articles and books. I've had the opportunity to know some of Jenkins' best friends Blackie Sherrod , Bud Shrake and Gary Cartwright through the years and can attest to the validity of all the wild things they did during the years when writing for a newspaper could be a blast. But Jenkins' later years at SI made me wonder if the magazine ever had accountants. He and his wife stayed in the best hotels, ate in the best restaurants and drank at the best watering holes. Along the way he made great friends with some very unlikely folks for a sports writer to know. I think it speaks to Dan Jenkins' tremendous talents as a writer for him to know so many people in show business. And his many stories about his close relationship with Ben Hogan, an infamously chilly legend on the golf circuit, seems to reaffirm that. I didn't give Jenkins' a higher rating because, frankly, I got a bit tired of the name dropping and references to his luxury travels. I really wanted to know more about what it took to get inside the minds of famous golfers and football stars. Regardless, this is a fun read for anyone who has followed Jenkins' career and enjoyed his best selling books.

I have most every book Dan Jenkins has written (I think I have all of them!)... and enjoyed several movies based on his grand works (SEMI-TOUGH will always be easily accessible in my DVD collection). HIS OWNSELF: A SELF-MEMOIR, his latest creation, is my personal favorite. I have the honor and pleasure of knowing Dan, both of us living in the same city, Fort Worth, and existing in approximately the same age bracket. Being in his company is never a bore! This book captures the easiness and traits of the best sports writer on the planet. No, I'm not "laying it on a bit thick"! Dan Jenkins has won every single award possible, yet maintains that special quality of writing --- in the same frame as he speaks. He is a casual conversationalist, and the pages reflect the feeling he is chatting with you! I found myself laughing out loud as Dan focused on some of the happenings in his personal life, yet he also reveals some facts pertaining to his ultra-successful professional career that grab the attention in a strong manner that could never be contrived! He knows all of the top pro golfers, of course (he is amongst those special giants in the WORLD GOLF HALL-OF-FAME!) and shares many mind boggling memories with us. Although he is highly diversified when it comes to sports, especially college and pro football, the golf links seem to be his specialty. He was a close, personal friend of Ben Hogan (played dozens of rounds of golf with the man many, including his peers, considered to be the grand master of them all, yet almost "unapproachable"). He releases his thoughts toward Tiger, as well as almost every big winner in the difficult game, dating back to the '50s. Dan doesn't put on the brakes, it would be completely "against the grain" for him to do so --- even though he may make some of the top players develop a case of the "yips" as they absorb this masterpiece! This is one book that I promise you'll enjoy, even if you're not hooked on golf. Of course, you'd expect this from Dan Jenkins. He breaks par on every page!