"There are legendary tales that transcend sport, and John Haines' Danny Mo does just this with humor, heartbreak, triumph, and truth. With a tip of the visor to Dan Jenkins, it’s a dead solid perfect debut." -- Gary Van Sickle, Sports Illustrated senior writer
“Maybe the best novel about golf ever written."-- Gary D'Amato, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
“The characters in Danny Mo are entertaining, vulnerable, faulted and frequently hilarious. And though the story may revolve around a game and told with deadly serious Irish humor, life’s bigger questions are not excluded. ” – John Ehle, GolfWisconsin.com
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 these routines get ripped from his life, it marks the beginning of a brand new life for Danny Mo.
After taking three years away from golf to deal with a world he couldn’t 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 atop the bayside bluffs and along the dramatic shoreline property of Wisconsin’s famed Door County. Armed with his local knowledge advantage, Danny 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 Sport’s Illustrated story that creates many 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.
