dylan dethier
eighteen in america
Featured in Parade Magazine, USA Today and on NPR's Weekend Edition.
"This is a superb book about golf -- but it's also a superb book about growing up, fitting in, friendship, food and the great American road. I barely know a birdie from a bogie, but it didn't matter: I still devoured Dylan Dethier's memorable tale of innocence lost and wisdom won."
— A.J. Jacobs, New York Times bestselling author of The Know-it-All and Drop Dead Healthy
At 18, Dylan Dethier couldn’t help but think he’d never really done anything with his life. Growing up in sheltered Williamstown, Mass., it was safe to say he hadn’t seen much of our sprawling country either. So, bucking all reasonable advice, Dylan deferred his admission to Williams College and set out on his idea of the Great American Road Trip: play a round of golf in each of the 48 contiguous states, meet the people of America, and try to understand the powerful and equalizing pull of the game he had fallen in love with as a kid.
Over the course of the year and 35,000 miles traveled in his dusty old Subaru, Dylan showered at truck stops, slept with an axe under his car seat, lost his virginity, and played $3 municipals. As his project gained attention from the sports community, he also met heroes including legendary golfer Phil Mickelson and Michael Jordan and he teed off at Pebble Beach and Augusta. He played in Flint, Michigan, and Gothenburg, Nebraska; weathered floods and tornadoes; and played nearly 150 rounds of golf. Dylan’s eighteenth year was one of many firsts—venturing into the world alone, exploring serious questions about his future, and fulfilling an ambitious quest. This was the year when people stopped calling him a kid and started calling him a man.
In crisp prose and with a wry, engaging voice, Dylan takes us beyond his own reflections to weave a poignant portrait of America and its golfers. From a wide-eyed Tiger Woods-generation teenager who learned that sometimes there’s more to be learned on a golf course than in a classroom, Dylan Dethier’s memoir will delight golf fanatics and lovers of American travelogue alike.
Dylan Dethier has been profiled by The New York Times, USA Today, and ESPN, among other sports and news media across the country. He graduated from Williams College and now writes about the intersection of sports and society for GOLF magazine and other outlets.
Published by Scribner in May, 2013.
More praise for Eighteen in America:
“I loved 18 in America and the connection I share with Dylan Dethier to both the game of golf and our country. Anybody who has swung a golf club can tell you that it’s more than a game -- it becomes a personal challenge that helps you discover yourself. Dylan writes about his adventures with wisdom beyond his years.” — Jason Dufner, two-time PGA Tour winner
“It is not every year that a well-conceived golf book is written by a recent high school graduate... Sleeping in his car, showering at truck stops and raiding free motel breakfast buffets, Dethier played wherever the road took him, with golf as a vehicle for understanding America. He played with autoworkers and livestock auctioneers, and his 32,000-mile trek became a tale about everything you can learn about your country 18 holes at a time. It was a journey that was much more than a golf trip.” — The New York Times
“18 in America is a golf adventure that will appeal to anyone who has ever played the great game. At its heart, though, it is the story of a young man growing into adulthood, taking chances, making mistakes, finding out what feels right and what feels wrong. I salute Dylan Dethier for stepping off the good school-good college-good job treadmill and taking a year to find out who he really is, for writing about his amazing trip with such honesty and insight, and for being willing to reveal his flaws as openly as he revels in his triumphs. It is rare to find a book—especially a golf book, especially a debut written by someone so young—that smoothly blends pure fun and astute life lessons. 18 in America will inspire golfers and adventurers both young and old. I enjoyed every page.” — Roland Merullo, author of Golfing with God and regular contributor to Golf World magazine
“An enterprising and inspirational golf journey unlike any other.” — Jim Nantz, CBS Sports
“Whether showering in truck stops, meeting Phil Mickelson and Michael Jordan, or playing at Sawgrass and Pebble Beach, the simple story of 18 in America is filled with youthful enthusiasm, honest and sincere. It's a lovely road story well told. Discover a young golf Kerouac on the road, teeing off all across America and loving it.” — Tom Lavoie, Shelf Awareness
“His trip was not just about par, birdies and bogeys…. Dethier is not from the country club world of golf.” — USA Today
“Two parts coming-of-age story, one part golf travel adventure and one part survival test. The result, 18 in America, is the work of a young man who not only is unusually insightful and self-aware, but has the writerly gifts and clear voice to tell his story. In a year that is shaping up to be an unusually good one for golf literature, it’s unlikely that the genre is going to produce anything as compelling as Dethier’s tale.”— Golfweek magazine
“[A] winning memoir, which transcends golf’s elitist image, exposing the generous, diverse, and contradictory soul of the game—and of America itself.”
— Parade magazine
“Like Jack Kerouac and Ken Kesey and a host of others before him, Dethier packed his used car and his meager life savings, and set off to see and write about America.... Encounters with hustlers and thieves aside, what resonates in “18 in America” is Dethier’s optimism, and his talent for perceiving and telling of the good in things, be they golf or people.” — ABC News/Yahoo
“It's not the brushes with greatness (including caddying in a pro-am with Phil Mickelson) but the goodness of ordinary people that make his journey so memorable--for him and for us.” — In Play magazine
“A great coming of age tale based around the most epic of golf trips. A quick and easy read that does not disappoint.” — The Itinerant Golfer
“I couldn't put it down… The writing is vivid. You can see the people, imagine the places and understand a young man's moments of loneliness and fear then on the next page laugh at his sense of humor. You'd think this was his 20th book, not his initial effort. I seldom read a book in two days, but I devoured Dethier's superb 256page effort.” — Berkshire Eagle
“Intriguing... more than his share of unpredictable episodes that make for good reading.” — Salt Lake Tribune
“Two things will piss you off about this book. First of all, Dethier is a better golfer than you or me. Second of all, he is a better writer than you or me…. A heartfelt, introspective, coming-of-age story, Jack Kerouac meets Jack Nicklaus.” — Sportschump.net
“This would be considered fine work by any writer, let alone one so young.” — The Maine Edge