His Ownself: Dan Jenkins on pros, presidents, and when a funny line becomes a cheap shot

Golf Digest, June, 2001 by Guy Yocom

Even as a little kid, I was fascinated by newspapers and magazines. They were my TV. I'd be the first one up to grab the morning paper, mainly to look at the sports pictures, the war pictures. One day my grandmother found an old typewriter in the attic and put it on the kitchen table for me. I started teaching myself to type on it. I was around 10 or 11 then. What I'd type would be the sports stories and war stories in the paper. I'd copy them, pretend to be a newspaper guy. Then one day I started rewriting them, trying to improve them. That's when I knew I was going to be a newspaperman or a writer of some kind. It's all I ever wanted to do.

Is there a secret to writing well?

Are you accusing me of writing well? I guess I've written successfully. I'm pretty sure that writing for publication is one of the most arrogant things a human can do. Your name is on it and you're telling everybody how it is. It requires arrogance, confidence, ego, all that. It also requires self-assurance. Take writing golf. I believe that the longer you've been at it, and the more knowledgeable you've become, the more you can be definitive and opinionated. Your first obligation to the reader is to be accurate. Then if you can inform and entertain the reader at the same time--without straining a muscle--all the better.

Did you learn this on your own?

I've had a lot of help. First from Blackie Sherrod. He hired me out of high school at The Fort Worth Press. I went to college with a byline--that'll make you arrogant right there. Blackie introduced me to all his heroes, who became my heroes--John Lardner, Damon Runyon, Henry McLemore, Red Smith.

That's how you developed your style?

I took what I liked from those people, and put an edge to it. Which would be my personality, my attitude. If I have a style, that's it. I mainly studied John Lardner and Damon Runyon, who were the greatest sportswriters who ever lived. They were masters at poking fun at their subjects without drawing blood. I still think Runyon wrote the greatest lead in newspaper history when he covered the Al Capone trial: "Al Capone was quietly dressed when he arrived at the courthouse this morning, except for a hat of pearly white, emblematic, no doubt, of purity."

I've been accused of drawing blood on occasion, and I'm sure I have, but, on the other hand, maybe they deserved it. All I've ever done is try to get at the truth of the matter.

Is golf written as well as other sports?

Well, it does have a literature, a body of work. Like somebody once said, no sport is worthwhile if it doesn't have a literature. I do know a golf tournament is the hardest sports event to cover. For one thing, it lasts four days as opposed to a three-hour football game. For another, it's a lot bigger playing field and there are a lot more competitors. But one thing never changes. In any sports event--golf, football, baseball, whatever--there's always a defining moment. The best writers are those who know how to recognize that defining moment and hammer it in their stories. I might add that the best writers know what to leave out. Which means . . .