Letters to a Future Champion: My Time with Mr. Pulver

Letters to a Future Champion: My Time with Mr. Pulver by Dottie Pepper. paperback edition. ISBN: 9781954786295.

Dottie Pepper’s "Letters to a Future Champion: My Time with Mr. Pulver" is a loving tribute to the power a mentor can have in an athlete’s career. George J. Pulver, Sr., was a golf great in his own right – as a golfer, as a course designer, and as an advocate for golfing throughout the Northeast. But he took on the mantle of mentor when he and a young Dottie, age 15, began a teacher-student relationship that would stretch into Dottie’s college years. Dottie would eventually emerge as a multiple champion in the LPGA and beyond, and today is a the lead walking reporter for CBS Sports’ coverage of the PGA Tour, Masters, and PGA Championship. In this beautifully crafted book, Dottie traces the influence “Mr. Pulver” had on her skills as well as her character both on the practice range – where Mr. Pulver dutifully watched every detail of her swing – and in the letters the two exchanged after. Mr. Pulver would sit down at his typewriter and carefully tap out a critique, or a technique, or advise on the life lessons Dottie would need to rise to the top. Dottie compiled those letters into a binder and referred to them often … her bible, of sorts, on her path to a future as a multiple winner and two-time major champion on the LPGA Tour.