Missing Links meets The Hustler in a hilarious fictional send-up of the most pressure-packed golf tournament in the world.
The Ryder Cup.
A biennial tournament considered the premier event in the golfing world, pitting the twelve best players in the United States against the twelve best of Europe in a contest so pressure-filled it can paralyze even the most battle-scarred tour veterans.
United States captain Alan Bellamy, with one precious slot unfilled and none of the remaining top tour players willing to sign on against a clearly superior European squad, makes a desperate decision in his attempt to preserve America's golfing honor: he selects as his twelfth man one Eddie Caminetti, a low-life, two-bit hustler from a municipal course in South Florida.
The most prestigious tournament in golf will never be the same. As the unforeseen consequences of Caminetti's participation on the Ryder team unfold riotously, Troon McAllister takes us into the minds and souls of elite professional athletes and poses a question as old as golf itself: Why would God create a game even He can't play?
Where many previous novels have elevated the game to a near-mystical religion, McAllister crashes it firmly back to earth where it belongs, in the hands and hearts of real people in all their devotion, profanity, enthusiasm, exasperation, and sheer joy.
Even if the closest you've ever been to a round of golf was trying to putt past a windmill into a clown's nose, you'll find yourself totally enthralled as these fascinating characters fight the course, their personal demons, and especially each other in their pursuit of the most fiendishly frustrating sport ever created.
The Ryder Cup.
A biennial tournament considered the premier event in the golfing world, pitting the twelve best players in the United States against the twelve best of Europe in a contest so pressure-filled it can paralyze even the most battle-scarred tour veterans.
United States captain Alan Bellamy, with one precious slot unfilled and none of the remaining top tour players willing to sign on against a clearly superior European squad, makes a desperate decision in his attempt to preserve America's golfing honor: he selects as his twelfth man one Eddie Caminetti, a low-life, two-bit hustler from a municipal course in South Florida.
The most prestigious tournament in golf will never be the same. As the unforeseen consequences of Caminetti's participation on the Ryder team unfold riotously, Troon McAllister takes us into the minds and souls of elite professional athletes and poses a question as old as golf itself: Why would God create a game even He can't play?
Where many previous novels have elevated the game to a near-mystical religion, McAllister crashes it firmly back to earth where it belongs, in the hands and hearts of real people in all their devotion, profanity, enthusiasm, exasperation, and sheer joy.
Even if the closest you've ever been to a round of golf was trying to putt past a windmill into a clown's nose, you'll find yourself totally enthralled as these fascinating characters fight the course, their personal demons, and especially each other in their pursuit of the most fiendishly frustrating sport ever created.
