Somewhere in Ireland A Village is Missing an Idiot [Hardcover]

David Feherty (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 20, 2003

Golf’s multitalented combination of Dave Barry, P.J. O’Rourke, and Rick Reilly, David Feherty is the nation’s funniest and most popular on-screen golf personality. His "Sidespin" column is the most popular feature in Golf Magazine, and his first novel, A Nasty Bit of Rough, cracked the New York Times bestseller list. Now, at long last, an omnibus of Feherty’s best nonfiction hilarity.

Somewhere in Ireland, A Village is Missing an Idiot is a collection of Feherty’s most popular Golf Magazine columns, intermingled with his most outrageous work from Golfonline.com. As an added bonus, readers will be treated to some notorious pieces from his work at the British publication Golf Monthly. Edited by and with a running commentary by Feherty, and accompanied by some of the priceless letters to the editor from readers across the country and around the globe complaining about Feherty’s perversity, Somewhere in Ireland is the perfect Father’s Day gift for the crankiest duffer in every family.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

As a broadcaster for CBS Sports, Feherty (A Nasty Bit of Rough) injects a most welcome dash of humor into his play-by-play of professional golf tournaments, a sport not well known for hilarious hijinks or colorful characters. This "best of" collection of columns from Golf Magazine, the British publication Golf Monthly and Golfonline.com by the expatriate Irishman is equally entertaining, but Feherty in large doses can wear a bit thin. With a schoolboy's delight in all things scatological, many columns honor the author's digestive tract or lack thereof; he also spends time with vomiting fans and African animal excrement. But Feherty's place in golf literature is assured by his sprightly refusal to accept an image of the game as dull and unexciting, with colorless players who all look and sound the same. Feherty is a black sheep golf character who enjoys a game different from the one projected by the media and earnest sportswriters who wax poetic about azaleas, sportsmanship and traditions. His golf is that of Everyman, where expletives, immaturity and the occasional ingestion of alcohol combine to make it a fun and infuriating game. Reading in their entirety the 300-plus pages of intense efforts to be funny will require some fortitude, but if you like your golf writing irreverent, dicey and honest, you will certainly enjoy this.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

TV golf analyst Feherty follows his popular first novel, A Tasty Bit of Rough [BKL Mr 15 02], with a collection of his columns from Golf Magazine and Golfonline. Like Gary McCord, his colleague at CBS, Feherty can be very funny in a refreshingly irreverent way (a quality usually absent from golf), but also like McCord, his machine-gun assault of one-liners can grow stale quickly. Clearly, this collection should not be read straight through unless one possesses superhuman tolerance for fart jokes and outrageous similes. In short doses, however, Feherty rarely fails to entertain. His behind-the-scenes columns not only poke fun at his on-air colleagues but also provide a genuinely fascinating look at what golf broadcasting is like from the other side of the microphone. But, most of all, there are lots of great golf stories, like the time Doug Sanders missed a three-foot putt to lose the British Open and fabled announcer Henry Longhurst offered only a three-word commentary: "What a pity." Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Rugged Land (May 20, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590710096
• ISBN-13: 978-1590710098
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #530,579 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Loved it, July 3, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Somewhere in Ireland A Village is Missing an Idiot (Hardcover)

This is one of the nuttiest, funniest books I've read in some time. Feherty takes a boring game and makes it seem interesting. What a character! For more laughs I also recommend WHO'S YOUR CADDY, STUPID WHITE MEN and NO ONE'S EVEN BLEEDING.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Like golf? Need a laugh? Buy this Book!, May 1, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Somewhere in Ireland A Village is Missing an Idiot (Hardcover)

By far, the funniest golf book you will ever read. Feherty can write better than Tiger can play. One word of warning, do not read this book in a libary, hospital, or anywhere else you will get in trouble for laughing out loud. I believe that I woke my neighbors the other night at 3 AM as I kicked the common wall while I rolled over with laughter. I'll get over the stubbed toe, but I hope my neighbor does not hold a grudge. Happy reading :o)

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, old-fashioned clubhouse humor, December 27, 2003

By 

Brent Wigen (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Somewhere in Ireland A Village is Missing an Idiot (Hardcover)

To many people, golf is a tradition-rich sport, governed by stuffy, upper-class men with little or no sense of humor. For people who play golf, there is another side of the game: the funny, raunchy, and sometimes obscene area where most weekend duffers spend their golfing lives and many professionals spend much of their off-camera time. David Feherty is a member of the latter group, and has collected a group of his Golf Digest articles to make this book.

Feherty is a former professional golfer who now works as a commentator for CBS Sports, and has spent various portions of his career in various locales, both mainstream and remote. His tales of life on the Safari Tour and on the European Tour are priceless stories of anonymous toil in golf backwaters told as only Feherty can tell them. He skewers many in his stories, from the golf establishment to frequent partner Gary McCord, mercilessly, while reserving the most embarassing stories for himself. This self-deprecating humor is certainly endearing and makes for some of the best reading in the book.

Also included are great articles which display the emotional side of golf from an insider's perspective, from the patriotic fervor of Davis Cup competitors to the grief felt by the whole tour at the loss of Payne Stewart.

As some reviewers have mentioned, the humor in this book tends to focus on bodily functions. If gas jokes offend you, then this is not the book for you. If they don't, then get ready for some great golf writing and absolute hilarity, Feherty-style.