Tales from Q School: Inside Golf's Fifth Major (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: one more birdie, money list, sponsor exemptions, Nationwide Tour, Lake Jovita, Tiger Woods (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Q School (or, more formally, the PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament) is golf's Long March, the winding road that aspiring professionals must negotiate if they are to qualify to play on the PGA Tour. Even though the players in the annual event are mainly unknowns, golf fans are fascinated by the grueling, heartbreaking nature of the competition--three separate tournaments during which more than 1,000 aspirants are winnowed down to 30 qualifiers, the survivors of the 108-hole, six-day Final Stage. It's surprising, really, that it's taken the best-selling Feinstein, master of the year-in-the-life sports chronicle, this long to write about Q School. The subject is made to order for his slices-of-life approach. There's plenty of dramatic shot-by-shot reporting here, as Feinstein follows the action at the 2005 Q School, but the core of the book is taken up with getting inside the heads of the competitors, whether it's overmatched also-rans who don't know when to quit, talented rookies seemingly on the verge of great careers, or former champions struggling to hang on one more year. (Masters winner Larry Mize says it all for the last group: "It's been a long time since I had to put my golf shoes on in the parking lot.") What makes this account so compelling is the way Feinstein drives home the point recreational golfers know all too well: golf is, above all, a humbling, even humiliating, game. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

It's clearly a book for golf junkies, maybe een golf wonks. Feinstein introduces such minute details about tournaments that at times it's hard to follow his reading. And this is the abridged version! The stories themselves soemtimes lack the kind of dramatic structure that lets the listener know when one ends and another starts. The author is accepted as narrator, but his volume seldom varies, so it's sometimes difficult to perceive when he's stressing a point. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (May 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316014303
• ISBN-13: 978-0316014304
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #328,904 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Mighty Feinstein has fallen, May 8, 2007

By	S. Bostic "SAB" (Atlanta) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

John Feinstein is one of the great sportswriters of this generation...or, at least he was. I love golf and considered his 1995 "A Good Walk Spoiled" to be a classic golf and sports book. He also scored big with "A Season on the Brink" in 1988 and "A Civil War", the great read about the Army/Navy football game. These books are all classics and I thought of Feinstein as one of the true greats in the business. And then came Tales from Q School. This book is about as light as any book I have ever read on content. The type is big and there are few words on each page. You can read a page in about 20 seconds because a page in this book is really not a page at all. It's more like a paragraph or two. The stories aren't that interesting and the book just has the feel of a commercial rush job. I will think twice before investing in a Feinstein book from now on. There isn't anything that interesting in the book and one man's story has the same feeling as the next guys. Frankly, some of these stories are old and have been part of Q-school lore for years. The book just had the feeling of a rushed term paper...his heart just wasn't into this book like some of his others.
This would have been a good Golf Digest article...just cut out a few stories and you have a good article. I read the book in about 5 hours and I read pretty slow...I would not buy this book again. This is a piece of work that Feinstein should be ashamed because we know how capable he is...save your money and time. Feinstein better do better next time or his credibility will be tarnished and that would be a shame.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars golf heaven or hell, May 8, 2007

By	M. Brodlieb "exercise reader" (new york,new york) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

if you are one of those golf fans who goes to (...) to study the money list or just loves the drama of individual athletic striving,you will find this book enjoyable. as with his other books on golf feinstein definitely does not bring "it" to the next level as his writing sometimes leaves as many questions as answers,but no one else is telling this story and it is a compelling story or should i say stories. easy to read and the cast of golfers from yale graduates to past major champions are all here struggling with that four letter word....golf.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great stories; both of conquest and defeat., June 3, 2007

By	E. Kay (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Cannot say enough about how dramatic this book is. It touches on all aspects of the human experience, not always nor exclusively pertaining to golf. The reader is sucked in by stores of the everyday Joe going for that elusive goal or dream, and doing whatever they feel is necessary to get there. And not with a very high success rate. Feinstein offers a very personal look at how the Tour operates, and how the golfers are put through one of the most arduous qualifying processes in major sports. After reading this book, I find myself paying much closer attention not only to the Nationwide Tour, but also to the not-so-famous names that pepper the leaderboard on the second and third days of any tournament. Woods, Singh, and Lefty are always around, but when you see that guy who ranks 124th, and has yet to win a Tourney, you can't help but rot for him, 'cuz this will very likely be his one time in the sun. And con't ever forget the battle cry of all golfers:
I hate golf, I hate golf, I hate golf; NICE SHOT!!! I love golf!