Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Then you can start reading Kindle books on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

  • Apple
  • Android
  • Windows Phone
  • Android

To get the free app, enter your mobile phone number.

Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Fore!: The Best of Wodeho... has been added to your Cart
FREE Shipping on orders over $25.
Used: Acceptable | Details
Sold by Murfbooks
Condition: Used: Acceptable
Comment: Item is in acceptable condition. Expect heavy wear on the cover and the inside of the book. The text is perfectly readable and usable. There is no condition below acceptable. Fast shipping. Free delivery confirmation with every order.
Have one to sell? Sell on Amazon
Flip to back Flip to front
Listen Playing... Paused   You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more
See all 3 images

Fore!: The Best of Wodehouse on Golf (P.G. Wodehouse Collection) Paperback – September 1, 1999

4.1 out of 5 stars 17 customer reviews

See all 9 formats and editions Hide other formats and editions
Price
New from Used from
Kindle
"Please retry"
Paperback
"Please retry"
$16.95
$10.89 $0.01

Best Books of the Month
Best Books of 2016
Looking for something great to read? Browse our editors' picks for the best books of the year in fiction, nonfiction, mysteries, children's books, and much more.
$16.95 Free Shipping for Prime Members | Fast, FREE Shipping with Amazon Prime In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
click to open popover

Frequently Bought Together

  • Fore!: The Best of Wodehouse on Golf (P.G. Wodehouse Collection)
  • +
  • The Heart of a Goof
Total price: $36.90
Buy the selected items together

Editorial Reviews

Review

About the Author

NO_CONTENT_IN_FEATURE


Product Details

  • Series: P.G. Wodehouse Collection
  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Mariner Books; 1st Mariner Books Ed edition (September 1, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0618009272
  • ISBN-13: 978-0618009275
  • Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #286,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
If you wanted to read all of Wodehouse's golf stories at once, you'd want the Golf Omnibus. If you'd rather not lug around a phone book-sized volume, however, you may prefer this moveable feast of a dozen prime Plum stories (a baker's dozen if you count the preface by D.R. Benson), the best of Wodehouse on the links. Unlike the pocket paperbacks of some Wodehouse editions, with print so small you nearly need a magnifying lens, this oversized "quality" paperback nearly qualifies as a "large print edition." So it's really the best of both worlds, requiring neither a microscope nor a forklift for enjoyment.

Reading Plum on golf, however, is like playing a familiar course; the same stories are scattered throughout various editions. All of these stories have appeared elsewhere. Fore! opens with a very funny story that is quite unlike most of his golf tales, "The Coming of Gowf," which originally appeared in Golf Without Tears (1924), as did four other stories. That's the American title of a book that appeared in Britain as The Clicking of Cuthbert (1922). Five stories appeared in the American collection, Divots (1927), published in England as The Heart of a Goof (1926). The final tales are from Nothing Serious (1950/1951), published in both British and American editions. For golfers with a literary bent, here's the best imaginable introduction to P.G. Wodehouse, and old Wodehouse fans will be happy to walk around the course again.
Comment 21 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Paperback
Plum has brought the passion for golf alive with unusual style and aplomb in this one. All the stories viewed through the eyes of the "Oldest Member" take on vivid color, and their solutions lie, no doubt, on the greens! Right from a novice taking up golf, to a professional golfer they all have their solutions to the toughest problems in life only on the golf course. Viva le golf! And Viva Wodehousian humor!
Comment 5 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Hardcover
I spent two afternoons over the weekend reading FORE!, an anthology of twelve humorous golf tales penned by P.G. Wodehouse. It is an out-of-print book that I purchased from a secondhand bookseller through Amazon.com some months ago.

The stories take place in the early 20th Century when hickory shafts were still prevalent and it was fashionable to wear plus-fours. As the book contains numerous golf slangs throughout, some of which quite archaic, a reader with only a cursory knowledge of golf vocabulary is bound to scratch their head at times.

The stories (except for the first one) are all narrated by a character known as the "Oldest Member", a nosy and lonely man of advanced age who loiters around the golf club all day every day. According to him, golf is the most noble pursuit. Whoever plays golf must be a decent citizen. And one must always be wary of anyone who does not play the game. At the golf club, the Oldest Member often encounters young members who are experiencing relationship problems, and he would gladly assume the role of an agony uncle and offer encouragement by telling them golf anecdotes whose protagonists had overcome similar problems.

Most of the characters in the stories seem to be well-educated and belong to the upper-middle class, as they converse in a highly cultivated manner. Many of them hold strong opinions about golf. Let me quote a few instances:

"The talking golfer is undeniably the most pronounced pest of our complex modern civilization and the most difficult to deal with. It is a melancholy thought that the noblest of games should have produced such a scourge."

"Most divorces, as you know, spring from the fact that the husband is too markedly superior to his wife at golf.
Read more ›
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
Wodehouse golf stories are so cleverly crafted and amusingly written that anyone with an interest in the game should at least keep a copy in the bathroom for entertainment. I have given this and other Wodehouse golf collections to at least a half dozen people as gifts, and they have been universally appreciated. By the way, I was introduced to Wodehouse by an 80 year-old woman - a former teacher at a small college who loved tennis and Pavarotti and had never played golf.
Comment One person found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
If you lived during and after Wodehouse's writing career, you are fortunate, indeed. Or, at least the potential for good fortune was there for you. For maximum beneficial effect, you must read his works. After the hard day's work is done, whether at school, factory, or office, everyone deserves a dose of PGW. However, use in moderation. Excess mirth, as might result from too much PGW in a short time interval, can put one right into a psychiatric institution.

PGW's writings far surpass ANYTHING produced by today's crop of comedic practitioners. Any of the latter would need a map of the galaxy to come even close to the wit and charm of that gentle Englishman. Any book with words placed in the order prescribed by PGW is, by definition, an excellent book. Buy all such books, put them in a safe place; they are worth their weight in gold.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I read most of P G Wodehouse a long time ago including this book. I did not play golf at that time so I enjoyed the stories but skipped over golf details. I am now finally learning golf and I read the book again and this time I was able to understand a lot more. However, a short glossary translating the old club names to their modern equivalents would be useful.
Comment Was this review helpful to you? Yes No Sending feedback...
Thank you for your feedback.
Sorry, we failed to record your vote. Please try again
Report abuse

Set up an Amazon Giveaway

Fore!: The Best of Wodehouse on Golf (P.G. Wodehouse Collection)
Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers. Learn more about Amazon Giveaway
This item: Fore!: The Best of Wodehouse on Golf (P.G. Wodehouse Collection)