The GODS OF GOLF - Hardcover

Smith & Holmes

4.33

21 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0671546848 ISBN 13: 9780671546847

Publisher: Atria Books, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

Hoping to score points with his boss when he is drafted into a foursome at the Pine Valley Golf Club, Tom Cruickshank plays poorly and fears for his job, until he is assisted by a mysterious player who introduces him to the great golf gods.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Two golf-lovers team up for a comic first novel. Our hero and narrator, Tom Cruickshank, is playing perhaps his worst round of golf ever at Pine Valley, and since his boss has a deal riding on Tom's performance, he may lose his job. Then Tom is whisked away by an elderly golfer named Harry Brady, magically transported to the greens of Mount Augustus, the most difficult course in the universe because it's ruled by Scottish gods every bit as capricious as those in the Greek pantheon. If Tom plays a great round, Harry assures him, he'll enjoy a reward from the Great God MacKenzie himself--and, since time doesn't exist on Mount Augustus, Tom can return to his earthly match only moments after leaving. In fact, Tom is, without his knowledge, being auditioned as Harry's replacement as the gopher for the gods: In exchange for certain favors, Harry long ago agreed to keep the immortals supplied with Cuban cigars, fancy perfumes, and vintage liquor from the mortal world. Smith and Holms have a lot of fun with this, using holes one through eighteen to portray the various lesser gods of golf such as Mulligan, god of excuses; Divot, god of bad lies; Twitch, god of putting; and Lorena, a foul-smelling harpy who presides over the wicked slice. Best of all are Wendell and Ruppert, hucksters who talk like siding salesmen, the gods of winter rules; and the hated MacTavish, the legalistic, entirely unreasonable god of all rules. Days pass, Harry disappears, and Tom even falls in love before he's brought to trial in the clubhouse, accused of cheating. Threatened with spending eternity in the celestial foundry, Tom negotiates a clever deal and marches back to the next hole at Pine Valley with every confidence he'll win the round. Aimed at the country club set, and very funny. -- Copyright �1996, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

From Publishers Weekly:

Like their Olympian cousins, the gods of golf are a high-strung, ribald lot, not the sort of deities you'd want to offend. But young Tom Cruickshank can't seem to avoid doing just that when he's transported to the celestial greens on Mount Augustus in this loopily outrageous golf fantasy from first novelists Smith and Holms. When narrator Tom makes a fool of himself while trying to impress his boss on New Jersey's famed Pine Valley links, he and a mysterious guide, Harry Brady, are transported to the Country Club of the Gods. There, Tom and Harry play golf, all the while encountering the imposing immortals who have much to say, some of it amusing, about slices, excuses, bad lies, divots and cruelty. The verbal underbrush is thick, full of fables, lessons, laws, anecdotes and unexpected twists and turns. Many golf lovers traipsing through it will find much to cheer about, but non-golfers may discover the story to be one big sand trap. Others, meanwhile, will note that the humor, though breezy, sometimes brassy, is aimed at a distinctly male readership (as in the discussion of "Heidi, Goddess of Hookers"). But, then, so was the humor in two other recent golf novels, Rick Reilly's Missing Links and Turk Pipkin's Fast Greens (Forecasts, May 13). Those in search of more universal golf writing may want to wait for John Updike's Golf Dreams, due out from Knopf in September.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.