The Putt at the End of the World | 
 enlarge | Authors: Lee K. Abbott, Dave Barry, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W. Hall, Tami Hoag, Tim O'brien, Ridley Pearson, Les Standiford
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Category: Book
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Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 954354
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0446676993
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780446676991
ASIN: 0446676993
Publication Date: May 1, 2001
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Condition: Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy!
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com Review
There's a great tradition of golf fiction, stretching from P.G. Wodehouse's Edwardian follies to John Updike's narrative birdies and chip shots. The Putt at the End of the World is a worthy addition to the canon, in spite of the fact (or because of the fact) that it's a team effort. Nine authors, including such worthies as Dave Barry, Tami Hoag, Tim O'Brien, Lee K. Abbott, and Les Standiford, have contributed chapters to this farcical thriller. The premise, which is less wacky than it initially seems, involves a software tycoon named Phillip Bates, who's built a deluxe golf course north of Edinburgh. To kick things off he convenes a celebrity invitational, and draws not only a clutch of world-class hackers but several terrorists, counterterrorists, and what appear to be counter-counterterrorists. Clearly there's more at stake here than a mere 18 holes. Slapped together by one author after another, the crazy plot is surprisingly consistent. Yet the contributors have made no effort to disguise their individual styles, which range from Barry's potty-mouthed slapstick to Richard Bausch's tonier stuff to James Crumley's pulp fiction. Indeed, this shift in tone is one of the book's great pleasures. So is the sex and satire, if not necessarily in that order. Still, the ultimate reason to read The Putt at the End of the World is for its strange-but-true evocation of the game itself. Here's Tim O'Brien's take on a ball with a mind of its own: For the first thirty feet, the old Titlist did not touch the earth, heading for orbit, engines roaring, but then suddenly the rain and wind and fog forced a scrubbed mission. Gravity reasserted itself. By pure chance--a miracle, some would call it--the ball dropped heavily onto the green, not five feet from the cup.... It caught a sidehill slope. It wobbled off line for a second, then straightened out and continued its erratic pilgrimage toward destiny. Fictionally speaking, at least, that's what we call a hole in one. --William Davies
Product Description
Alfonso Zamora is an aging Mexican senior tour player who has discovered he's going blind. Rita Shaugnessy is a lusty, hard-drinking, down-on-her-luck golfer on the women's pro tour. Billy Sprague is a country club pro with the most beautiful golf swing - except when there's money on the line. All three receive an invitation from Philip Bates, the richest man in the world and the founder of Macrodyne Software, to play in a mysterious golf tounament held on a never-before-seen course in Scotland. There the three will play in what will be the golf match of all time and upon whose results rests the fate of the world.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Wha? December 30, 2005
This group-written book has two things going for it: Colorful characters and a promising plot. But that's about it. Wading through several chapters to get to Dave Barry's part in this fiasco was a waste of time otherwise. While the characters are certainly vivid, NONE of them are likeable. At all. ZERO. To top it off there are more F-bombs here than a def jam hosted by Chris Rock, and not nearly as many laughs. The handoff from one writer to the next is sometimes fairly smooth, but the writing styles sometimes vary so wildly that one wonders if one is still reading the same book from one chapter to the next, and it's intended to tell one cohesive story, not be a collection of shorts. Pass on this.
 A Fictitious Golf Classic Par Excellence. November 22, 2005
Golf is not a team sport, but this book used ten different writers to come up with a murder mystery on a golf course full of celebrities. Each wrote a different segment, and sometimes the story line does not jell, but I'd say they had fun working on this silliness.
Golf used to be a man's game, and used to be called the "good walk" when the men used that means to exercise their bodies as much as their golf swings. Nowadays, they ride the golf carts and play at the game. They've actually started teaching golf in schools, and nine great values the game teaches for youth (sportsmanship, confidence, integrity, perseverance, respect, responsibility, judgment, courtesy, and honesty) ensures a future for the continuation of the game of golf.
Only one of the nine contributors was female who used such off-hand characters to pepper her chapter: Mr. Potato Head, Sensible Shoes, Book Bag Woman, 'Star Wars' star pilot, MacLout, and Cameron who directed the movei 'Titanic.' She laid out the sexual hijinks of the golfers at the castle in Scotland. Dave Barry had the middle to fill in so he used his usually raucous vocabulary as he led into an explouding golf ball made out of enough plastique to end the world as we know it.
Tim O'Brien, whose book IN THE LAKE OF THE WOODS I enjoyed, wrote "On an adjacent putting green, also under umbrellas, mingled such notables as Tony Blair and Al Gore, both decked out in tweeds and starched golf shirts. Nearby, Mu'ammar Qaddafi was giving a now-or-never, sink-it-before-you-die putting lesson to Jack Lemmon, while only a few feet away Chi Chi Rodriguez did his best to adjust the clumsy, rather primitive one-handed putting stroke of former senator Robert Dole." These are just a few of the names; Fidel Castro was present as was Dan Rather and other important people.
The ending was written by the editor whoever he is, preferred to stay anonymous. The ending was explosive, to match the varied styles of writing the international language of golf. Other writers taking part in this project are Lee K. Abbott, Richard Bausch, James Crumley, James W. Hall, Ridley Pearson, Les Standiford, and Tami Hoag. How many are golfers, I wonder?
 Know What You're Getting Into February 1, 2005
I haven't read this book in a long time, but I thought it was great. I don't know why other readers gave it such a low score. I can only think that they didn't know what type of book they were getting into. If you want to laugh out loud, get this book!
 The putt at the End of the World October 27, 2002
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a terrible book. Multiple authors were not able to successfully make the book flow from chapter to chapter. Character development was disjointed to say the least. Way tooooo much celebrity name dropping...it almost read like People Mag. Buy "The Greatest Player Who Never Lived" instead.
Bagger Vance Meets Monty Python June 4, 2002
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It is said that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. Since a camel is very efficient doing what camels are intended to do, then the remark must mean that a camel is a very funny looking horse. Well, in The Putt at the End of the World, a committee of nine individually popular writers has turned out a very funny golf story.
The Putt at the End of the World is apparently the brainchild of last-listed author Les Standiford, shown as editor and compiler. It also seems to be a salute, at least in part, to recently deceased British writer Douglas Adams, author of the Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy series which includes The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It is certainly reminiscent of Adam's work, with zany characters interacting amidst nefarious schemes, all centered around a golf tournament. But not just any golf tournament. Computer zillionaire Philip Bates has bought a Scottish castle and cleared original growth timber to construct the ultimate golf course-as well as rehabbing the castle into an exotic hideaway retreat. This infuriates both environmental terrorists and the last of the MacLout clan, who claims that the MacGregor sellers usurped his family's claim to the property and he should have gotten the money. Then Bates (no relation to this reviewer) scheduled a conference and golf tournament inviting all of the world's political leaders and top golf players.
One of the invitees is Billy Sprague, club pro from Squat Possum Golf Club in rural Ohio. Billy is a magnificent golfer, unless there is money involved in which case he can't even get the ball of the tee. Billy's mentor is the old retired family doctor whose life is golf, who build the Squat Possum Club and who dies immediately after giving Billy his invitation and telling him that he has to go to Scotland and play in order to lift the curse and "...save the world as we know it..." Then FBI and British Secret Service refugees from the Keystone Kops get involved because of the terrorist threat, and the rest is-not history, but hilarious.
Each of the nine authors wrote one of the chapters. They did a good job matching styles, and/or Standiford did a great job of editing, because the novel is seamless. It is a farce, but at the same time has a "Bagger Vance" note of paean to the wonder of golf. It reads fast, and it reads great.
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