Little Balls, Big Dreams
by James Wolfe

Grade: B-
Teacher’s Comments: A nice little book

James Wolfe’s Little Balls, Big Dreams is a cute little fantasy about a guy who – after hitting a hole-in-one – finds that he is magically transformed into a tour caliber player.

It’s every golfer’s dream, of course, to suddenly discover the magic swing. It’s also the case that nearly every serious golfer has gone through a streak that—for a short while—makes it seem possible. But few among us are foolish enough to believe that it will last. And none would quit their jobs to take a shot at joining the Tour on the basis of a few hot rounds.

And yet, that’s exactly what Matt True does in the novel. In spite of a lifetime of playing solid, but uninspired golf, he abandons his career and sets out to join the Tour.  While it all doesn’t go according to plan and there is a price to be paid, there’s no Faustian bargain. Matt True gets a shot at his dream while maintaining a grip on his soul.

A leap of faith is required to make the story work. The reader has to believe that True somehow knows the transformation is real, and not temporary or imagined. I had a hard time with it. My brushes with brilliance have been fleeting; the perfect swing never lasts for more than a couple of rounds.

Strangely, part of the problem was that the story was not fantastic enough. Had there been an appearance by a golf god or a course fairy it somehow would have been more believable. Wolfe briefly touches on the teachings of a wacky golf guru, and later on mysterious effects of a True’s former high school golf coach, but leaves both those ends dangling.

Before I go quit my job and try out for the tour, I’m going to need a direct revelation from a higher power.

The novel is, for the most part, well written. There were a few paragraphs that seemed awkward and a couple of sections of forced dialog, but those were easy to overlook. Wolfe’s style is casual and easy to read.

I can give this book a cautious recommendation.

I just saw a huge stack of copies of John Feinstein’s excellent book Open : Inside the Ropes at Bethpage Black at my local Dollar Tree. It’s a good book at full price; for a dollar, it’s a steal.

The Dollar Tree also had a pack that included tees, ball markers and a copper wire / nylon brush for club cleaning.

Sudden Death

by Michael Balkind

Grade: D
Teacher’s Comments: I can’t recommend it for either the golf or for the mystery.

I really wanted to like this book. It’s got an interesting premise and the author seems like a genuinely nice guy.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy it at all; indeed, it was a chore to finish.

The plot of the book involves a series of death threats against Reid Clark, an elite golfer who has a reputation on Tour as a “bad boy.” On course tirades and ill-treatment of those around him are his stock in trade. His antics have earned him enemies, and one of them is set on murder. In spite of this, Reid continues to play on, as the pressure from both winning and from the threats increase.

So far, so good. But as I was reading the first sentence of the book, the warning sirens went off in my head:

“Plunk. The unique sound of Reid Clark’s golf ball hitting the bottom of the cup was,without question, the most satisfying sound he could hear. But in this case, he had to settle for the roar of the massive crowd as he sunk his 12-foot-putt, winning his sixth PGA tournament this season.”

That’s a lot of wins in an entire season. But Reid, we soon find out, has accomplished this feat before the Masters. Six victories before the first major of the year. That’s twice as many as Tiger has ever managed. As there are typically just a dozen or so events before the Masters—including silly ones like the Pebble Beach—six victories is ridiculous.

But, I thought, the author surely knows that. He’s just trying to establish his character as the Uber-Golfer.

It wasn’t much further on that I decided that Balkind really doesn’t know much about tournament golf. In one scene, the PGA Commissioner [sic] announces that they’ve decided to hold a pro-am at the Masters:

“Hi I’m Bill Taylor, Commissioner of the PGA and I’d like to welcome you all to Augusta. I wanted to take a moment to explain why we decided to take a break from tradition and play a pro-am before the Masters. The request has come up in past years and we’ve always declined. This year we figured, why not.”

Good heavens. The Masters is run by Augusta National, not by the PGA. Never in a million years would Augusta National allow the PGA to decide whether or not there’s a pro-am. And I’m pretty sure that Balkind doesn’t really mean the PGA anyway. He means the PGA Tour. The two are separate entities. I can’t see the Commissioner of the PGA TOUR introducing himself as the Commissioner of the PGA.

All credibility was lost with me at that point.

Steven Levitt, author of Freakonomics, is one of my favorite writers.  As someone trained in economics, I find his work inspiring. His blog at the New York Times, written with Stephen Dubner, is one of the few that I read on a daily basis.

What Levitt does is use the basic principles of economics to explain the way the world works. His answers are sometimes astonishing, for his mind works in some very surprising and original ways. In the book, he attempts to answer such questions as “How much money do drug dealers really make?”, “Are Sumo wresting matches fixed?” and “Do parenting methods matter?”

At any rate, one of his latest posts talks about his golf game, and how he retiring from competition. There’s also an interesting side link on why people get good at things—such as sports.

I highly recommend both the book, and the blog—not just to economists, but also to anyone who wants to understand how the world works. 

A University of San Diego professor has compiled a book of court cases involving golf in The Little Green Book of Golf Law. The book will be out next month, but you can get a preview in this article in the Sign On San Diego.

It looks like one I’d really like to read.