Missing Links - Softcover

Reilly, Rick

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0385488866 ISBN 13: 9780385488860

Publisher: Broadway Books, 2000

Synopsis

When a group of middle-class buddies obsessed with golf set up a bet to see who can finagle their way onto the nearby private course, their friendship is tested in ways they had never expected in this humorous novel from Rick Reilly, one of America’s most popular sportswriters.
 
Missing Links is the story of four middle class buddies who live outside of Boston and for years have been 1) utterly obsessed with golf and 2) a regular foursome at Ponkaquoque Municipal Course and Deli, not so fondly known as Ponky, the single worst golf course in America. Just adjacent to these municipal links lies the Mayflower Country Club, the most exclusive private course in all of Boston and a major needle in their collective sides. Frustrated by the Mayflower's finely manicured greens and snooty members, three of Ponky's finest and most courageous—Two Down, Dannie, and Stick—set up a bet: $1,000.00 apiece, and the first man to somehow finagle his way on to the Mayflower course takes all. Lying, cheating, and forgery are encouraged, to put it mildly, and with the constant heckling and rare aid of Chunkin' Charlie, Hoover, and Bluto--a few more of Ponky's elite--the games begin.

One of the three will eventually play the Mayflower's course, but their friendships--and everything else--will change as various truths unravel and the old Ponky starts looking like the home they never should have left.

About this title

Review

From Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly comes this spoof of all things golf and country club. Missing Links recounts the tale of a coterie of golfing friends who ply their hobby at Ponkoquogue Municipal Golf Links and Deli. An 18-hole garbage dump with hazards that include a concrete river surrounded by a chain-link fence and the pillars of the elevated train that runs through the course, it is reputed to be the worst golf course in America. One day the group inadvertently discovers that all along they've been playing right next door to the Mayflower Club, a true golfing Eden. The rollicking plot includes a bet to see who will be first to sneak in a round at the Mayflower, as well as the narrator's attempts to reach some sort of reasonable understanding with his overbearing father.

From the Publisher

"Don't get started reading this book. It will take three burly men
to pull you away from it."
--Bob Costas, NBC commentator

"You don't need to know your bogeys from your birdies to find at least three laughs per page in this novel."
--The New York Times Book Review

"If you're obsessed with the 'green game,' and it's raining or snowing, or we're under nuclear attack so you can't get out on the course, Missing Links should give you a temporary fix."
--Rocky Mountain News

"Snappy prose, believable characters, and the funniest take on blue-collar hacking and gambling since Dan Jenkins's The Glory Game at Goat Hill...it's social satire and pure irreverence that keep this story in the groove."
--Los Angeles Times

"Part Damon Runyon, part Raymond Chandler, and part Caddyshack...I was hooked for the full 18."
--Entertainment Weekly

"A great piece of fiction."
--Denver Post

About this edition

• Publisher: Broadway Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0385488866
• ISBN 13: 9780385488860
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 278