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Rating:  - Five Stars
James Patterson smashes it out of the park again. Whether you are a golfer or not, this story relates to all who feel like life is crashing in around us. James Patterson does a great job of taking us on a journey through this characters struggle with forced change and how he struggles to make life's changes, make sense.
Through each round of golf becomes another hurdle cleared and the fighting effort of a man who tries to make his life make sense. I think we can all relate with feeling like our work life and our personal lives are out of control, how we relate with getting back into the drivers seat and taking control of the wheel.
This is a wonderful story that keeps you turning each page until the end, the miracle. Not too cheesy and a quick read!
Rating: - Golf, or not
Even if you're not a golfer, I think you would enjoy this book and how it changed a life.
Rating: - Great Service
This book was received very quickly and was in excellent shape. Everything about this transaction exceeded my expectations.
Rating:  - Another ho-hum sports novel
Novels and movies about sports tend to follow the same pattern. If the central figure is a boxer, he will overcome adversity and knock out the champ. In Grisham's football novel, a flailing quarterback wins the championship, albeit elsewhere. Braddock knocks out Baer. Etc. And in Patterson's golf novel, a scratch duffer--well, take a guess.
As for miracles, there isn't much of one, and what miracle there is makes little or no sense. Read it for yourself and ask the burning question--why? And why did a weekend golfer suddenly find his putter? There are just all sorts of whys here, and Patterson brushes right by them. He never gets much past superficial in plot, character or theme.
Part of my problem here is golf itself. Men in pastel attire demand absolute silence as they address a ball that is not moving and which no one will try to field once it is struck. There is a kind of religious hush around tee or green. In baseball there is jeering noise as the batter tries to hit a moving ball with the hope that nine fielders won't get to it until the batter at least reaches first base. Golf isn't really sport by a strict definition. Baseball is. Football is. Hockey is.
The only worthwhile golf novel I know of is "Dead Solid Perfect" by Dan Jenkins. In fact, Jenkins wrote the best football novel as well: "Semi Tough." Both these examples are more for fun than for the thrill of victory. When a writer tries to make sports the central and serious theme, we know how it will end.
Rating: - Middle-Aged Golfer's Dreams Come True
James Patterson taps into every middle-aged golfer's fondest fantasy in this eminently readable and enjoyable novella.
Travis McKinley, a disgruntled Chicago ad man, approaches his fiftieth birthday knowing he's about to be fired by the agency where he's worked for 23 years and suspecting that his wife is about to drop the divorce bomb on him. A miraculous round of golf on Christmas Day gives him a reason to live, a scenario only another certified golf nut could understand. I found it perfectly credible.
The day Travis gets fired (and before he tells his wife the good news), he sends in his entry fee to the PGA Senior Tour Qualifying School, another perfectly rational action for those of use with a permanent track in our carpeting from where we practice putting. When his wife finds out, she doesn't see this as quite such a rational response to the situation.
Patterson's account of Travis' Q-school experience and year on the tour is a fine mix of humor, golf lore, and pathos as his hero struggles not with his golf game but with the disintegration of his marriage. The "Miracle on the 17th Green" at Pebble Beach produces a happy ending, though. It's as sweet as a pured second-shot three-wood to the center of the green on your own favorite par five.
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