Life is going pretty well for Raymond "Stick" Hart. He's happily married to the former Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Club assistant pro, the beauteous Cajun firecracker Dannie, raising his rambunctious son, Charlie, and getting by writing smart-mouthed greeting cards for 50 bucks a pop. Best of all, nothing has changed at Ponky, the worst golf course in America. You still have to hook it past the toxic waste dump on No. 1 and under the billboard on No. 8, the fried-egg sandwiches are terrible but cheap, and his pal Two Down is always up for a sucker bet.
Then, one disaster of a day, Stick's world does a 10-car pile-up. The cheapskate bastard owner of Ponky announces he's retiring to a nudist camp in Florida and selling the club to the Mayflower Club next door, a bastion of blue-blood snobbery that plans to pave Ponky over. And life only goes downhill from there.
Luckily, Stick has a solution to all his problems. He'll qualify for the British Open.
©2006 Rick Reilly; (P)2006 Books on Tape
"The best golf novel in decades." (Boston Herald)
"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)
"Better than Caddyshack"
Rick Reilly’s Shanks for Nothing is a fast paced, uproariously funny masterpiece that will crack the staunchest funny bone. And Stephen Hoye is the perfect narrator to bring the main characters to life (Stick, Two-Down, Dom, Resource, Blind Bob, Hoover, the Stain, and the rest of the “chops”) as they plot to keep the snobby Mayflower from taking over their precious but dilapidated Ponky municipal golf course.
The meandering vignettes that steer the chops through high stakes golf bets with Mob gamblers, a prison golf course where inmate Resource Jones plans and executes the perfect escape, only to be foiled by his own golf passions, and the overseas trip to qualify for the British Open where Stick meets Sponge, and the Royal and Ancient aristocrats.
If Bill Murray ever read this book he would undoubtedly make it into a movie. Murray would be great at playing Stick’s caddy.
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"I don't know from golf..."
Okay, first of all, I have to admit that I will listen to ANYTHING that Stephen Hoye reads. He's got the brains, the accent, the voice. He doesn't mispronounce or misinterpret. If he got me to listen to this POS, that's proof enough. The book is mildly amusing, for someone who is a) female, and b) doesn't play golf. But Hoye makes it accessible and hilarious. Love that guy. Will I listen to the author's sequels? Not a chance.
WHM
"Laugh out loud funny!"
This is a sports book that transcends sports. It builds on relationships and uses Reilly's great point of view to get the poit accross.
"I wish I could join Ponky."
IF you are an obsessive golfer this book is right up your fairway. The characters in Ponky are just what you would want in your local club. If you have a sense of humor you cannot but enjoy this book.
"Hysterical"
If you're a golfer at all and have a sense of humor, this book's perfect. I loved every second of it. The guy-talk is great, and the narrator is absolutely perfect. Each of his different voices makes me laugh every time.
"Shanks for a thousand laughs."
Without a doubt the funniest golf story I have ever heard. Even though it was fiction, I could see how all the events actually taking place somewhere there is a golf course. Being only my second year playing golf, I thoroughly enjoyed this audiobook. "Who's your Caddy" was also very good.