The Green

McAllister's first novel is the pleasant if unremarkable account of what surely would be a remarkable tale: an unknown golfing hustler is recruited to represent his country in the Ryder Cup, golf's inviolable, biennial struggle between the best players in the U.S. and Europe. In addition to 10 players determined by money winnings, each team has two at-large spots filled at its captain's discretion. The American captain, Alan Bellamy, the ""Player of the Year,"" as he is fond of pointing out, witnesses a man extricate himself from a cavernous sand bunker some 50 yards from the green and plop his ball four feet from the hole--using a ball retriever instead of a club. When said shotsmith then whips Bellamy in a one-on-one match for $20,000, the stage is set for Bellamy to extend golf's most revered invitation to Eddie Caminetti, a diamond rarely in the rough who has forsaken the pressures of big-time golf for the anonymous comfort of conning weekend duffers. After an audition establishes this parvenu's striking ability to remain below par, the other Americans even agree to pony up Caminetti's stake--$100,000, as long as the coveted cup stays on U.S. soil. While the book moves along briskly, and the plainspoken but unabashedly mercenary Caminetti is endearing, it seems to promise something it never delivers. When narrator Bellamy admits at the beginning to being responsible for putting a municipal course nobody in the hallowed Ryder Cup and for things going ""a little haywire,"" one expects more than a missed putt to go amiss. McAllister sets up a clash between the gruff Caminetti and a vain sport's sacrosanct crown jewel, and then fails to explore this fertile ground for comedy. But this is, above all, a story about golfing, with engrossing insights into everything from the physics to the philosophy of the sport and several scenes that highlight its infamous and recondite set of rules. Golfers will surely appreciate this entertaining read. (Apr.)