In this breezy and enjoyable memoir, Pipkin (Fast Greens
) recounts how he abandoned both family and career to shave 10 strokes off his golf game. After deserting the celebrity pro-am at Pebble Beach to rush to his dying father's bedside, Pipkin later returns to celebrate his father's memory by playing the dream round that his long-ailing father never got to play. But after he shoots a sloppy 89, the one-day tribute morphs into a year-long odyssey. Determined to return to Pebble a year later and break 80, Pipkin gets outfitted with a custom set of clubs and enlists the finest instructors in the country. Although he repeatedly complains about his dwindling bank account, he somehow finds the cash to install a $10,000 artificial putting green in his backyard and make a pilgrimage to Scotland's most hallowed courses. But Pipkin may have had some well-connected support—a few sections read like advertisements for Callaway Golf or the David Leadbetter Golf Academy. In the end, it turns out—somewhat depressingly—that to drop 10 strokes you simply need to be wealthy enough to forgo work and play luxury courses aided by the very best equipment and golf instruction available. Agent, Mike Harriot.
(Sept.)
