Missing Links

From Sports Illustrated writer Rick Reilly comes this spoof of all things golf and country club. Missing Links is the story of four middle-class buddies who live outside Boston and play golf together at Ponkaquoque Municipal Course and Deli, not so fondly known as Ponky. 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. A bet is made between the friends to see who will be first to sneak in a round at the Mayflower, 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. The rollicking plot also includes the narrator's attempts to reach some sort of reasonable understanding with his overbearing father.