The Rub of the Green - Softcover

I have grown up as a fan of sports. I love running and playing tennis, in addition to viewing most major sports on television or in person.

However, I do not consider myself a golfer, although I have played once or twice (and even enjoyed it). Golfers are usually fanatical about their sport and can easily get lost in their enthusiasm for the game when talking about it with other golfers. I am a firsthand witness to this, because my husband, two brothers, one brother-in-law, and several friends are golfers.

So, I picked up THE RUB OF THE GREEN, by William Hallberg, thinking it sounded interesting. It's a humorous novel not just about golf, but about life in general--its hopelessness at times, as well as its triumphs on other occasions. When I saw quotes of praise on the back cover and the first page of the book from author Walker Percy, who I have read and enjoyed before, I knew this would be a worthwhile read.

Without knowing that much about golf, I could still relate to the "salvation" the main character found in his sport. I may not know all of the technicalities of the game, but to me, all sports have the same inherent benefits. They teach self-discipline, build self-esteem, foster physical fitness, and can be an oasis in a desert of despair during painful times in people's lives.

And I got all of that from this book about golf, without even being a golfer!

Bernice McManus
Ballantine Books
Production Coordinator

stselling author Walker Percy as "brilliant and highly original," this funny, touching, and very moving novel by the author of The Soul of Golf chronicles one man's glorious victories and bitter defeats in the most challenging sport of all: life.

The son of a devoutly golf-hating dad, Ted Kendall comes to embrace the sport as a way to soothe his grief after his mother's death. Then his knack with a club lands him a scholarship to Ohio State--and soon he's driving and putting his way through the electrifying and glamorous world of the PGA tour.

The grass is greener and life is good until a love triangle on the links goes bad, and Ted trades his bag of irons for the iron bars of a jail in the deeper than Deep South. With two years to kill alongside a motley crew of fellow misfit inmates, Ted turns once more to the gospel of golf--and finds his own odd brand of salvation.
From the Trade Paperback edition.