Miracle on the 17th Green: A Novel

I am an avid golfer and picked up this book when I forgot to pack the one I was reading.

First, this is not a novel and not even a novella. It is little more than a short story, that can be read in roughly one hour. Forget about the page count. It is a very small book with roughly 50 2-4 page chapters.

The story revolves around a fifty year old ad executive, unhappy in his job and struggling with his marriage. When he is laid off from his job, he decides to try and qualify for the Senior PGA Tour. The story follows him through qualifying (SPOILER), then a rain shortened Tour victory, as he attempts to save his marriage. We end up at the Senior U. S. Open at Pebble Beach.

Now, this is a perfectly sweet story, but suffers from some silly, show more sloppy , lazy mistakes. Pebble Beach is a very famous golf course. For reason I will never understand, the author misidentifies many features of the golf course, including the pars and physical characteristics of many of the holes (at least they got #17 correct). How hard would it be to get these very simple facts correct?

In addition, the protagonist has a four year old child, which he labels “The Philosopher King”, imbuing this four year old with the maturity, intelligence and vocabulary of a ten year old child.

If things like this don’t bother you, you might enjoy the hour of reading that this work provides. show less

Travis McKinley, a disgruntled Chicago ad man, approaches his fiftieth birthday knowing he's about to be fired by the agency where he's worked for 23 years and suspecting that his wife is about to drop the divorce bomb on him. A miraculous round of golf on Christmas Day gives him a reason to live, a scenario only another certified golf nut could understand. I found it perfectly credible.

The day Travis gets fired (and before he tells his wife the good news), he sends in his entry fee to the PGA Senior Tour Qualifying School, another perfectly rational action for those of use with a permanent track in our carpeting from where we practice putting. When his wife finds out, she doesn't see this as quite such a rational response to the show more situation.

Patterson's account of Travis' Q-school experience and year on the tour is a fine mix of humor, golf lore, and pathos as his hero struggles not with his golf game but with the disintegration of his marriage. The "Miracle on the 17th Green" at Pebble Beach produces a happy ending, though. It's as sweet as a pured second-shot three-wood to the center of the green on your own favorite par five. show less

Although the book claims to be a great read for non-golfers, it can be a bit hard to follow along with all the golf language in the book. Also, I think us, non-golfers, miss out on the wow-ness factor of some swings, the anticipation, etc. However, it is a James Patterson book and as such, it was still a good read. It wasn't great, but it kept me interested. At first glance, someone would think James Patterson was concluding that money fixed problems, but it was actually learning to love yourself, be happy with what you are doing that fixes the problems. I'd recommend it to anyone. It only took me two hours to read and it kept me entertained.

Hello LT!
This was an outstanding book. If you are a fellow golfer you will LOVE this book. If you don't golf, you'll probably still like it. Jimmy P decides to take it easy with this one (compared to his other books), and made a good one. Travis McKinley is a average guy going through the struggles of life, including but not limited to: kids, wife, job, and golf game. Travis hates his job and is having one heck of a time. His golf game is getting pretty good, and he is having such a good time hacking away that he forgets to do something that he regrets. Uh-oh! Well, anyway, he ends up trying out for the Senior PGA Tour. I really enjoyed this book and I'm sure you will too. This book is about a lot more than golf; it makes you think show more about life a little bit and how to overcome everything even when things are at their worst.

Skinny: Read this book. Then, write on my wall and tell me what you thought.

Adios LT!
thomas2k12 show less

This was a simple story about a man, Travis, who loses his advertising job and decides to try out for the senior golf tour, his dream to play golf professionally since college. Travis is also having problems with his marriage and possibly his kids too.

The characters are likable, the pace is quick and there's a bit of humor but there was too much golf terminology for me to get drawn in and the story was pretty shallow.

I have a huge collection of golf books of which I'm ashamed to say I haven't read that many. Seeing this title by James Patterson I assumed it should be pretty good. Turns out the best thing about it is that it's only 150 pages. It's well written but it's story line is just to obvious. The cinderella kid who breaks onto the senior PGA tour and wins the miracle tournament. I guess it plays off that fantasy that all of us aging duffers dream since we first started the game. It's a sugar coated story but if you want a feel good, quick read it may be worth your time. I would rate it about 3.5

Travis McKinley is a 50 year old man who hates his job in advertising and has done so for the entire 23 years he has called it a career. When his much younger boss tells Travis the company is letting him go Travis is not nearly as upset as he feels he should be. Instead he sees this as the golden opportunity to pursue his dream - becoming a pro golfer on the US Seniors Tour. His wife Sarah sees it much differently, however, and quickly brings up divorce as her own golden opportunity. Travis loves his wife and three children but after a nearly religious experience on the local golf course Christmas morning he pays his $3,000 to train for the tour and win one of the coveted 8 open slots to play along with the likes of Lee Trevino and Jack show more Nicklaus. He wins his spot and is soon winning tournaments, but life back home in Winnetka, Illinois, goes on without Travis without any noticeable difference. Has he won his life's dream at the cost of his family?

I am definitely not a fan of this book as it's just a little too saccharine for my taste. I also know nothing about golf except for the 'miniature' kind or the 'Wii' kind so all of the technical golfing jargon meant absolutely nothing to me. show less