cover image Shanks for Nothing

Shanks for Nothing

Rick Reilly. Doubleday Books, $24.95 (272pp) ISBN 978-0-385-50111-8

In this madcap sequel to Reilly's golf farce Missing Links, little has changed at Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Links and Deli (a.k.a. Ponky)-arguably America's worst golf course. Boston-area legend Ray Hart, groomed by his father for golf greatness, continues to ply his trade as a greeting card writer while hanging out with his pals at Ponky. Ray's ""collection of no-account friends"" includes ""half-man, half-cappuccino"" Two Down, Hoover (so named because he ""sucks"" at golf), Dom, the ""World's Most Sexual Man,"" and Ray's spitfire five-handicap wife Dannie. The thin plot centers on the proposed sale of Ponky to the adjacent, upscale Mayflower Club for use as a parking lot. Ponky's regulars can't imagine life without their wretched refuge and hatch a plot to save the course that includes Ray flying to England to try qualifying for the British Open. The outcome is predictable, and Reilly never relents on the puns, sports and celebrity metaphors and double-entendres, occasionally crossing the line from irreverence to poor taste. The usually reliable Reilly shanks too many shots here to make par, but his fans-and they are legion-likely won't mind.