The Rub of the Green by William Hallberg

In this remarkable debut, Hallberg demonstrates that real sport (as opposed to the ballyhoo of big-time professional contests) is ideal in the Keatsian sense of art, a metaphor for life. Rub of the Green: Hallberg, William: 9780345417497: : Books Books Romance Buy new: 19. Arriving at Ohio State-Jack Nicklaus' alma mater-he wins a scholarship in a round of play-off matches and is on his way to becoming the top golfer in the school-with the exception of charismatic Dave ''Trayn'' Traynham.

To combine such honesty with natural beauty is as clean an artistic statement as any man could make, he says. Ted Kendall grows up in Bowling Green, Ohio, across from a golf course, and first takes up the game after his mother's death from cancer.

Ross's plan, he notes, punishes a bad shot as predictably as the sun goes down but nearly always rewards a good one. In one revealing passage, narrator Kendall muses over the intricacies of a golf course constructed by Donald Ross, one of the great practitioners of the form. The rub of the green Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. But you really don't need to be able to distinguish a divot fork from a fairway bunker to appreciate a gracefully written narrative that is, in effct, a profound meditation on the uses and meaning of all sport. How can he have gone so wrong? It's difficult to imagine a literate golf enthusiast who wouldn't enjoy this paean to the sport in the guise of a novel. And now, all of a sudden, he is serving two years' time in a Mississippi jail for committing vehicular assault on erstwhile golfing buddy and bete noire Dave Traynham. The best yacht interest rates are reserved for the most well qualified borrowers. His love life was a confused mess, but he thought he could bear it. The higher your credit score, the lower your interest rate will be. His sport was a euphoric obsession that felt like an art form. Six months earlier, newly minted pro-golfer Ted Kendall's future seemed perfectly laid out.

The Rub of the Green by William Hallberg