Shanks for Nothing

May 1, 2006
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.

May 15, 2006
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.

Copyright 2006 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 1, 2006
The "chops" from Ponky (Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Course and Deli) are in trouble. A little backstory is required: Raymond "Stick" Hart and his regular fivesome, the chops (" Missing Links," 1996), enjoy the occasional, somewhat unconventional wager (Ray, for example, gives Leonard "Two-Down" Petrovitz a half-shot a hole, plus a 100-yard head start, plus one throw a side). Now, however, their freewheeling approach to the gentlemanly game is at risk: the owner wants to sell Ponky, renowned as "America's worst golf links," to the blue-blood country club next door, whose members intend to turn it into a parking lot. It's up to the chops to save Ponky, but their first scheme, pitting scratch-golfer Ray against a mobbed-up con man in a big-money match, goes bad, prompting the gang to devise ever-more outlandish schemes to save their hides and their course. No one (except perhaps Dan Jenkins in his prime) does the comic golf novel better than Reilly, and if he loads a few too many subplots into this one, who's counting? After all, at Ponky you can carry as many clubs in your bag as you like.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2006, American Library Association.)