The Back Nine

by Billy Mott (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $4.21

  'The game was match play, each hole counting only for itself. Win the first hole and you're up one; lose, you're down one; tie and it's like you never played it. Move on. If a player gets down more holes than there are holes left, the match is over.' Golf: it's that simple, and that bedeviling, and that's what it comes down to when Charlie McLeod having fled unspecified disaster back East turns up at a club near San Francisco and is entranced again by the game that had once defined him. And so he begins caddying, wrestling all the while with those things that exiled him not only from the sport, but also from life itself. In the profane, reassuring yet competitive world of the caddy shack, lost souls jostle for position, often among men whose passion for golf is ambushed by their own frustrations. The one person they all revere is the player whose mastery defies all understanding and in this role Charlie will either find a new start, or shatter everything once more. The Back Nine is a story of love, challenge, and redemption, a thrilling debut and an immediate classic of golf writing.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $5.07

  Charlie McCleod, having fled disaster back East, finds himself in San Francisco. When he turns up at a golf club he is entranced again by the game that once defined him: in all its simplicity and frustration. And so he begins caddying, while wrestling with those things that had exiled him not only from the sport but from life itself. In the profane, competitive world of the caddy shack, lost men jostle for position. The one thing they all revere is the player whose mastery defies comprehension - and in this role Charlie will either find a new start, or shatter his life once more. The Back Nine is a story of love, challenge and redemption, from a golfing afficionado and talented new voice. 'Poised and cinematic ...Anyone who has struck a perfect seven iron on a lazy summer afternoon, and got the inkling that in the thwack of ball against metal there is some kind of answer to the universe's big questions will identify with Charlie McLeod' - The Times . 'Golf fans will enjoy Billy Mott's The Back Nine ...So good in parts that you will be tempted to put the book down and head straight for the first tee' - Observer .