A Golf Book

Summer Book #12: Miracle on the 17th Green by James Patterson.

A little backstory, if you please.  I began reading James Patterson books in late 1997, after Stoney took me to see Kiss the Girls. I enjoyed the movie, and had no idea that it was a book until I came across it one day at Target.  After that, I was pretty much hooked.  In the past almost fifteen years, I have read every James Patterson book, or so I thought.  Well, close anyway, as I am not at all interested in reading his one nonfiction book, Against Medical Advice. As it turns out, I was wrong.  Last weekend, my husband finally repainted our study. In order for him to do this, I had to take all of my books off of the floating shelves.  When I went to put them up, I sorted my Patterson books.  All of the Alex Cross books together by order of publication, same with the Women's Murder Club series, Michael Bennet series, Private series, and books that don't belong in a series (all the Maximum Ride books, Daniel X books, and Witch and Wizard books will now have a home in my classroom).  As I was putting the non-series books in order of publication, I noticed that there were two James Patterson books I was missing: Miracle on the 17th Green and Lifeguard.

This book is short.  It was all of 149 pages long, and not even a regular sized hardback book.  It didn't take long at all to read.  It is about a man, Travis McKinley, who is unhappy in his life.  He has three kids that he loves, a wife he adores (although they are on course for a divorce), and a job he hates.  When the book opens, it is Christmas day, and Travis goes to play golf.  He has an amazing game, so he continues to play, and loses track of time.  This causes him to miss Christmas dinner, which is not a good thing.  Travis decides he wants to try to make the Senior Pro Team, but has trouble telling his wife.  Then, on the first workday of the new year, Travis is let go from the company he has been working for for 23 years.  Suddenly, he sees that he has the chance to do what he really wants to do with his life.  Over dinner, he tells his family that he is going to try to be a pro golf player. 

When Travis calls home to tell his family that he made the tour, his wife tells him she is going to consult a lawyer about a divorce.  Tons of golf follows.  At the end, Travis is in a major gold tournament at Pebble Beach, and his family is there.  All of the sudden, his wife wants to give their marriage another shot, and the book ends on a happy note.

Not the best Patterson has to offer, though that may be because I don't care much for golf, so it wasn't interesting to me.