David Owen plays a game with which we are all familiar: it’s called, “hit and hope." Playing golf in a weekly foursome, David takes mulligans off the first tee, practices intermittently at best, marks his ball on the green with his lucky coin (until the luck wears out and another trinket is deemed to have better karma), wears a copper wristband because Seve Ballesteros for reasons beyond understanding said to, and struggles for consistency even though his swing is consistently mediocre. He bets, he wins, he loses, he agonizes, he dreams.

With this book of essays, acclaimed columnist and author Owen does for American golfers what P. G. Wodehouse did for our English cousins: finds humor and nobility in our essential silliness and our pursuit of the little white ball.