Review: "Tales From Q School"

The good thing about being one of the best few hundred golfers in the world is that with a decent break here or there, you can make half a million dollars a year and still walk down the street without anybody bothering you for an autograph. You don't have to win anything. Just finish in the top eighty five or so once in a while, and life will be sweet.

The bad thing about being one of the best few hundred golfers in the world is that with a bad break here or there, you can slip right off the PGA Tour, where they give you a courtesy car and everything, and find yourself playing in something called the Nationwide Tour and living in shabby motels. Unless that's redundant.

Golfers on the way up (and those trying not to slip all the way down) go to Q School. They play in a series of tense tournaments against rookies and other strangers trying to earn the opportunity to finish a dozen shots behind Tiger Woods each week. The best and most fortunate of these Q School participants play brilliantly when it counts most and have partners who don't write down the wrong numbers on their scorecards. The least lucky among the Q Schoolers miss the cut by a shot and have all year to think about that #@$%^##@ putt that rimmed out.

John Feinstein maintains that the best of all golf stories come from Q School, and he's certain to go right on maintaining that up until he writes a book about the British Open. Actually, Feinstein makes a good case for his contention, and "Tales From Q School" is full of stories that will probably make most of the people who read the book grateful that they're not trying to make a living on the golf course