A new book by John Feinstein, author of “A Good Walk Spoiled” and “Season on The Brink”, among others, may be just the thing for your young golfer. Feinstein, like other authors like James Patterson, is taking advantage of a relatively new trend in books which is avid reading by middle-schoolers and early teens.
I only know this is a trend because someone in my extended family has a reader in this age group. At first, I was shocked to discover that young people are actually reading physical books again the way we did when I was growing up. But I was happy about it.
However, once you have a reader, the issue soon becomes, what do you offer them to read? These days, who knows what’s out there? A lot of it can be bad.
Well, I test read “The Prodigy” for you. There is no obscene language. You are safe there. It’s fiction but based on real places like Riviera Country Club and Augusta National.
Even if you don’t know golf, it may work for you because Feinstein is careful to bring readers up to speed on terminology. And it’s at least a semi-accurate reflection of what goes on in the world of sports today.
The hero of the story, Frank Baker, is an excellent junior golfer. So superior in fact, that he made it to the semi-finals of the U.S. Amateur as a junior in high school.
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He has everything you’d expect a kid with that kind of talent would have: a golf coach who is the golf professional at the country club where his father is a member, a father who sees dollar signs when he looks at his son, and a guy hanging around trying to act like an agent who happens to be overbearing and full of himself.
The problem is this agent stuff is all in the shadows because Baker (The Prodigy) can’t have an agent yet, unless he wants to give up his amateur status and turn pro before he finishes high school. And therein lies just a part of the struggle.
The pro/coach, aptly named Slugger, contacts one of his former college golf team pals, Keith Forman, and asks him to meet up with them to watch Baker play and give an assessment of Baker’s chances in professional golf. Slugger thinks Forman, who had what they call a cup of coffee on the PGA Tour, can assess the youngster’s game. Does he have it or doesn’t he? Is the father trying to ruin the son? Does the son even want to turn pro now?
Slugger and Forman both know about the struggles of guys like Ty Tryon, the 17-year-old who made it though Q-School one year and proceeded to disappear off the golf map. Slugger hopes Baker can be saved from that situation if Baker’s not ready or doesn’t have the skills. The problem is he is really good.
As Baker prepares for his senior year in high school, he continues to play and gets better. In fact, he gets far enough at the U.S. Amateur that he makes the finals and earns an invitation to the Masters. There he gets to meet the kind of pros most everybody would like to meet, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas and so on. He’s living the dream.
But there’s a nightmare confluence of events that unfold when the agent gets belligerent, the NCAA gets involved, and Slugger is about to be fired as coach and pro by Baker’s dad and agent. The one he’s not supposed to have.
If you are a golf fan, you’ll love the ending, but I’m not going to spoil it for you. And if you like it when the good guys win, you’ll be pleased that John Feinstein does too.
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Feinstein drops names, but they are names he knows because I’ve known John for at least 30 years because we both cover golf. He mentions and describes courses he’s been to. In fact, what I was trying to figure out as I read the book was who are the characters and situations based on. Was it Ty Tryon? Was it the pre-Stanford Michelle Wie? Was it Spieth? Was it Tiger Woods? Was it Sergio Garcia? McIlroy? There are so many choices because all of those players were phenoms in their day.
You can pick up your own copy of “The Prodigy” by John Feinstein on Tuesday, August 28th, wherever your favorite books are sold – digitally or otherwise.
