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Missing Links #2
Shanks for Nothing
The hilarious sequel to Rick Reilly’s beloved bestselling golf novel Missing Links
Life is going pretty well for Raymond “Stick” Hart. He’s happily married to the former Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Club assistant pro, the beauteous Cajun firecracker Dannie, raising his rambunctious son, Charlie, and getting by writing smart-mouthed greeting cards for fifty bucks a pop. Best of all, nothing has changed at Ponky, the worst golf course in America. You still have to hook it past the toxic waste dump on No. 1 and under the billboard on No. 8, the fried-egg sandwiches are terrible but cheap, and his pal Two Down is always up for a sucker bet.
Then, one disaster of a day, Stick’s world does a ten-car pile-up. The cheapskate bastard owner of Ponky announces he’s retiring to a nudist camp in Florida and selling the club to the Mayflower Club next door, a bastion of blue-blood snobbery that plans to pave Ponky over. Worse, its membership includes Stick’s hated father.
Who promptly drops dead.
Just before Stick’s pal Two Down loses $12,000 to a golf hustler who turns out to be funded by the Russian mob.
Which is about the same time that Hoover, Ponky’s worst golfer and the owner of an impressive array of useless golf gadgets purchased with his wife’s money, learns she’ll cut him off if he doesn’t break a hundred in one month.
Then a practical joke makes Dannie believe that Stick’s been stepping out with the gorgeous new clubhouse girl, the eye-popping Kelly, and he’s soon living on the forty-year-old couch in the Ponky clubhouse.
Luckily, Stick has a solution to all his problems.
He’ll qualify for the British Open.
Life is going pretty well for Raymond “Stick” Hart. He’s happily married to the former Ponkaquogue Municipal Golf Club assistant pro, the beauteous Cajun firecracker Dannie, raising his rambunctious son, Charlie, and getting by writing smart-mouthed greeting cards for fifty bucks a pop. Best of all, nothing has changed at Ponky, the worst golf course in America. You still have to hook it past the toxic waste dump on No. 1 and under the billboard on No. 8, the fried-egg sandwiches are terrible but cheap, and his pal Two Down is always up for a sucker bet.
Then, one disaster of a day, Stick’s world does a ten-car pile-up. The cheapskate bastard owner of Ponky announces he’s retiring to a nudist camp in Florida and selling the club to the Mayflower Club next door, a bastion of blue-blood snobbery that plans to pave Ponky over. Worse, its membership includes Stick’s hated father.
Who promptly drops dead.
Just before Stick’s pal Two Down loses $12,000 to a golf hustler who turns out to be funded by the Russian mob.
Which is about the same time that Hoover, Ponky’s worst golfer and the owner of an impressive array of useless golf gadgets purchased with his wife’s money, learns she’ll cut him off if he doesn’t break a hundred in one month.
Then a practical joke makes Dannie believe that Stick’s been stepping out with the gorgeous new clubhouse girl, the eye-popping Kelly, and he’s soon living on the forty-year-old couch in the Ponky clubhouse.
Luckily, Stick has a solution to all his problems.
He’ll qualify for the British Open.
253 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2006
40 people are currently reading
194 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews
August 5, 2020
Excellent sequent to Missing Links. Loved this.
October 3, 2024
I preface this review with this: When I was younger, Rick Reilly was one of my all time favorite sports writers. When he was writing game stories for Sports Illustrated, I couldn't wait to read them. He was brilliant. I remember his opening for a Browns/Broncos NFL playoff game, when Cleveland thought it had the game won and was going to the Super Bowl, only to be shivved by John Elway and a 98-yard game-tying drive with about 30 seconds left. Denver went on to win. The Browns had gone ahead late in the game on a touchdown catch by an improbable player to go ahead by a touchdown. Reilly wrote in his opener that the game was set up perfectly for for a long-awaited deliverance for one of the League's most beleagured teams, and the NFL's Voice of God would capture it perfectly. Reilly wrote: "On a dark December day, a small Catholic lad from Boston College, snatched victory from the ominous skies over Lake Eerie, and delivered it to this City of Rust and Steel." I memorized that line, in the voice, and utter to this day. It was perfect because it really set the tone for what was about to transpire. A stake through the heart of Cleveland. Pure brilliance.
He was funny, irreverent and really provided value to the "second day lede" game story that SI was famous for. I loved his stuff. Over time, he became something of a celebrity, landed the annual SI Swimsuit writing gig (and really? who ever read the story that accompanied the pics?) and, eventually, ditched game stories and started writing a column on the back page of SI. His writing got staler and staler in that role, in my opinion. He could still conjure the magic now and then, but not with regularity. He was like a magician that no longer cared about The Show, only the parlor tricks.
But when I saw this "golf novel" by him, I thought I'd give it a shot. Old habits die hard. Maybe the long form might help him tap into his innate greatness. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Characters and situations were thrown together basically to allow Rick to throw out his patented one liners and tired similes ("it was more confusing than Woody Allen's house on Father's Day." Sigh). If lovable losers, getting over on each other, and sometimes their snobbish counterparts at the adjacent snobby country club is your thing, you might enjoy this read. If you loved Tin Cup (which I did) but only wish it had been more ribald, over the top, and cartoonish, this is your book. Sorry, Rick, but reading this book was as tired as a Trump rally a half hour into it.
He was funny, irreverent and really provided value to the "second day lede" game story that SI was famous for. I loved his stuff. Over time, he became something of a celebrity, landed the annual SI Swimsuit writing gig (and really? who ever read the story that accompanied the pics?) and, eventually, ditched game stories and started writing a column on the back page of SI. His writing got staler and staler in that role, in my opinion. He could still conjure the magic now and then, but not with regularity. He was like a magician that no longer cared about The Show, only the parlor tricks.
But when I saw this "golf novel" by him, I thought I'd give it a shot. Old habits die hard. Maybe the long form might help him tap into his innate greatness. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. Characters and situations were thrown together basically to allow Rick to throw out his patented one liners and tired similes ("it was more confusing than Woody Allen's house on Father's Day." Sigh). If lovable losers, getting over on each other, and sometimes their snobbish counterparts at the adjacent snobby country club is your thing, you might enjoy this read. If you loved Tin Cup (which I did) but only wish it had been more ribald, over the top, and cartoonish, this is your book. Sorry, Rick, but reading this book was as tired as a Trump rally a half hour into it.
May 25, 2018
A really funny, well-written book by Rick Reilly, one of the best sports writers of all time. This book of fiction, is the sequel to "Missing Links" and has all the same lovable and funny Caddyshack-ish characters from the first book. If you liked the first one, you'll like this book. You don't even have to like golf to enjoy Shanks for Nothing, as the sentences and analogies alone are gold. A good story, this one will have you laughing out loud in cafes and library's. Good stuff once again and a quick read at about 250 pages.
September 11, 2025
Ugh, no wonder this is probably the last book he wrote. He writes about a municipal golf course in Massachusetts, which I’ve actually played. The cast of characters is just awful. You have a guy who just wants sex all the time and his storyline stinks unless you like dick jokes, you have a guy who is really dumb called Cement and nobody is that stupid so not sure why that tracks as funny and then you got a guy who is a friend of the main character who is a complete a hole. I didn’t care about one person in this book, it’s supposed to be a fun book to read, but for me actually, quite painful.
October 25, 2023
The reviews I've read of both this and its predecessor (Missing Links) seem to favor the former, but I've read this one multiple times and prefer it quite strongly.
Ray is back, as are Two Down, Cement and Dannie. Reilly cuts out some of the weaker "Chops" from Ponky's first adventure and replaces them with more believable, less predicable characters. It's still straight out of Caddyshack or Cheers, and it uses significantly less "terminology" (I use quotations because most of it isn't real golf talk), but it also again explores a broken family dynamic and makes for a heartwarming tale as it zigs and zags across fairways.
The mobster storyline could be better done (it's pretty obvious what is happening as it unfolds but it's one of the funniest parts of the two books combined) but the British Open qualifying takes an unusual and amusing turn that really pulls the whole thing together. Again, just like the first book, you don't really need to *know* golf to enjoy this one.
The biggest take-away for me after reading this series is that a) I wish Ponky was real because it sounds like it was carved partially out of a mini-golf course, and b) I wish I had some crazy pals like Two. Maybe less on the degenerate side, but the camaraderie of the Chops is second to none.
Good reading to you.
Ray is back, as are Two Down, Cement and Dannie. Reilly cuts out some of the weaker "Chops" from Ponky's first adventure and replaces them with more believable, less predicable characters. It's still straight out of Caddyshack or Cheers, and it uses significantly less "terminology" (I use quotations because most of it isn't real golf talk), but it also again explores a broken family dynamic and makes for a heartwarming tale as it zigs and zags across fairways.
The mobster storyline could be better done (it's pretty obvious what is happening as it unfolds but it's one of the funniest parts of the two books combined) but the British Open qualifying takes an unusual and amusing turn that really pulls the whole thing together. Again, just like the first book, you don't really need to *know* golf to enjoy this one.
The biggest take-away for me after reading this series is that a) I wish Ponky was real because it sounds like it was carved partially out of a mini-golf course, and b) I wish I had some crazy pals like Two. Maybe less on the degenerate side, but the camaraderie of the Chops is second to none.
Good reading to you.
September 19, 2024
Book is great as is the prequel , “Missing Links”. Great characters, great story, great book!
I can’t believe Top Golf stole Reilly’s idea!
I can’t believe Top Golf stole Reilly’s idea!
February 17, 2015
This is yet another preposterously funny golf novel by Rick Reilly. The protagonist Raymond ”Stick” Hart and his dysfunctional group of friends Two Down, Thud, Crowbar and Hoover return and these weird characters blend into an equally weird plot. Stick is a plus handicap golfer who has been urged most of his life to join the tour by his overbearing father. Stick has no interest in the big show, preferring to hang out and play with his buddies at Ponky, the worst golf course in America. Stick’s comically improbable quest to enter the British Open provides the novel its page turner plot. One such plot is the decision by Ponky’s owner to sell to the posh next door Country Club, Mayflower; the Ponky members decide to raise the money themselves to stop that terrible deed and their efforts lead to high-stakes wagers with a foursome who turn out to be members of the Russian Mafia, and who play “Gamblers’ Rules.” The chief delight of this book is the author’s obsessive way of keeping the jokes coming. Another great read for lovers of Caddyshack or playing golf with buddies.
January 16, 2009
Apparently, Reilly was inspired to write hits after a trip to a golf course of the same name in the book and the weird characters he met there. I don't care much for golf -- "A good walk, spoiled," is Mark Twain's famous line -- but this book is laugh out loud funny filled with the most bizarre characters. There is the guy who always keeps a coat hangar in his glove compartment in case he locks his keys in the car. When asked how he gets the hangar out if his keys are locked in the car, the answer is simple, he has an extra key hidden under the bumper. Or the guy who hires some thugs to rob aq restaurant and then require everyone in the restaurant to have sex with the person next to them because he plans to be in the restaurant with a girl he can't get into bed and this is the only way. Geez. Lots of funny golf jokes, but a very enjoyable, wacky plot.
March 14, 2016
This book is funny, I think it would be even funnier to me, if I had any clue about Golf, I do not, and therefore, a lot was lost to me. A bunch of friends who are totally goof-balls and jokers, hang out at a golf course, they lie a lot, and make bets, and are kind of a lovable bunch of losers. This is their story of how they want to buy the golf course, before it is turned into the parking lot for the swanky course next door. Which means, one chap has to go to Scotland to win some money, only to find out, it has all been another lie, by his loser friends. However, all comes out well, kind of, and the golf course is saved by the bell, or in this case, an ex-girlfriend.
December 22, 2008
With "Faster than Oprah on a water slide" and other one-liners, Reilly will at least force you to turn the pages in hopes of something similar. For the golfer in you, learning shots like the "Calista Flockhart - thin but still pretty," the "Lorena Bobbitt - wicked slice," and the "Michael Moore - a shot fat and left," makes the novel worth a few hours of your time. All told, 'Shanks' falls a club short of Reilly's 'Missing Links' due to some contrived bits of plot; however, the characters - Two Down, Cementhead, Hoover, and the gang, entertain with their dialogue and ridiculous lives.
June 2, 2009
Bestselling author Rick Reilly, a senior writer for Sports Illustrated, has been voted National Sportswriter of the Year ten times. Reilly discusses, rants and reads from his new book Shanks for Nothing, the hilarious sequel to his beloved golf novel, Missing Links.
We met Rick Reilly when he visited the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. You can listen to him talk about Shanks for Nothing: A Novel here:
http://www.authorsontourlive.com/?p=70
We met Rick Reilly when he visited the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver. You can listen to him talk about Shanks for Nothing: A Novel here:
http://www.authorsontourlive.com/?p=70
October 23, 2012
I am not a fan of Sports Illustrated or Sports Center or any kind of sports telecasts, commentary, etc. However, I am a lover of golf, and a teacher friend recommended this book. Surprisingly, I could not put it down. It is funny and clever and warm, and if Ricky Reilly can write an arrogant prankster jock that this 35-year-old mother of two can root for, I'm sure that any sports' fan will gobble it up.
September 19, 2013
A decent, but far-fetched, sequel to Missing Links follows the protagonist as he tries to save his favorite golf course from becoming a parking lot and his wife from tossing him on his ear by doing the only sensible thing: qualifying for the British Open. It's an enjoyable ride despite the fact it is completely implausible and many of the jokes are recycled from the first book.
May 30, 2008
HILARIOUS! I loved it! A bunch of losers playing golf at a crappy course. They are such losers, in fact, that you can't help but pull for them and embrace the full extent of their duffer-dom. It is written by Rick Reilly, long-time Sports Illustrated columnist.
October 30, 2012
I enjoyed this book. It was kind of like reading a Tim Dorsey book set on a golf course (maybe just a little slower than a Dorsey book). It made me laugh and had enough action to keep the pace going.
January 26, 2014
FUNNY!!!! Not a surprise from Rick Reilly. Twists and turns from his golfing friends lend interest and surprises. Start early in the day so you can finish before you're in bed; otherwise you read into the night.
December 11, 2007
Very entertaining book and a quick and easy read. A good sequel to Missing Links.
August 12, 2007
a great follow up to the last book
September 9, 2007
I think if I understood golf more I would have enjoyed it more. But it was funny!
September 24, 2007
Hilarious novel about a country club and the characters that inhabit it. One of the best novels ever written about sports.
October 18, 2007
This is the sequel to Missing Links. It wasn't quite as good, but I still read it cover to cover in one evening.
December 19, 2007
Picks up where Missing Links left off. Another phenomenal, quick, hilarious read.
January 31, 2008
Very funny.
January 27, 2009
Amy read it and laughed out loud a few times. She couldn't tell me if it was any good, though. Maybe a quick, easy, and forgettable story.
March 6, 2008
Great sequel to Missing Links.
June 2, 2008
on CD fabulous reader
May 21, 2014
This is the follow up to Missing Links and Rick Reilly does not disappoint. Back are the same colorful characters as well as some new ones to keep it fresh. I am loving it. Five stars so far.
April 13, 2009
Others by Reilly are better.
September 30, 2014
Shanks for Nothing, the sequel to Missing Links, was outstanding. The humor and twists in this book make it a very compelling sequel.
August 1, 2009
I honestly laughed out loud at several points in this book. Aimed at males and golfers, this book is a bit more crude than I had anticipated. Still... a funny book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 47 reviews