Feherty’s ‘Nasty Bit of Rough’
finds center of the fairway
BY P.J. BROWNE, SPECIAL TO and Courtesy of GOLFWEEK.COM

(With special and exclusive permission to reprint at KrookedStix.Com)

This first novel by former Ryder Cup player David Feherty is a silly book marked by tall tales, sex, drink and all manner of afflictions. In the hands of someone less capable this book would be nothing more than trivial and inane, but Feherty has found just the right tone and vibrancy of voice to carry if off.

“A Nasty Bit of Rough”

So why did he write it? Feherty explains: “Whenever I reflect on being here I think of some words of Chesterton….. ‘We have forgotten who we really are . . . All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful moment we remember that we forget. We forget that the world is a miracle about which only our imaginations have a guess.’ Are you still with me there?”

Well, actually no. Sounds a bit like Bono from U2.

Could you put it in English please?

“I always suspected you were a dim bollox anyway. Let me see if I can simplify it for you,” Feherty said.

“This thing has been inside of me for quite a while. It was as if it was stuck in me you know, like taking a shite that lasted twenty years. Actually it took about 19 years to write the first chapter, and 10 days to write the rest. And the first chapter is probably the worst.

“The book is not a shot at anybody, really just a bit of fun. If they hadn’t started (messing) with the Rules of Golf, of which there were only two -- Play the ball as it lies and the course as you find it. Years ago they invented a bunch of golf clubs to fit every situation like playing out of water, wheelie ruts . . . Now we have a situation where we have to make golf clubs illegal.

“I think the game would be a lot more interesting if you were allowed to carry whatever you wanted. I want to see Tiger Woods playing out of a puddle. I don’t want to see him lifting it and dropping it.

“The book was written over Christmas two years ago. I was up all hours of the night for almost two weeks, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. I’m not really happy with it but it is me. It’s not Shakespeare.”

The real reason why Feherty wrote this book was because of the phenomenal reaction he got from readers of his golf column and his online musings. He wrote three pieces and they loved it. So there is no catharsis behind this book then, no angst ridden demons to be expelled? “What are you talking about sunshine. I never rode an angst in my life.”

The characters are based on people that he is familiar with. “Uncle Dickie is based on my father and friends and the people I grew up with. I only had one uncle but all of my dad’s friends were referred to as uncle. There was Uncle Sam, Harry, Weston and so on.”

So people will recognize themselves in the story? “Most assuredly,” Feherty said. “The sheep will be very familiar to some but no one will admit it.” And no, he didn’t write this novel to make money. “I won’t be making a dime out of it unless they sell about eight million of them.”

Readers familiar with Feherty’s writings will immediately recognize the cast of characters from Scrought’s Wood. It’s a book that will be enjoyed by golfers but also by readers in general. So it’s a seriously funny book then? “Sorry boy, you won’t trap me on that one. Next question please.”

Reaction among PGA Tour players has been positive. Ernie Els thinks it’s “a lighthearted and funny book but there is a message in it for those who want to see it. I’m not sure that I do.” Ernie might do better to stick to his biographies. He’s on saner territory there.

Colin Montgomerie will not be getting a copy: “He’s free to buy the book of course, but he tried to decapitate me at a function during the last Ryder Cup. He threw a crouton at me. Needless to say he missed.”

Feherty hasn’t missed with this entertaining book. There is a follow up in the works. “I’m writing the first chapter, but we know how long the first chapter took in the last one, so I wouldn’t be holding my breath for it.”

So we’re not dealing with a serial novelist here. Perhaps one day Feherty will write a serious work of fiction. “Excuse me, but maybe I already have.”

I wouldn’t put it past him.

• David Feherty, A Nasty Bit of Rough, Rugged Land Books, 224 pages. Available at barnesandnoble.com. Price $19.16.