GHOST OF A CHANCE; or, Old Tom and Harry
A Tale of Golf, Ghosts, and St. Andrews
Trade Paper: 252pp, 6" x 9" USA $14.95 USD UK £10.99 GBP   
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For St. Andreans it was the dead of night, but the dead of night was their time to be out and about on the moonlit links. . . .

Jolly Harry Golub, a thirtyish, squat, Manhattan sales clerk, wins an all-expenses-paid trip to Scotland’s famous golf courses. He travels in the company of golf pro Brewster Payne and his four country club cronies, all of whom come to despise Harry. Chiefly they hate him because of his inability to strike a golf ball squarely. Since they are required to rotate partnering with Harry on all his rounds, vexation over his ineptitude puts them off their game and, as a consequence, upsets their vacation altogether.

Two events occur in St. Andrews that turn Harry’s fortunes around: meeting and winning lovely Fiona Huntly (one of Payne’s former girl friends) and, unwittingly, falling into possession of an enchanted golf club—a driver—made by the spirit of Old Tom Morris himself. Other spirits of departed golfers are evoked—Young Tom Morris, Bobby Jones, Francis Ouimet, Mary, Queen of Scots, and the witch, Isabel Goudy.

Harry returns home with “Old Tom” (the charmed golf club) and Fiona as his caddie. There, he embarks on a P.G.A. career with astonishing success.

Meanwhile, the spirits of St. Andrews are frantic in their efforts to retrieve the magic club and restore it to Elysium before Harry lays waste to all existing golf tournament records.

In the spirit of the best of P.G. Wodehouse, Ghost of a Chance concludes in St. Andrews during play at the British Open for a final hilarious and satisfying conclusion to this tale of enchantment.

From the Book

“Aye, indeed, he’s all of that,” said Cam. He stood and raised his glass, “A toast to Harrison Golub and Colin Mackay, two excellent chaps.
        It’s good loftin’ balls to the sky,
        It’s good hittin’ honest and true,
        It’s good to play the Open in Scotland
        And swing with a sweet follow through.
        Harrison Golub and Colin Mackay—
        Godspeed in yer Open debut.
        “Hear, hear.”
        “Robert Burns?” asked Harry.
        “Cameron Flett,” said Cam.
        A student voice shouted Scotland’s motto above the din, “Nemo me impune lacessit!”—No one assails me with impunity.
        Other scholars displayed their little Latin.
        “Jacta alea est!” trumpeted the classics scholar.
        “Delenda est Cathago!” proposed the Sandhurst alum.
        “Et tu, Brute,” swooned the expiring thespian.
        “Gaudeamus igitur!” sang the music major.
        “Terra firma!” stomped the agrarian.
        “Tempus fugit!” belched the Newtonian, unsure of himself.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Charles Francis Gould was born and raised near Boston. He lives with his wife, Jeanne, in Portland, Oregon