Maybe It Should Have Been a Three Iron: My Years as Caddie for the World's 438th Best Golfer »

Lawrence Donegan was born in Scotland and studied politics at Glasgow University. He now works as a journalist for the Guardian and lives in Glasgow.

Maybe It Should Have Been a Three-Iron is the funny and poignant story of one man's search for sporting glory. Lawrence Donegan had the desire but lacked the talent to be a professional golfer, so he settled for the next best thing—caddying for Ross Drummond, a little-known pro on the European PGA tour, ranking 438th in the world. With self-deprecating humor, Donegan recounts the days and endless nights he spent on the road with Drummond as they existed on a string of meager tournament checks and chased the elusive "big win" much as Don Quixote and Sancho Panza chased winmills.

Library Journal

The author, a journalist for the English Guardian, recounts his experiences caddying for Ross Drummond, a journeyman pro, on the 1996 European Professional Golfers' Tour. Donegan describes tournaments and their host cities with a tone of frustration that one might naturally expect from someone exposed to the trials of finding his own ride and bed on the wages of a bag carrier for a pro who misses the tournament cut most weeks. Along the way, we meet a pastiche of great and not-so-great tour characters, including the Ballmark Kid, suspended from the tour for moving his ball marker during the qualifying round for the 1985 British Open. Although carrying clubs across Europe and parts of Africa doesn't quite do for Donegan what it did for Michael Bamberger in his turn as a caddy in To the Linksland (Viking, 1992), this amusing book is sure to find an audience on the back nine and beyond. Recommended for most public libraries.Peter Ward, Lindenhurst Memorial Lib., West Islip, NY