The Franchise Babe » (Bargain)

Dan Jenkins is the author of eighteen novels and nonfiction books including Semi-Tough, Dead Solid Perfect, Baja Oklahoma, Life Its Ownself, Rude Behavior, Fairways and Greens, and most recently, Slim and None. Jenkins was an award-winning writer for Sports Illustrated for more than 20 years, and currently writes an enduringly popular column for Golf Digest. After a semi-lifetime in New York City, he now lives full-time in his native Fort Worth, Texas.

Jack Brannon, a golf writer in his forties who has been bunkered more than once in the marriage game, covers the sport for a big-time magazine. Bored with the PGA, he decides to check out “the Lolitas,” on the LPGA Tour. Jack chooses as a magazine subject Ginger Clayton, a fiery eighteen-year old whose killer looks and killer game make her the kind of star who can take the LPGA to the next level. She is, indeed, The Franchise Babe, and everyone wants a part of her, but someone, it seems, is trying to knock Ginger out of the competition-permanently. Filled with dead-on take downs of sports moms, adventurous promoters, suck-up corporate sponsors, double-dealing sports agents, and just enough menace to make golf dangerous, Dan Jenkins latest tale of hijinks on the links is not to be missed.

Publishers Weekly

In Jenkins's outrageous sports satire (after Slim and None ), middle-aged sportswriter Jack Brannon is sick of writing about Tiger Woods and the boring testosterone-charged PGA tour. So the swaggering Texan decides to check out the ladies of the LPGA, specifically hot teen sensation and fellow Texan, Ginger Clayton. She's a "fiery eighteen-year-old blonde" with the potential to become the next golf superstar (or, in pro golf parlance, a real "franchise babe"). Soon, Jack is impressed by Thurlene, Ginger's gorgeous single mom, and enamored of Ginger's talent, beauty and precocious professionalism. He decides to tag along, taking notes and observing the peculiar peccadilloes of professional sports-including crazed stage-golf moms and others who'll stop at nothing to get ahead in the high-stakes game. Jenkins pokes fun at the golf world eccentricities he knows so well and allows Jack major leeway in making smart-mouth commentary as he falls in love and gets a great scoop. (June)

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