I Don't Golf. But I Can't Stop Listening.

Like Kevin, Wodehouse's golf sagas used to leave me a bit tepid. I've only played one complete round of golf in my life and then it was a foursome playing best ball--and the best ball was rarely mine. But that single experience has helped me to understand that Wodehouse speaks sooth: when you DO hit the ball right (and I did once, purely by accident, a low, raking drive that went at least two thirds the distance of the fairway), you really do want to stop everything, untangle yourself and try to recollect what you did right. An impossible assignment, but there it is.

But more than that, though these are "golf stories" I've come to see that they really aren't about golf. They're about people who happen to play golf. Just as the Bertie and Jeeves stories revolve around a young man about town whose main objects in life are doing the done thing and avoiding his relatives, these are humorous tales about people obsessed with getting their score down in the 90's. Steeped in golf, they express their ideas and emotions (from insults to proposals of marriage) almost entirely in terms of golf. It's funny because it's, not so very far from the truth. Just think of any avid golfer you know.

Then, of course, there is Frederick Davidson's languid but never bored or boring delivery. His readings are usually at least an hour longer than those of, say, Jonathan Cecil reading the same book and it is time well spent; Davidson uses it to get all the juice out of every line. Both as a book (one of Wodehouse's best) and a performance (one of Davidson''s best) this is a must-have.

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One of his golfing titles

This is fun, like all Wodehouse titles, but be aware that this is one of his stroke-by-stroke golfing titles. There are plots woven about these golf games, but buyer beware if you have a low tolerance for details of each club and hole played at the "Oldest Member's" club.

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Simply Delightful

Very entertaining and worth the purchase price for the narration alone. Although the male-female dynamic is more than a bit antiquated in these short stories, the alternating grace and vicissitudes of the game of golf - as well as its obsessions - are accurately captured as if written the day before yesterday. These are stories at their core about how golfers think about golf, and they are as true now as when they were written. Decades-long devotees of the game will most enjoy the humor and subtleties of this writing. There are, beyond a bit of (possibly) excessive relationship chatter, laugh-out-loud moments in these stories if you truly know what it is to be a golfer.

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Fun tales

I'm not a golfer, but I enjoyed these tales from Wodehouse. Most are "told" by the Oldest Member, usually to some poor guy who is disheartened by his golf game, although the last story is "historical."

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Once Again Wodehhouse in His Prime

brings his enormous gifts as a stylist, concocter of seamless plots, and deployer of metaphors and similes to bear on golf which was one of his pursuits. Wodehouse came to golf in his thirties and like some of his characters was bitten hard by the golf bug. As a first rate humorist and third rate golfer Wodehouse was able to delve into the heart of this obsession and to get even with the game on the written page in a way he never could on the course. As I said in an earlier review, if you are a golfer with a smidgen of self awareness you will find aspects of your personality in thee stories. Wodehouse knew golf but he knew golfers even better.

I was not as happy with with narrator as I was with Cecil who did Heart of a Goof, but it is well done. Highly recommended.

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hilarious

Nobody like PG Wodehouse. Davidson narrates with a dry, drawling, britisher accent that lends itself well to the humour. Great pairing.

beyond my expectations

as a non-golfer I did not really think I'd enjoy this I was wrong I laughed I enjoyed the writing the characters and the stories. good work

One more bit of greatness from Wodehouse

How CAN he be so funny? I’m stunned at the high quality of Wodehouse’s enormous body of work (over 90 books). This is an early one, published in 1922, a collection of great golf stories, primarily told by the Oldest Member of the mythical golf clib. Although Frederick Davidson isn’t as good a narrator as Jonathan Cecil, it’s still very good.

Hilarious! But: poorly edited

This is classic Wodehouse but the editors of the audio left in almost a dozen second takes. Perhaps Audible doesn’t take responsibility, but it took me out of the story.
The reader is ok, but doesn’t have the range of voices others do. That said he has good comedy timing which makes up for almost anything.

Wodehouse’s golf stories: not my favorite

Having played years ago, but with only mild enthusiasm, I’m obviously not the target audience for this book. But even still, the conceit that golf turns people (men, in this telling) into obsessives with near-complete myopia toward anything but the game grows a little thin after awhile. Beyond that, while I generally like Frederick Davidson’s Wodehouse narrations, this one should have received a better edit from Blackstone Audio. In nearly each story, there’s at least one instance where Davidson’s second take on a line repeats his first take. I expect many other such instances were edited out, but those that remain are annoying and unprofessional on the part of whoever the audio engineer for this book was.