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  • Published: 3 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529195859
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.00

The Phantom of the Open (tie-in)



SOON TO BE A MAJOR FILM STARRING MARK RYLANCE

The hilarious, heartwarming and - unbelievably - true story of Maurice Flitcroft, the World's Worst Golfer

'The story of its greatest anti-hero is just what the game needs' Spectator
When 46-year-old crane driver Maurice Flitcroft chanced his way into the Open - having never before played a round of golf in his life - he ran up a record-worst score of 121. The sport's ruling classes banned him for life.

Maurice didn't take it lying down. In a hilarious game of cat-and-mouse with The Man, he entered tournaments again - and again, and again - using increasingly ludicrous pseudonyms such as Gene Pacecki, Arnold Palmtree and Count Manfred von Hoffmanstel (more often than not disguised by a fake moustache).

In doing so, he sent the authorities into apoplexy, and won the hearts of fans from Muirfield to Michigan, becoming arguably the most popular - and certainly the bravest - sporting underdog the world has ever known

'Hilarious' Esquire

  • Published: 3 May 2022
  • ISBN: 9781529195859
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 384
  • RRP: $26.00

About the authors

Scott Murray

Scott Murray writes for the Guardian, the Fiver, FourFourTwo, GQ and Men's Health. He is the co-author of the football miscellany Day of the Match: A History of Football in 365 Days, and contributed to both volumes of Is It Just Me Or Is Everything Shit?

Simon Farnaby

Simon Farnaby is an actor and writer. Among his recent TV acting credits he was Spike in Jam and Jerusalem and he played Hamilton Cork, Pie-Face Records and Harold Boom in The Mighty Boosh. In film, he starred as Bunny in this year's British Indie hit Bunny and The Bull.

Praise for The Phantom of the Open (tie-in)

Hilarious

Esquire

The story of its greatest anti-hero is just what the game needs.

Spectator