Will the James Patterson book commercial ever end?

[Tailgater]

The Golf Channel runs that same dumb commercial about 50 times per hour. I am so beaten by the commercial I refuse to even inquire about the novel.

[RandallT]

I think it's like 2 or 3 slightly different commercials, right?  They're bad, but at least they don't have that "Livin' in the Hall of Fame" song in them.

[dkolo]

The Golf Channel runs that same dumb commercial about 50 times per hour. I am so beaten by the commercial I refuse to even inquire about the novel.

Other than the Masters this past weekend, I can't remember the last time I watched a golf tournament without delaying it so I could blow through the commercials on my DVR. I've realized I don't know what the manufacturers are even advertising anymore.

[imsys0042]

It cant be worse than all the Cialis ads that I remember being on during golf. Behind every grinning man in those ads is a woman who is pissed she's not being left alone anymore.

[divot dave]

i can't stand those commercials... especially his intro where he talks about all the possible bad things that can happen to a golfer... its like he's trying to plant those ideas in my head...!

[Mr. Desmond]

Doubt if he wrote it ... when you see a co-author with him, someone else has wrote it, Patterson probably edited it, and they use his name as a brand to sell the book.

Hopefully, it ends this week ... but it may depend on sales.

[isukgolf]

My understanding is, he produces a treatment of 60 to 80 pages, establishing the plot and characters in detail, then hires a writer to turn it into a full-length book.

[divot dave]

I don' think I've ever seen a televised commercial for a fictional book... what's so special about this guy that he gets that kind of marketing?

[turtleback]

Why is it that people like Herman Wouk can write historical novels about a time 50-75 years ago and get it right when it seems almost impossible for authors to write golf fiction that is not laughably stupid to anyone who knows anything about golf, or they write fiction in the setting of the Tour and it is unrecognizable?  There are several series like that our there and judging by the comments on Amazon Patterson is no better -  unless they redesigned number 1 at Augusta National to make it a dogleg left.  The hole has been there for 75+ years.  It isn't like it would have taken any intensive research.  All he would have had to have done is look at it or a diagram if it.  But he couldn't be bothered to even try to be accurate.

[Dave2512]

I don't like golf fiction because it's almost always 7 Days In Utopia type stuff. The golf is pure and can cure your soul vomit inducing plots. Ipecac in print.

[colin007]

that guy is the worst writer ever.

[Mr. Desmond]

My understanding is, he produces a treatment of 60 to 80 pages, establishing the plot and characters in detail, then hires a writer to turn it into a full-length book.

That may be, but I've found a big difference between his works and co-authored works. But those were in his middle years, when he began the co-authoring, and after he stopped his original writing. I don't even bother with his work now unless he is the sole author (and then I skim it to see if interesting). He is a brand, and while it is marketing smart to piggyback an unknown with a known author, it's somewhat misleading imho.

[Valleygolfer]

I guess I am not the only one that is irritated with these commercials... His stupid big head and small crumpled up hat with the smug I'm so funny attitude....

[turtleback]

I don't like golf fiction because it's almost always 7 Days In Utopia type stuff. The golf is pure and can cure your soul vomit inducing plots. Ipecac in print.

Personally, I'd never read any of that mystical type stuff either.

But there are at least a couple of detective series centered around golf.  The one I've liked best features a golf pro named Jack Austin who has to fight to keep is card but burns to win.  The situations he gets into are contrived as in almost any detective fiction, but at least the golf part is reasonably accurate.  The only faux pas the author made was to make a big deal of how Austin, because he is dyslexic, carries a calculator in his bag for adding up his scores after the round so he doesn't get disqualified for a dyslexic-related wrong total.

Of course, WE now that could not happen because a player is only responsible for the hole scores, not the total.  It is the Committee's responsibility to insure the hole scores are added correctly, not the player's.  But that is tiny compared to what golf fiction writers usually do to butcher up the golf art of their story.

But I just do not understand how an author can put his story in a setting that actually exists and not bother to get the setting right, when it is so easy to get it right.

[boston blackie]

The thread has bounced around between commercials and authors.

I'd like to talk about commercials.  You know what commercial I never tire of : "Don't count that".