The Perfect Game

By Joe Coon

Along the rugged shores of the Monterey Peninsula, an epic battle is being played out through a hungry, howling storm. The historic grounds of the Pebble Beach golf links serves as the stage for the nation's championship, the U. S. Open.

John Tyler, an unheralded amateur, propelled by the advice of a mystic mentor who has unlocked the secret of the game, goes head to head with the number one player in the world. Around the globe millions watch in amazement as the underdog wages a titanic struggle to win the title.

Wrestling with the very demons that brought him to this place, the would-be champion comes face to face with his own fears and dreams amid the screaming thunder and lightning of the final day.

The Perfect Game reveals the heart of a champion that beats in all of us. A deeply entertaining story of adversity and triumph.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595377890
• ISBN13: 9780595377893
• Release Date: May 2006
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Joe Scores a Birdie

I'm a golfer, a prolific reader and I know Joe Coon. Enough of the bona fides. This is a book that anyone who reads primarily for entertainment will thoroughly enjoy. If you happen to be a golfer, live with a goofer or know a golfer (did I leave anyone out?) add an extra plus. It's light reading, with an improbable plot line (who cares, I liked it) and a predictable conclusion. None of these detracted from my enjoyment. I've given my copy to 3 friends who had the same reaction as I did. Try it, you'll like it, almost guaranteed.

Even Non-Golfers will love it

I was first intrigued by the title. I would always want to see perfection in any sport. When the book arrived I figured it would be a couple of nights reading - entertainment. I read it nonstop! The plot moves quickly, the characters are well developed and strange enough, you can relate several of them to people in your own life. If you love the game of golf you will enjoy this. If you love the game of life you will really enjoy it. It is man's eternal struggle within themselves to grow, learn about themselves and the limits we all place on ourselves and live with our actions. Excellent book and I would highly recommend it to all of my friends. I am looking forward to more of this author's works.

The Best Story You've Never Read

Reading a book by an author that you have never read before can be a scary experience. Will the story be interesting? Will the writing be clear? Will the author have his own style? How well will the author execute the end of the story, which can be the most difficult part? I was pleased and surprised by how well Joe Coon executed on the novel "The Perfect Game." The writing is quite clear. The story is plotted progressively with enough characters to make the story interesting, but a sufficiently small number of characters to permit you to keep track of them. Furthermore, Joe Coon made many of his characters so memorable that it would be difficult to lose track of them. John Tyler has had his ups and down in life. He had his own business, a wife, and two children. Then his life fell apart. One of his children died, he got back-to-back divorces, and his business went under. Many people would never have recovered from the blows that John Tyler received. However, John Tyler is not most people. John is a fighter and a survivor. John has become a real estate agent and is slowly fighting his way back to a level of self-esteem. A beautiful woman has entered his life, and she is quietly supportive of John. Things appear to be looking up for John. John's greatest passions in life are Collette, his new significant other, and golf. John has always been an average player until he meets Armand. Armand is a quirky little fellow with a bizarre accent that provides John with a golfing tip. Soon John finds himself golfing better than he has ever golfed. Armand shows up again and John gets better yet. Added to John's luck is a huge real estate listing. Even better, buyers appear almost as quickly as John lists the property. Perhaps things are getting significantly better for John. Mysterious things are happening in John's life, but perhaps the events that are happening are too mysterious. Just who is Armand? Why has John been losing weight steadily with no apparent effort? John's golf game has become so incredible that John plans to enter the U.S. Open, with his best friend Ned, a $200,000 per year attorney, as his caddy. You have to read this book to find out what happens! Joe Coon has a winner with this book. The golfing story combined with the background stories in real estate and the character of Armand kept me intrigued from beginning to end. I found it difficult to put this book down and impossible to put down in the last 100 pages. This book was so interesting and well written that I predict that this book will become a movie. Do you guys in Hollywood hear me? Get this book quickly because once word gets out, the bidders will be lined up (do not go cheaply Joe; this book is worth getting the Hollywood boys to get out their check books). With the right director and the right actors, the movie of this book will be what "Tin Cup" could have been. This book will find a ready audience with fans of golf stories, stories about

Heading for Hell in a golf bag

John Tyler thought he'd been through it all. Once a successful businessman with a lovely wife and the requisite couple of kids, he had come crashing from his lofty pedestal after the death of his son, followed in rapid succession by divorce, a second divorce after a rebound marriage, and then to crown it all, personal bankruptcy. Little did he know that fate wasn't quite through with him as yet. Now a real estate agent on commission, John had settled into a comfortable but modest existence, meeting the bills with help from his tax accountant girlfriend, and playing a weekly round of golf with his buddies. His game wasn't that good, but it wasn't a big deal at the buddy level, and besides everybody in Tucson mucked about on the links. All this changes after he meets a dapper little man with an affinity for hot sauce, fast cars and expensive suits, who gives him some golfing advice that instantly improves his game. Playing better than he'd ever dreamed, the only fly in the ointment is the biggest real estate deal of his career, which is hovering unnervingly on the brink of disaster. He receives more golfing tips from his mysterious new friend, and one night over many margaritas he drunkenly agrees to do some recruiting for the man's business if he were to win the prestigious US Open Golf tournament. Before he knows it, all the good luck in the world is coming his way, and with it comes temptation in the form of a beautiful woman in a red dress. This is a supernatural golf story that can be enjoyed by non-golfers, even though some knowledge of the terms would be useful. Once you know your birdies from your eagles and bogeys, and have heard the name Tiger Woods before, you should be fine. There are also a few little things that slipped by the editing department, but the story flows so well that you hardly notice them. An entertaining sports story with a killer ending, that will have you turning the pages to sneak a peek at the next chapter. Amanda Richards, July 22, 2006

The Perfect Game...oh, yes!!!

I've appropriately dubbed the author, Joe Coon, as "Joe Cool" after reading "The Perfect Game". And that's because this author pens one heck of a golf story. After reading about the trials and tribulations of John Daly's life, this novel was like a breath of fresh air. Since I'm an avid golfer, the book's catchy cover immediately grabbed my attention. But the story was even better, especially to a reader that knows something about the game of golf. For that matter, non-golfers would appreciate Joe's tale about John Tyler, a man whose life goes from one extreme to the other and then comes back around again. And even though Coon's book is strictly fiction, he weaves so much of real life into it, and the choices we are often faced with, that it gave me cause to wonder just how many of us have actually lived this story. Not many, I hope. John Tyler is an average family man with a lovely wife and two sons, making a better than average living. Then Tyler's world falls apart when his sixteen-year-old son, Danny, is accidentally killed. A couple of years later, his marriage falls part and ends in divorce, his relationship with his remaining son becomes strained, and his business fails which causes Tyler to go belly-up in bankruptcy. It doesn't get any worse than this for a man and you can't help but feel sorry for the poor fellow. But that doesn't keep Tyler down, and with the love of his live-in girlfriend, Collette, who happens to be a very independent woman and becomes everything to him, along with his best friend, Ned Turner, a prominent attorney, Tyler picks up the pieces and starts putting his life back on track. His job as real estate agent isn't all that great, but at least he's getting his feet on the ground again. And things are going pretty good too. But like most average golfers and so-so real estate agents, Tyler wants to become a much better golfer, as well as to join the ranks of hot-shot realtors that make the big bucks. Can't fault the guy for that, now can we? And like most competitive men, he doesn't like to be beaten, whether he's playing golf or selling real estate. When a mysterious little guy named Armand comes along, offering Tyler a few "good tips" on how to improve his golf game, Tyler takes the little guy's advice and finds a drastic improvement. First one tip, then another, and Tyler finds his golf game so much improved, that he's telling Armand his dream of playing in the U.S. Open. Tyler decides to try and qualify, makes the cut, and then he's THERE. Yep, right there playing the "Tiger". And not only has his golf game turned around, Tyler is about to land the real estate deal of life-time, one that makes the big $$$. The story is told so vividly that you keep turning the page to see what Tyler's going to do next. And it's every bit as good as watching the U.S. Open on television. John Tyler's saga is loaded with deep feelings of love, life, commitment, and disappointment, but also with life's challenges that many of us a