The Phantom of the Open

<p><b>The hilarious heartwarming and - unbelievably - true story of Maurice Flitcroft the World's Worst Golfer</b><br><br><b>'The story of its greatest anti-hero is just what the game needs' <i>Spectator</i><br></b><br>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.<br><br>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).<br><br>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<br><br><b>'Hilarious' <i>Esquire</i></b></p>