SPENCER, THE WRONG GAME
Gérard Barbe
working cover - not final
THE NOVEL
Spencer De La Rue has spent his life running away.
A talented but unsuccessful professional golfer, Spencer lives from one game to the next, hustling wealthy players for money, chasing the dream of qualifying for the US Open, drinking, having affairs and keeping people at a safe distance.
His battered Mercury Cougar, Hogan, is almost as old and damaged as he is.
Then several things begin closing in on him at once: a medical problem, a failing golf career, the consequences of abandoning his family, memories of his military service and, most importantly, Shana — a woman who offers him the possibility of a life that isn't built around escape.
And then comes Dennis.
Five million dollars.
Augusta National.
The game of Spencer's dreams.
THE WRONG GAME
Golf has always given Spencer another chance.
Another shot.
Another hole.
Another game.
Another reason not to stop.
But when the five-million-dollar game begins, the language of golf starts to take on another meaning.
Shots.
Handicaps.
Holes.
Winning.
Losing.
Golf, violence, memory and reality begin to occupy the same space.
The game Spencer believes will save him gradually becomes a confrontation with everything he has spent his life trying to escape.
He knows how to play golf. He doesn't know how to live.
THE PEOPLE
SHANA
Shana represents the possibility of a life Spencer has never learned how to live.
She sees beyond the golfer, the womaniser and the man who is always preparing to leave. Their relationship offers Spencer something unfamiliar — the possibility of staying.
For Spencer, Shana is not simply another relationship.
She is a choice.
OAKLEY
Oakley is Spencer's caddie, but he becomes much more than that.
Their friendship gives Spencer one of the few genuine human connections in his life. Oakley knows the man behind the golfer and accepts him without demanding that he become someone else.
His death leaves Spencer with something he cannot simply walk away from.
It opens the door to memories of Afghanistan that he has spent years trying to keep closed.
JANE
Jane is an unlikely confidante — and perhaps the person Spencer most needs.
Older, perceptive and removed from the world of golf that has defined his life, she listens to him differently.
Through Jane, Spencer begins to confront the things beneath the surface: the death of his mother Kathy, his relationship with his father, his childhood and the anger he has carried for most of his life.
Jane makes Spencer look backwards.
DENNIS
Dennis arrives with five million dollars and the game Spencer has always dreamed of playing.
Powerful, wealthy and dangerous, Dennis offers Spencer the opportunity to play a private game at Augusta National.
For Spencer, it appears to be the answer to everything.
The money could change his life.
The game could change his future.
But Dennis has his own rules.
And as the game progresses, Spencer begins to discover that he may have entered something far more dangerous than a game of golf.
KATHY
Kathy is Spencer's first great loss.
Her death when he is eleven becomes the wound around which much of his adult life is built.
Long after she is gone, Spencer continues to carry the grief, anger and unanswered questions of that childhood loss.
The past is never entirely past.
THE FINAL GAME
Five million dollars.
Augusta National.
The game of Spencer's dreams.
But as the game unfolds, the language of golf begins to take on another meaning.
Shots.
Handicaps.
Holes.
Winning.
Losing.
Golf, violence, memory and reality begin to occupy the same space.
The game Spencer believes will save him gradually becomes a confrontation with everything he has spent his life trying to escape.
He knows how to play golf.
He doesn't know how to live.
ABOUT THE NOVEL
Spencer, The Wrong Game is a novel about escape, grief, friendship, violence and the stories we construct to avoid confronting ourselves.
At its centre is a man who has spent his life becoming exceptionally good at the wrong game.
He knows how to play golf.
He doesn't know how to live.
Gérard Barbe
Writer — Director — Producer