To survive 18 holes of golf on the unpredictable ferocity of a New Zealand golf course - boiling mud pools, erupting volcanoes, stampeding sheep - local golfers must interpret golf rules ... flexibly.

But, like an insidious virus, flexible interpretations spread, threatening the venerable spirit of The Game. Secret Agent Oh-No-7 Over, Michele Llaw, infiltrates Shady Acres - home of notorious free-relief stretchers and cheats. As the world's foremost secret investigator of golf rules (indeed, probably the only secret investigator of golf rules) she risks life, limb and clubs to restore golf's sinking reputation.

When a plastic tee takes her into the high-tech end of her budget, Llaw must rely on her natural cunning as a single-figure golfer to keep her from the murderous clutches of Selby Hank (nickname 'Shank').

Outlaw Golf is a comic melodrama; an apt description for any club golfer's game, which always involves throbbing emotions, robust theatricality, and Greek inevitability.

Kay Wall won the 'Mona Schreiber Prize for Humorous Fiction and Non-Fiction' (in which uniqueness is suggested, weirdness encouraged) in 2,000. She is the humor columnist/cartoonist for Golf Update New Zealand magazine and plays off a 7 handicap. In 1996, she won the Fiji Ladies Open golf championship.

You can visit Kay's website at http://www.golfhumour.com