Will Steve Carell destroy Missing Links?

The golf web sites are abuzz with news that Steve Carell, an actor I laugh at but can hardly stand to observe, is in line to play the lead role in Missing Links, one of the five best and funniest fictional golf pieces ever. In what could be the worst miscasting since Matt Damon’s golf swing in “The Legend of Bagger Vance,” Carell as Raymond Lee Hart would continue Hollywood’s tradition of eviscerating great golf novels on the big screen.

Hart should be played by a good-looking, 5′10″ guy, not intimidating but definitely strong and athletic. Carell is none of those things. For the love of God, directors, let him produce but cast him as Hoover or one of the loveable wretches, not as the lead.