Pros from Dover

[Baker, John]

        IIRC, it's just that:  In the 1968 novel, the surgeons described themselves as "the pros from Dover" to give the impression that they were the golf pros at the Dover golf course.  There is no Dover golf course, naturally, or at least the surgeons didn't have a particular golf course in mind.  "Dover" was chosen as suggestive of golf courses in general and likely to fool the local golf pro into believing it was an actual course that he just couldn't place at the moment.

        In terms of what the phrase means more generally, I suppose it refers to pseudo-experts who give vague, manufactured credentials to imply that they are more knowledgeable than is really the case.

John Baker


-----Original Message-----
From: Donald M Lance [mailto:lancedm at MISSOURI.EDU]
Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2002 10:38 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: Pros from Dover


Maybe, just maybe, it's a place name with convenient assonance and doesn't
have to be the famous cliffs or the capital of Delaware or the little town
in Arkansas.

DMLance