The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport

In true Hiaasen form, this is a humorous look at what many contend to be a serious sport. I was laughing out loud by page 20, and appreciating his serious rant by page 38 as he decried the development of ever more golf courses and golf course subdivisions chopping up his beloved Florida landscape. Hiassen is a great writer, one of the best at using current situations to develop biting humor.
This personal account of his return to golf after a 30-year hiatus is a great read.

I very much enjoyed this book as I do all of his books. This is a light fun and quick read. Being a duffer myself I can relate to what he went through.

I used to play golf and quit for various reasons. I couldn't even finish this book because of the bad memories. Mark Twain said it best...." golf is a ruin of a perfectly good walk".

With apologies to Henry Higgins, "He's Got It...By George, He's Got It..."

Carl Hiassen is one of us. He knows what its like to make a "comeback" for someone who never was (a golfer)!!!

And he puts it all into a most readable book: the joy, the laughter, the heartache, the sorrow, the ectasy, the agony, the anger of it all, especially the downhill lie.

For a would-be comeback golfer, reading this book is kind of like looking up at the night sky and knowing, "We are not alone...we are not alone..."

As a "golfer" (and the quotes are necessary in the interest of truth), this is one of the funniest books ever written about this most confounding and frustrating sport. If you ever or never played the game, you'll enjoy it. If you've played a round and are ready to give up, but then remember the one or two respectable shots you hit, you'll relate to his story of returning to the game after a decades long lay-off. A great gift for anyone with an interest in the game.