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

Having enjoyed several of Hiaasen's novels, "Skin Tight" being my personal favorite, I had high hopes for this book. Although there are several funny segments, the overall tone of whininess and self-flagellation got tiresome after a while. Golf is hard & frustrating, eh? Who knew?

I'm going to be polite and just say I did not care for this book. To say that this is the only book I have ever read that made me want to personally return it to the author with an official letter of complaint would be counterproductive and no mention of it will be made. Up to this point, I have been a huge fan. This autobiographical golf tale exposes Mr. Hiassen for the spoiled, name dropping, extrememly uninteresting, self absorbed and whining baby boomer that he apparently is. Get a fork, Carl and stick it in. You are done around my place. How dare you waste my time and money. The one star rating is a technicality. No stars wouldn't go through.

Background: I'm a big time golfer, but have had insane difficulty in learning the sport and playing well. Despite having a wife that's a Librarian, I don't read much. When this book came across the shelf, she picked it up for me and said it was a must read.

I don't know anything about Carl Hiaasen and his previous books. What I do know is this book speaks to anyone who's had a remote difficulty with the game. So many of his stories were practically my autobiography with the sport of golf, despite my 30 years of age difference between myself and the author. I laughed out loud more times than I can remember during this book.

This book is the real Chicken Soup for the Golfer's Soul. I'm sure most golfers can relate with Carl's experiments, including buying new clubs, the latest gimmics, reading Dr. Bob Rotella, taking many lessons... anything to find that Holy Grail of playing great golf.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who has become frustrated with golf at ANY point in time.

The guy's got a good sense of humor but like all liberals he's got to inject his political ideas into a subject matter that's totally unrelated. He calls Rush Limbaugh a "gasbag" and mentions that the lovely Ann Coulter possesses a "sex dungeon". Nice guy. He can make all the commentary he wants about the state of the world as he sees it but Rush is a "gasbag"! What a seething hypocrite! The only highlight for me was that Mike Lupica was bitten by a deer tick while playing a round. That was good news. He's another winin' liberal! God bless President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter!

Carl Hiaasen's -Downhill Lie, is was golf is all about. The book was very enjoyable because I can relate to the Sandridge golf courses he played I especially enjoy his 12th hole experence. He certanly does not need any reviews after the onrs he's already had .