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

If you are looking for a great Christmas present for the golfers on your list, The Downhill Lie: A Hacker's Return to a Ruinous Sport by Carl Hiaasen is the perfect gift. Hiaasen takes the same skills he uses to write his zany mysteries to produce this hysterical look at his return to golfing after a 30-year hiatus.Carl Hiaasen's dad was a fairly good golfer, and he taught the sport to his son. But unlike dad, Carl was pretty much a duffer. "At my best, I'd shown occasional flashes of competence. At my worst, I'd been a menace to all carbon-based life-forms on the golf course." As a young adult, he decided to stop torturing himself and gave up playing. But 32 years later, his friends convince him to pick up some clubs and start playing again. Hiaasen also has a secret desire to become a better golfer in his 50s than he was in his youth. He decides to keep a journal along the way. What results is a truly funny look at not just golf, but getting older and our physical shortcomings.Hiaasen takes lessons and then takes more lessons. He starts with a used set of clubs, and then purchases new ones. He also keeps buying putters and drivers. When one starts failing him, he ditches the offender in his locker and gets something new. He has a Ping putter that "has so many peculiar curves and sharp angles that it's impossible to get it clean with a golf towel. I need to take the blasted thing to a car wash and have it detailed." The author also purchases almost every item offered to help golfers improve their game (none of them work) and reads dozens and dozens of golf magazines and books (they don't help much, either).Hiaasen's golf swing is entertaining by itself. He calls himself "a male Sybil in spikes" and compares his swing to an "ax murderer." But there is so much more to laugh at. At one course, he manages to sink his golf cart (he claims the brakes were faulty). At home, he uses one of his clubs to kill rats. And when his wife decides to take lessons, she wants to wear flip-flips so that she doesn't get a tan line on her ankles. The Downhill Lie really had me chuckling. When he finds out that Donald Trump can drive a golf ball 310 yards, Hiaasen comforted himself "with a petty vision of the cocksure billionaire trying to tee off in 25-knot gusts, his famously surreal hair torqued into cotton candy."There is also a little of the environmental activist that we see in his mysteries. "Golf was not meant to be played in the shadow of a high-rise; that high rises don't belong on the banks of an estuary; and that whoever is responsible for such abominations should be pounded to a permanently infertile condition with a 60-degree lob wedge."Whether or not you play golf, The Downhill Lie is a fun read--especially if you are a Hiaasen fan.

The book dragged on and on..rather boring after a while., but a golfer might like it. I thought i was buying a new book. i got a used book, it was obvious it was a used book as several pages were turned down, to mark a place in the book..i don't buy used books, mostlly because there is no way to know where the book has been...

Carl Hiaasen was introduced to the game of golf by his father, who, to Carl's nearly life-long disappointment, was a very good golfer. On a whim that could be argued to be both mature and immature, he gave up the game in his early twenties because he wasn't able to improve. The Downhill Lie is the window through which we see his return to the game.Hiaasen goes to many extremes to improve his game. He reads every piece of literature on the game and buys some hilarious info-mercial products that make lofty promises. He joins a golf course, buys new clubs (and more new clubs), takes lessons, re-engineers his swing, and ultimately enters a tournament.For many reasons, which include his disposable income; his available free time; and that this became an assignment from his publisher, Hiaasen is able to go to greater lengths than most golfers who want to get better. But that doesn't mean those golfers, a category into which I fit, haven't thought about trying any or all of the things he did in the book. That contributes to the hilarious, but humbling nature of the book. We can laugh at his exploits as he does, and maybe we can learn some of the lessons he does as well.This book is more than a diary of Carl Hiaasen's golf rounds. The Downhill Lie is a poignant commentary on why so many of us endure the constant frustrations associated with the game of golf. The author uses the comedy of his situation to show exactly why, when this game keeps knocking us down, we get right back up and make another tee time.I recommend this book if you struggle with golf, or know someone who does (which I think is just about everyone, right?). This book will probably not help you be a better golfer, but at least you'll see you're not alone. If you aren't into the game yourself, and you've wondered why we torture ourselves the way we do, The Downhill Lie offers great insight. It was both funny and right-on-target portraying the mind of a golfer...or most golfers anyway. I really liked this book.

I bought a used copy of this hilarious wonderful book that I wanted to share with my husband. We took up golf recently. The description said in good condition. Actually, it was on poor condition with ripped part of pages, holes in others. I wouldn’t pay 50 cents for it as it is unreadable. Be careful with sellers descriptions. Other sellers may be more honest but this one should be banned from Amazon.

I have been a fan of Carl Hiasson for many years, having read at least 5 of his previous books. As a golfer, I had this on my "must read" list. When it come up on my ladies' league book club list, I had extra motivation to read it through. It was classic Hiasson style for about the first half. Thereafter, however, it failed to carry the day. Reading shot-by-shot, hole-by-hole, detailed accounts of his game became tiresome at that point. Further, topics addressed in the first half were raised time and time again in the second half, to the extent that it became beyond tiresome to irksome. When it came time for the book club session, I found I was not alone in my disappointment in this effort to take a humorous perspective to the game. I believe Hiasson grew weary of his obligation to complete the book and simply continued on and on and on and on and on....

This book is also available in another title and there is no mention of this fact in the product guide.

The whining of an average golfer, somewhat funny but he talks like he's a duffer, he's not that bad.

Just buy one for myself. It is very fast delivery. These are pro level grade. These did not work well for me but seller was very cooperative in their refund. The Cables are high quality .

Se lo recomiendo a cualquier aficionado del golf...te mueres de risa y te hace recordar de tus propios momentos fatales en el campo de golf.