Customer Reviews
Golf Reflections Over a 577 Day Blog - By: Donald Mitchell, 23 May 2008 
In our own minds, playing the game of golf becomes the kind of titanic tussle that we have so often observed as Tiger, Phil, & Vijay fight it out on some tough course while we watch on television. In fact, when you play the Old Course at St. Andrews, you can hire a video crew to follow you around on the last few holes & provide commentary.
But the reality is far different. Most of us hit many more bad shots than good ones. The appeal of the game quickly becomes beating othersin Nassau's abetted by our large handicaps. I came to think of golf's enduring appeal as beingin part the opportunity for middle aged people to have their own Little League.
Usually, a club will put you together with those of similar ineptitude & you soon forget how bad you are. Being a hacker myself, I was once absolutely floored to watch Chi Chi Rodriguez (all 147 pounds of him) easily lofting shots onto a green 230 yards away from a deep bunker while shooting an advertisement on my home course. Now, I had never gotten onto that greenin less than two shots from there (and not oftenin only two).
Years later, I had a chance to meet Chi Chi, & I told him how humbling it had been to watch him. He stared at me for one count & then said, "Now you know how I felt the first time I saw Tiger hit the ball."
Having played the game diligently (and poorly) for most of my adult life, I was curious about what it would be like to return to the game as Carl Hiaasen didin his 50'sin order to write a book. I was immediately struck that all of the silliness that I had observedin myself & others was reflectedin the book.
I've always found that observing the frustrations that others experience with golf to be hilarious (but I'm usually able to keep a straight face). Hiaasen makes the same observations about himself that I've often made about others. I admire his ability to see himself as others see him.
The trick with golf is to have a carefree attitude: You have more fun & you play better. Hiaasen has more trouble with achieving that emotional distance from his game while playing than he does getting out of a bunker. That overly self-critical attitude adds sourness to the book that would otherwise be totally hilarious.
You'll read very funny tales about new uses for clubs you've never considered, weird gadgets that don't work, unexpected things that can go wrong, & superstitious looks for omens. I think this book would have worked better as a series of essays about the silliness of golf obsessions & practices rather than recounting so much about his return to the game. The sections involving David Feherty were a complete stitch, & you could do a whole book about him . . . filled with wisecracks.
For those who are dyed-in-the-wool Carl Hiaasen fans, you'll be fascinated by his comments about the environmental implications of building golf courses & his reactions to the wild life he encounters.
The book ends on a positive note as his wife & son take up the game, & he recalls great moments spent with his father many years earlier.
There are a lot better golf books out there, but none that capture the experiences of the average frustrated golfer any better. It's like reading an autobiographyin some ways (in fact, there's a storyin here about hitting a fairway shot from a perfect lie that went 3 yards backwards . . . been there, done that).
Take dead aim!
"One day you're suckered into self-confidence [by] a few decent shots; the next, you can't hit the green with a sledgehammer." - By: Mary Whipple, 11 May 2008 Returning to golf thirty-two years after he gave it up, Carl Hiaasen, author of hilarious mysteries, shares his struggles to relearn the game of golf & maybe, even, learn to have fun with it. Golf is not a natural "fit" for Hiaasen--"I was just as restless, consumed, unreflective, fatalistic, & emotionally unequipped to play golfin my fifties as I wasin my teens," he admits. He starts "on the path to perdition"in November, 2002, when Sports Illustrated asks him to go to Barbados to write a humorous piece about the photo shoot for the swimsuit issue, & he ends up playing golf with his editor during the downtime.
Unfortunately, for Hiaasen, he plays well on enough that he begins to play golf (with second-hand clubs) back home with friends, & soon gets caught upin the golf-mania of finding the perfect equipment, reading books by gurus like Bob Rotella, David Leadbetter, & legend Harvey Penick, subscribing to golf magazines, & buying anything that may improve his game--from pendants to wear around his neck (to reduce stress) to capsules of herbal supplements (to improve concentration).
Describing himself as a "reclusive, neurotic, doubt-plagued duffer," he keeps a diary for almost six hundred days, obsessively recording, oftenin salty language & off-the-wall imagery, the rounds he plays with his friends, including Mike Lupica & CBS's David Feherty. Admitting that he suffers from "Wildly Unrealistic Expectations," he reflects the disappointments & frustrations of all beginning golfers as he describes playingin front of strangers (badly), having to play a new course for the first time (badly), & playingin a tournament (badly).
Continuing his mockery of politicians for failing to protect the environmentin Florida, a theme of many of his mysteries, he talks about the growth of golf communities & the loss of animal habitats, but he also reminds the reader that golf courses are not all bad. They could have been "two thousand, zero lot-line houses." Hilariousin his descriptions of his efforts to learn the game, he is also serious about his frustrations with it. He suffers, he tells us from "the most corrosive fundamental of golf, the Suck Factor." When his wife & his seven-year-old son take lessons & love the game, Hiaasen is reminded of his own golf experiences with his father, & despite his "own foolish & overwrought tribulations," he begins to see "warmer days ahead." Perhaps he might grow to love the game & share it with his family. n Mary Whipple
