Hit & Hope: How the Rest of Us Play Golf [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

David Owen (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 6, 2003

Tiger Woods called his book HOW I PLAY GOLF. Great for him but what has that got to do with the rest of us mortals. Even Jack Nicklaus said of Mr. Woods 'He plays a game with which I am not familiar.' David Owen plays a game with which we are all familiar. He plays in a weekly foursome, takes mulligans off the first tee, practises intermittently at best, marks his ball on the green with his lucky coin (until the luck wears out, and he switches to something newer/hotter/fresher), wore a copper wristband because Seve Ballesteros said so, and struggles for consistency even though his swing IS consistent - and mediocre. He bets, he wins, he loses, he agonizes, he dreams. HIT AND HOPE is as pure a definition of the game of golf as anyone has ever devised. Through the annecdotes in this book, Owen takes the mundane aspects of the game and how we approach it and stands them on their head, turns them inside out, and lays our follies bare for all the world to see. He does for contemporary golfers what P.G. Wodehouse did for golfers in the 1920s, or Jacques Tati did for humanity at large: he finds humour and nobility in our essential silliness, as expressed in our pursuit of a little white ball over a vast greensward.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Owen, author of The Chosen One (2001), perhaps the best of the early books about Tiger Woods, gathers a selection of his columns from Golf Digest, most of which portray the game as it is played by ordinary mortals. It isn't so much that he tells weekend golfers anything they don't already know about the frustrations of playing a difficult game poorly, but he manages to make it seem funny: "If you could trade I.Q. for driving distance, would you do it? Three hundred yards up the middle every time, and all you'd have to sacrifice would be hardcover books and your subscription to the ballet." What Owen wouldn't sacrifice--for either I.Q. or driving distance--is the camaraderie he enjoys with his pals at the club: outrageous forms of on-course gambling, snow golf, beers on the patio after the Sunday morning round. Golf is all about the special pleasure of shared suffering, and, amid the laughter, Owen drives that point home with all the force of one of Tiger's laser-powered two-irons. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"Mr. Owen writes with such felicity and humor about his travails on various golf courses that one indulges him his amateur status."

-- The New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Owen's style might be best described as part John Updike and part Johnny Miller."

-- Newsweek

"Owen's droll asides are as memorable as a chip-in birdie."

-- People

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 6, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743222377
• ISBN-13: 978-0743222372
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 6.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,426,706 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Owen is a staff writer for The New Yorker and a contributing editor of Golf Digest, and he is the author of a dozen books. He lives in northwest Connecticut with his wife, the writer Ann Hodgman. Learn more at www.davidowen.net.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Experience the Joy --- and Frustrations --- of Golf, June 14, 2003

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hit & Hope: How the Rest of Us Play Golf (Hardcover)

Subscribers to Golf Digest are well aware of David Owen. A monthly contributor to that magazine, as well as to the New Yorker, Owen is also the author of several golf books, including MY USUAL GAME, THE CHOSEN ONE and THE MAKING OF THE MASTERS. David Owen may well be the closest thing we have to an American version of P.G. Wodehouse, the English golf writer.

HIT AND HOPE: How the Rest of Us Play Golf, is a collection of Owen's essays. While many may find comfort in reading about golfing greats, Owen is not the writer to read if that is your interest. David Owen is the golf everyman, writing for those of us who go from despair to jubilation and back to despair in the span of one 385-yard hole. David Owen is a golfer who understands why a round of golf that often begins with unbounded optimism can conclude with total despair. He understands because, like us, he has been there and done that.

From an early essay explaining why Casablanca is the greatest golf movie ever made, to a discussion centering on golf superstitions, to a delightful tale of grown men sleeping over on the golf course, David Owen captures the true meaning and attraction of the game of golf. Golf is more than major championships, Tiger Woods, Jack Nicklaus, and the legends of golf. Golf is camaraderie, fellowship, and the dreams of the average golfer who firmly believes deep down in his heart that one small adjustment in the swing will cause handicaps to plummet and scores to approach par. Like Owen, we can dream the dream while understanding that it remains an elusive, unattainable objective.

There is something in this collection to entertain every golfer. In "Perfecting Skins," Owen discusses the popularity of the made-for-television golf event, the Skins Game. In that event, four well-known professional golfers play for a large amount of money. There is little actual drama in the television contest, because the four golfers have nothing to lose except the possible humiliation of failing to win a single skin over the two-day event. It is fairly boring golf. Owen has several suggestions for livening up the event and then proceeds to discuss the local version of the skins game that you might wish to try out with your foursome. There are some interesting possibilities for those of you inclined to wager a few dollars on your weekend round of golf.

The longest essay in the collection is "The Greenkeeper's Tale," a short biography of the course superintendent at Owen's home course. Bob Witkoski is an iconoclast whose methods are subject to much discussion. A United States Golf Association agronomist who visited the course was horrified to learn that Witkoski refused to aerify the greens of his course. Upon examining a sample of the greens, he was forced to acknowledge that the soil was some of the healthiest ground he had ever seen. Bob Witkoski is a man who loves his work and his golf course, and Owen has chronicled him in an extraordinary fashion.

Read HIT AND HOPE and experience the joy of golf. Pass it amongst your foursome and share its joy. Owen would be mortified to learn that golfing pals might take the time to read and then discuss a book. Read his essay "Feelings" and you will understand why. This is a tome for golfers who know the frustration of the game. There are a lot more of us than there are golfers like Woods, Nicklaus and Palmer. Along with David Owen, we can share the joy, anguish and mirth of the game.

--- Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for everyone who has ever played the game, July 11, 2007

By 

D. Hollingsworth (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Hit & Hope: How the Rest of Us Play Golf (Hardcover)

Simply enjoyable reading, David Owen puts into words what so many of us experience and feel on a golf course. An everyman, this book brings the game home to all of us who struggle to identify the "elusive unhittable club". I could not stop chuckling and sometimes laughing out loud at his colorful and vivid descriptions of his golf life, buddies and game. This guy would definitely be in my dream foursome! You couldn't have a bad day of golf with him no matter what you shot.