Customer Reviews

Preferred Lies

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We went to Gleneagles this year for 10 days holiday staying in a house on the estate which we rented. Lots of emotion driving through Milnathort passing a house of oldest friend and remembering aged 10 playing golf at Milnathort and not finding the ball because the course was covered in white feathers. One day I indulged myself and drove to Dollar, where I had been to school and lived during my formative years, arriving at 08.00am and played a round of golf on my own. I am a very poor player who has never yet broken 100 (the swing mistakes of my youth will stay and haunt me all my life)and so was amazed to go round the course in 82 - more than uncanny. Stopping at the 18th green for 10 minutes to look at the house where I grew up which backed onto the golf course I could see me and my brother playing in the garden and remembered where we had the rabbit hutch and so on and so on. It was very nostalgic and very pleasant. Dollar unchanged etc

Next day we drive 'en famille' to Edinburgh and turn on the radio at 08.45am and pick up a 15 minute reading from a book just come out called 'Preferred Lies' by Andrew Greig (or Grieg). It's autobiographical about a guy who on his (very) sick bed hear's voices from his deceased father telling him to pick up his golf clubs after years of absence as the road to recovery. So he sets off on a tour of golf courses in Scotland which had been meaningful to him and gives us his philosophy on the way (It's not about the score). That day my wife managed to find the book in a book shop and bought it for me for my birthday and... surprise is the last chapter is entitled Dollar. Imagine my surprise - all the golf courses in Scotland and he chooses to end his book playing alone at Dollar in the way I had done just two days earlier. Turns out he had attended Dollar Academy as I had many years ago. So you must please buy the book. It is golfy but you will enjoy it. As this book, golf in Scotland follows the natural lie of the land and is not man made. It is earthy and genuine.

Andrew Greig, a Scot, is a poet, a nonfiction writer and a novelist who, as a junior, was a golf champion in Fife. This book combines all that and more. At one point the author states that he's not sure whether he's writing for the golfer or nongolfer. Having read it, I'm not sure either, but I'm a golfer with some familiarity with Scottish golf courses, including a number of those that Greig visits during his journey rediscovering golf and himself, without which background I'm uncertain whether I would have finished the book. Now, having finished it, I expect to be reading it again.

You want beautiful writing? You've got it here. You want "new age" golf? You've got it here. You want a little humor? Same answer. The story line, such as it is, has the author visiting 18 or so famous, not-so-well-known (to Americans such as I) and barely golf courses around Scotland after a 35-year absence from the game and just upon recovery from a life-threatening illness. Although here and there we get some tidbits about the golf courses themselves, the point of the book is "golf and life" -- specifically, Mr. Greig's life.

On the golf side, I think of Scots as social, match play players. Mr. Greig doesn't fit that image. He prefers to play alone, and therefore for him it's medal play against the course and himself. In spite of his long absence from the game, he still cares about the score. He concludes his final round, at Dollar, alone: "My card records 35 out, 37 in. Total 72, six over par. Not that I was counting. Of course I'm counting. There is still something at stake. There aye will be." Pretty heavy stuff, yes?

"Preferred Lies", like a once-in-a-lifetime round of golf on a special golf course, is something one savors as you move through it. Andrew's wit, insight, depth, humor, and choice of words delight the reader with their imagination and intention. It is an honest book - and therefore one that was easy to relate to and come away with impressions and thoughts that shall last. This is a work of art that comes not only from Andrew's creative and entertaining spirit, but from his heart. That is the highest recommendation that I think one can give for any endeavor.

Simply stated, I LOVE this book. Greig is a first class writer. A poet and a novelist writing about his personal experiences with golf that were part of his healing after successful brain surgery. What a treat to read such a personal treatment of golf in Scotland by such an eloquent Scotsman. For example, Greig never "took up" golf... "It was just there."

This book is absolutely rich with "the ethos of golf" and a rare treat of a read.

FYI, I hope to take more time to review it in more detail on my golf blog, [...]

But meantime, I promise that this book will not disappoint. In fact, I'm looking forward to re-reading it. It's that good. Enjoy.