When I decided to start a blog, I asked my publisher to write a few words about Slices. Here’s what they wrote. I haven’t read it, but I did ask them to include the word “sex” at least twice to make it interesting. Please let me know if they remembered.

“If golf has taught me anything — besides how to string together expletives in ways that would make Eminem blush — it’s that you can trust the magic which occurs on the practice range as much as you can trust a piranha that has skipped a feed.”

To the low- and high-handicapper alike, golf represents an ongoing quest and an exhilarating challenge. In Slices: Observations from the Wrong Side of the Fairway, award-winning author I.J. Schecter explores the lighter side of golf, embodying the valiant efforts of weekend hackers everywhere by undertaking his own dogged pursuit of the sport’s elusive Holy Grail — breaking 100 — with often hilarious results. Clinging to boundless, and often groundless, optimism, Schecter attempts to untangle the secret to good golf in increasingly desperate ways — like playing five different courses in five days, accompanying a greenskeeping team on their pre-dawn rounds, trying to replicate one of Tiger Woods’ legendary shots, subjecting himself to hypnotherapy, and, ultimately, turning to a three-year-old for guidance. Schecter’s memorable musings include:

•  Ten Reasons I’ll (Probably) Never Take a Golf Lesson
•  Thoughts on a Backswing
•  Till Death Do Us Par
•  Uncle Hugh’s Rules for Maintaining a Ten Handicap
•  The Twenty-Three Dumbest Things You Can Say on a Golf Course

A perfect gift for the golfer in your life, Slices is laugh-out-loud therapy for those interested in reading less about the heavenly feeling produced by regular birdies and rounds in the 80s than about the small ongoing battles faced by, like themselves, average players: those who shoot over 100 and — for the most part — sleep at night anyway. An eloquent, witty celebration of both the game and the unwavering efforts of those who try, again and again, to tame it, this brilliant collection will make readers laugh themselves silly while reminding them of the eternal promise held in every backswing. To read an excerpt from Slices, click here.