Golfing with God - Tapa dura

In a previous life, Herman “Hank” Fins-Winston had been a golf pro—an excellent teacher of the game who never quite made it on the circuit, having missed his one real shot at greatness. He now lives in a lovely condominium on the thirteenth fairway of one of heaven’s 8,187 golf courses. God and His closest companions, you see, play the game often. And though Jesus never bothers to keep score, Buddha never takes a practice swing, and Moses doesn’t consider it cheating when he parts the courses’ water hazards, they all take the sport very seriously. In heaven, even God replaces His divots.

Hank’s afterlife takes an unexpected turn when he is summoned to help a player whose game is in a slump. To his dismay, his new pupil is God Himself. Or Herself. Depending on the day. As they play the most heavenly courses in paradise and back on earth, Hank realizes that it’s he who’s learning the lessons—about fearing failure, about second chances, about the connectedness of all living things, about not taking the next breath for granted, and about our God-given ability to improve ourselves—one stroke at a time.

This is the story of a journey—from heaven to earth and back again. For Herman "Hank" Fins-Winston, that journey begins one idyllic morning—as all mornings are in heaven—when he is summoned to play a round of golf with God. Yes, that God. The Almighty. The one with the capital G. And yes, Hank really is in heaven, a fact he finds truly amusing because, for one reason or another, a fair percentage of golfers never make it to paradise, and because he himself was no angel in his former life.

It seems that God is having some trouble with His (or Her: God is funny that way) putting game, and believes that Hank, who was a golf pro on earth, can fix His case of "the yips." But as they play the heavenly courses both in paradise and back on earth, Hank comes to realize that what began as a golf lesson has become much more, and that rather than teaching God about the game, it is he himself who is learning the lessons—about fearing failure, about second chances, about the connectedness of all living things, about not taking the next breath for granted, and about our God-given ability to improve ourselves—one stroke at a time.

Funny and uplifting, Golfing with God is a beautifully realized novel that takes the reader on one ordinary man's most unexpected passage.