Golf Books #279 (Life’s an Unplayable Lie)

As its front cover accurately states, “Life’s an Unplayable Lie” is 28 years’ worth of unbelievable, true, golf stories as told by Angelo Spagnolo, “America’s Worst Avid Golfer,” including the most incredible one…how he recorded the highest documented score, 257, in the over 555 year history of golf…including a 66 on one hole!!!” With a foreword by “Golf Digest” magazine’s Bob Carney, the story is divided into three parts; Part One, “A How-To Guide to Becoming the Worst Golfer Ever” goes from telling of his many early sports failures all the way to the epic 1985 “Worst Avid Golfers” Tournament.

From there, Part Two, “Life as America’s Worst Avid Golfer” describes the incredible fallout from becoming the only documented worst golfer in the history of the game, including amazing occurences that took place on golf courses around the world. As an unexpected conclusion, in Part Three, “Detailing Life’s Ups and Downs,” the author describes in riveting detail the results of another amazing attempt at once again slaying his own personal nemesis, the 17th hole at the TPC Sawgrass… this time in front of the cameras of the “Golf Channel”.

If that wasn’t already enough pressure, add in former PGA Tour Commissioner Deane Beman just to make sure that there are no rules infractions…which it turns out that there were! After what most readers think is the conclusion to the story, in the final pages are described some recent developments that have creatd an even more surreal so-called “ending”. “Or is it,” the author asks? “Life’s an Unplayable Lie” comes complete with valuable, recurrent, underlying themes throughout the story which moved one professional writer to comment, “This could be the next great golf book. I can easily see this on a shelf next to Jack Nicklaus’ “Golf My Way” and Harvey Penick’s “Little Red Book”. There’s not a golfer in the world who can’t relate to this story and who hasn’t been there themself.”

Another recent reader, a female golfer, described “Life’s an Unplayable Lie” this way: “I can’t stop reading it because I can’t imagine what’s going to be on the next page! I found myself putting aside other things that I had to do so that I could pick it back up and find out what happens next.” Along with probably experiencing more laughs than they will have encountered reading just about anything else, the reader will learn valuable life’s lessons while the entire time continually shaking their head in amazement at the unbelievable series of events that continue falling like dominoes over 28 years.

The author describes his work as being, “The perfect gift for the golfer in your life. If nothing else, it will give golfers greater confidence in their own game. Everbody thinks that they’re the worst golfer who ever played. Now golfers everywhere will have a true yardstick with which to measure their own game. What they’ll more than likely find out is that they’re really not that bad after all!”

Publication date: April 25, 2017 (source)

About the Author

“Life’s an…Unplayable Lie’ is author Angelo Spagnolo’s initial foray into the world of book publishing. While he earned a degree in Journalism from Point Park University in Pittsburgh in 1976 and did work for five years in the newspaper business, he eventually found himself working in his family’s supermarket business. After 25 years in supermarketing (which he compares to at least 50 years in any other career) he was more than ready for retirement and decided to finally work on that book that his family had so often encouraged him to write during years when he was far too distracted to do it. ‘Life/’s an…Unplayable Lie’ is a ‘golf autobiography and it describes in great details Spagnolo’s journey into the netherworld of golf where he would eventually emerge as the unquestioned ‘Worst Avid Golfer’ in the history of the game. This book is divided into three sections: 1) his early, formative years when he had many unfortunate experiences with several different sports. Also included in this section is how Spagnolo came to be nominated for the one and only ‘Worst Avid Golfers Tournament in 1985; 2) the hole-by-hole description of this bizarre and record-smashing event and 3) the 25 years of amazing events that came about as a result of his notoriety. All in all, this book is great fun and teaches a very strong lesson about how not taking yourself too seriously can actually lead to many good things.

Angelo Spagnolo Golf Books