Fifty-year-old Harvard literature professor Elliott Goodman, stricken by a heart attack, is rushed to the nearest emergency room and prepped for bypass surgery. Frightened and in pain, he cries out to God for help. Much to his surprise, God appears, suspended from the ceiling of the OR. He asks Elliott why his life deserves to be saved, and Elliott has no brilliant answer to offer. God, in his infinite wisdom and mercy, gives him a chance at salvation. He challenges Elliott to an eighteen-hole golf match. If Elliott wins, he will be saved; if he loses, he wont make it through the surgery.
Much to his surprise, Elliott finds himself at his favorite golf course, Inwood Country Club on Long Island. At the first tee, an old, white-bearded man taking practice swings turns around to face Elliott. It is not God, as hed expected, but Leonardo Da Vinci! The Renaissance Man explains that to be fair, God has sent down eighteen substitutes from heaven, one per hole, to play against Elliott. With his life hanging in the balance, Elliott proceeds to play against an unforgettable procession of substitutes, including Moses, John Lennon, Freud, Socrates, Joan of Arc, Marilyn Monroe, Picasso, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and Gandhi.
As Elliott competes against this colorful cast of characters (each of whom comes to life with distinctive greatness), this witty, profound, suspenseful, funny, and wonderfully entertaining tale of golf is all about the life lessons he learns from his amazing opponents and from the game of golf and how he comes to an understanding of why, after all, his life deserves to be saved.
