For less expense than a lost bet on the links, you can learn how to get Out of the Bunker and into the Trees. Author Rex Lardner, a unique stylist who hit his best shots when in a towering rage, reveals the secrets every golfer needs to know including: how to loft a ball out of your own trouser cuff; how to properly grip the 2-wood when smashing it against a tree; and how to hit special "trick" shots--the fade, the slice, the yip--without a club if necessary. Out of the Bunker and into the Trees is essential reading for those looking to correct typical golfing faults. If you are an inconsistent putter, Lardner demonstrates how you never need to take more than six putts to hole out on any green. Too much reliance on advice from strangers? Lardner presents an object lesson with his traumatic experiences teaching pros. For those who make a habit of revealing their score for a hole before an opponent has admitted his, the author shows how to avoid this disastrous and often expensive error. The book also features the remedy for not getting enough distance with the long irons: the High-Tension system, which guarantees distance with the clubs whether you are heaving them down the fairway or hurling them up into a tree.

Originally published in 1960, Out of the Bunker and into the Trees is so funny that various chapters have been widely reprinted in sports magazines. Readers today continue to enjoy this delightful parody of golf and golfers by a humorist who claimed to have discovered the reason people play golf: ''to destroy themselves.''

Rex Lardner (1918-98) was a journalist for many national publications, including Sports Illustrated, Look, and Esquire. He was also chief writer for Ernie Kovacs on various radio and television shows. Lardner was the author of fifteen books, including The Lardner Report, Downhill Lies and Other Falsehoods, and Ali.

Burt Owen was a photographer for various publications such as Living for Young Homemakers and Sports Illustrated.