A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee [Mass Market Paperback]

Tom Coyne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2010

The hysterical story bestseller about one man's epic Celtic sojourn in search of ancestors, nostalgia, and the world's greatest round of golf

By turns hilarious and poetic, A Course Called Ireland is a magnificent tour of a vibrant land and paean to the world's greatest game in the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. In his thirties, married, and staring down impending fatherhood, Tom Coyne was familiar with the last refuge of the adult male: the golfing trip. Intent on designing a golf trip to end all others, Coyne looked to Ireland, the place where his father has taught him to love the game years before. As he studied a map of the island and plotted his itinerary, it dawn on Coyne that Ireland was ringed with golf holes. The country began to look like one giant round of golf, so Coyne packed up his clubs and set off to play all of it-on foot.

A Course Called Ireland is the story of a walking-averse golfer who treks his way around an entire country, spending sixteen weeks playing every seaside hole in Ireland. Along the way, he searches out his family's roots, discovers that a once-poor country has been transformed by an economic boom, and finds that the only thing tougher to escape than Irish sand traps are Irish pubs.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In this cheerily self-deprecating work, Coyne—an Irish-American Philadelphian who never knew much about his roots and avoided exercise—describes how he undertook a wildly ambitious plan to spend four months playing over 40 golf courses in Ireland and getting to them by walking. Coyne's tiredness quickly translates into hiker's euphoria; however, he has a tougher time facing the Irish breakfast every B&B owner serves him (sausages, rashers, beans, soda bread—an afternoon of wincing regret). Having already written a couple of books on golf (e.g., Paper Tiger), Coyne knows his way around a course, but more importantly, he also knows better than to bore readers with monotonous accounts of hole after hole. His style is more that of the travelogue, as he's bowled over by one astoundingly beautiful and windswept course after the next. By the time Coyne gets to Ulster, it's clear that golf is by far the least interesting thing for him, as the author packs his humorous narrative with historical tales and travel anecdotes about the small towns he passes through and the many pubs he stops in along the way. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Take the standard golf memoir, in which a dewy-eyed golfer rhapsodizes his way around the great links courses of Ireland or Scotland, and meld it with the extreme travel book, in which a slightly crazed soul attempts some form of outlandish trek, often involving sports (I Golfed across Mongolia, 2006), and you have something like this peculiar but thoroughly enjoyable account of one man’s attempt to turn the whole of Ireland into a golf course. Coyne, author of Paper Tiger (2006), about his failed attempt to qualify for the PGA Tour, decided he needed to take the ultimate golf trip before settling into the responsibilities of parenthood. Like John Garrity in Ancestral Links (2009), Coyne chose to visit Ireland, the land of his ancestors, but unlike Garrity and numerous others, he eschewed the usual creature comforts of traveling golfers. No, Coyne made the entire coast of Ireland his golf links, walking all the way from course to course around the circumference of the country. An outlandish premise, to be sure, and the resulting account hurts the reader’s feet almost as much as it did Coyne’s. The numbers say it all: 963 holes played over four months at 635 over par, with 129 lost balls. Naturally, there are anecdotes aplenty to spice the on- and off-course frustrations (encounters with livestock and disbelieving locals dominate). Unlike other golf memoirs rife with accounts of idyllic shots hit in the gloaming, this one is not liable to inspire much envy in homebound hackers. Except, perhaps, for the pubs: Coyne visits nearly as many watering holes as he does water holes, and his play-by-play of pub life is every bit as entertaining as his recollections of purely hit five irons. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Gotham; Reprint edition (February 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592405282
• ISBN-13: 978-1592405282
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #523,002 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Tom Coyne has written for Golf Magazine and Golfweek magazine. He is the author of Paper Tiger and the novel A Gentleman's Game, which was adapted into a movie starring Gary Sinise.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stunning Effort That Appeals to Golfers and Non-Golfers Alike, February 23, 2009

By 

Brian Fantana (San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee (Hardcover)

Tom Coyne has not added to the landfill of ho-hum Irish travel and golf books. Rather, he has penned 300 pages of interesting, and often hilaroius, insights gleaned from walking more than 1,000 miles in the land of his great-grandparents with golf clubs strapped to his back.

While golfers will find plenty to love in Coyne's four-month quest to play every one of the Emerald Isle's links courses, the rest will laugh at his run-ins with mountain goats, Irish sausage and the British Army while gaining a better understanding for a people who have drawn the short straw throughout much of history.

Whether he's negotiating a sideways rain with a 6 iron in his hands beside the Irish Sea or sitting at a dinner table with distant cousins he has never met, Coyne relays all the redeeming and regretful aspects of his journey with disarming honesty and great feeling.
"A Course Called Ireland" is a pleasure to read and I recommend it highly.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Three for Three, March 8, 2009

By 

Sylvester J. Gorman "slygorman" (Alexandria, VA United States) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee (Hardcover)

I was marvelling to my mother the other day about how Tom Coyne has had three books published by major publishers, and he hasn't even sniffed his 35th birthday. That in itself is a huge accomplishment, but what really sets him apart from other young writers is that his writing and the maturity with which he expresses ideas and emotions have improved with each book.

Disclaimer: I'm a golf fanatic, so I pre-ordered the book. However, if you're hoping for a traditional golf book, you might be disappointed. This is a book about life on the road, the Irish people, the changing (or maybe not changing, depending on how you interpret Coyne's observations) culture in Ireland, Irish history, and what one can accomplish if he sets his mind to it and puts one foot out in front of the other. Golf is the vehicle that drives all of these other things, and Coyne makes sure that golf nuts get their share of anecdotes about the 50+ courses he plays. He digs into many of the courses enough to make the reader extremely envious.

I don't know what this kind of book is officially called. It's not a travelogue, a memoir, or a documentary. The only phraseology that sounds appropriate is "vicarious literature." Coyne goes out and creates an unique experience, and then the reader gets to relive it through him with the added bonus of his reflections after he has removed himself from the experience.

Without giving away the ending, I'll say that the surprise finish actually choked me up a bit. It's possible that the Irish sentimentalism he describes throughout the book is contagious.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Trip for Golfers and Non-Golfers Alike, March 26, 2009

By 

M. Regan (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee (Hardcover)

With his third published effort, Tom Coyne continues to grow as an observer and storyteller, this time taking his audience for an enjoyable - and insightful - walking tour of the entire perimeter of Ireland.

Though the cohesive theme is golf, this is not a typical "golf book", as evidenced by my wife's enjoyment of the book, despite her complete disinterest in golf. Tom Coyne spends an appropriate amount of time on the golf courses to appeal to the golf-interested reader, but also shares his "tales from the road" in such a way that even the non-golfing reader is thoroughly entertained.

Walking the entire route produces a thoroughly rewarding experience, and the author does an excellent job of immersing his reader in the Irish experience at every stop along the journey. Even when describing some of the challenges of the road - wild dogs, narrow bridges, military exercises, and the poorly chosen "Bog Road" - this book feels more like a rewarding walk down a finishing fairway, putter in hand.

This is a fast-moving read, littered with numerous "chuckle-out-loud" moments. It's a must for anyone traveling to Ireland - golf or not - and a should-read for just about anyone else regardless.