A Course Called Ireland

Yes, this is a blog about California, but today we're taking a short diversion. Since it's Friday (when I ordinarily write about travel and getting out the door) my mind drifted to California golf courses, and when I think about golf, I often think of Tom Coyne.

Tom is a writer from Philadelphia and friend from graduate school. He's the author of two outstanding books (A Gentleman's Game: A Novel and Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer's Quest to Play with the Pros) both related to the game of golf. Tom is as skilled in writing beautiful sentences as he is in striking the perfect drive. It's rare to read a book about sports that is as well crafted as these two.

He is currently at work on his third book, A Course Called Ireland. Tom is walking (no bus, car, trolley, horse, plane, or train) around Ireland on a quest to play and write about every links course in the country. It's a spectacular adventure, both comic and poignant. Along the way, we learn with Tom about the quality of the courses and the fine people of Ireland.

You can read about Tom's adventure before he publishes the book in Fall of 2008. He's posting stories on Golf.com and you can also watch his progress on a Google Maps mashup.

(Photo: Coyne at Mulranny Golf Links. From Golf.com)