A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee
Today, St. Patrick’s Day, I thought it would be fitting to share with you my thoughts about, A Course Called Ireland. Please know that I didn’t coin this phrase. This is the title of a book by Tom Coyne that was given to me a few weeks ago to read and review.
The subtitle is rather catchy, “A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee”. It certainly got my attention. So here on St. Patrick’s Day, I am sitting down at my computer feeling very Irish as Sherry O’Connor (my ancestry name) to tell you about this book.
A Course Called Ireland is as much a book on the history of Ireland as it is an inside look through the eyes of the Author into all of the wonderful Irish links golf courses and the quirkiness of the island’s inhabitants. It is quite humorous in parts. The premise behind this is Tom Coyne’s master plan to go back to Ireland (where he once visited as a boy with his father) to play as many of the Irish Coastal golf courses as he could over a four month span. Sounds pretty blasé doesn’t it? Well, I forgot to mention that his trek around the entire coastline of Ireland was on foot!!
This in itself makes you question the sanity of the Author but it provides a wonderfully insightful look into the very core of what makes Ireland, Ireland in a way a motor-coach trip could never achieve. Being Irish and an avid golfer, I consumed the pages with a fervor driven by interest in what was going to happen next both on and off the golf course.
Coyne let’s you see things a world away in a way that makes you feel a kinship with the characters he encounters along the way. I could close my eyes and imagine the cottages he passed, the pubs he frequented, the unpaved and somewhat dangerous roads he walked and the beauty of the many, many golf courses he played. Wow! I am ready to book my own trip there but trust me I won’t be walking the trip and probably not walking the golf courses either:-)
If you want to be entertained, laugh and get some good Irish history at the same time, I highly recommend this book. You do not need to be an avid golfer or Irish to enjoy it. Well done, Mr. Coyne!
Thanks for visiting Ladies on the Tee at www.sherrytabb.com. Here’s wishing all of you a Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
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