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One Year, Many Courses; One Course, Many Years else, for that matter. I’ve read other books about players notching at least one course in every om Coyne’s state in a year’s time. But none done with latest golfa- Coyne’s talent, on the course or at his desk. palooza, “A In an appendix we learn that his 21,691 Course Called Ameri- strokes on 5,173 holes gave him a round ca” (Avid Reader Press average to par of +6. His highest score was $28), comes on the 90, at the Waynesborough Country Club in soft-spiked heels of his popular golf orgy Pennsylvania. He does play at travelogues to Ireleast one course in land and Scotland. every state and any This one kept him reader will be curibroadly at home in ous to see how the 2019 — in the U.S., home state fares. that is — when he (He plays only spent most of the Southern Hills year playing on in Oklahoma, about 300 courses though there’s throughout the counno blaming him try. for that pick.) He Or, as the subtitle tees it up in backputs it, “Fifty States, yard courses as Five Thousand Fairwell as at excluways, and the Search sive private clubs for the Great Amerihe can’t resist, can Golf Course.” The though his search is one hook, heart seems another is Coyne’s atto be with tempt to play every the former: course that has hosted “I had seen the U.S. Open. In a golf done suspense novel these ot her wise, plot devices would be in villages called MacGuffins, useacross the British Isles ful mainly to drive the narrative forward. Or, one suspects in this where every tee was open to a visiting player, but here I was playing the game case, to set up tee times. of networks and flattery to Okay, so I started this book score myself a game. Was I with the usual chip of Coyne a hypocrite? Or was I just a envy on my shoulder: Why golfer who wanted to play? didn’t I think up this great I didn’t write the rules over stunt? And where is this prohere, but I suspected that gram ultimately headed? (“Last those who did had missed in the series, A Course Called something essential about the Antarctica!”) game.” Come the revolution, But Coyne easily won me no more private clubs! over, the chip melted clear Coyne has a casual approach away, and what was left was a to chronology, seemingly leapsumptuous feast of anecdotes, Tom Coyne ing around in his narrative more about the people he met along the way than the courses themselves. as unpredictably as he does around the Other than to say it’s no course you’d country, though he makes it plain the trip expect or have probably even heard of, I was planned, planned again, then planned won’t reveal what takes the Great Ameri- again. He gives us just as many planning can Golf Course honors. It’s more of a piece details as we might want (including the with the ample musing in the book about reactions of his wife, clearly a saint), just the soul of golf, in America or anywhere as many architectural details as we might by tom bedell
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want, relatively few details of his actual play (just as we’d want), and scores of encounters with his playing partners, be they bikers or poets or movie stars or, all, just golfers. THE STORY OF THE MASTERS It started in 1934, then officially called the Augusta National Invitation Tournament. The 85th version begins April 8, and the chances are good it will be another humdinger. David Barrett’s “The Story of the Masters: Drama, Joy and Heartbreak at Golf’s Most Iconic Tournament” (Tatra Press, $30) will be a good companion. It’s actually 84 detailed stories of the competition, round by round, with yearly charts of the top-10 finishers. Truth be told, in lesser hands this could have been a stultifying reading experience, especially if you go at it from cover to cover as I did. Most won’t — it’s more of a book to dip into for pleasure or reference as needed. Granted, toward the end, I found myself skimming over a few of the details of where players stood after the Friday rounds. But that said, Barrett knows the
territory, having covered many an Augustian tournament himself (we reviewed his early history of the tournament, “Making the Masters,” back in the June-July 2012 issue). Caps off to him for making the book W W W.GOLFOKL AHOMA.ORG
