cover image A GOLFER'S EDUCATION

A GOLFER'S EDUCATION

Darren Kilfara, . . Algonquin, $24.95 (326pp) ISBN 978-1-56512-301-4

A Harvard junior (and golf team member) convinces his history department chairman that a year studying at Scotland's St. Andrews will help his academic career. As a resident of St. Andrews, the crafty student knew, for $150 he could purchase a year of unlimited play at the "Home of Golf": the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews. Also an intern at Golf Digest, he finagles a deal to partially finance the trip by writing a series of articles for the magazine. This charming intro sets the tone for Kilfara's memoir/guidebook/tribute to the legendary (and a few lesser known) golf courses of Scotland. Besides waxing poetic about Scottish golf, eccentric golfers and British sports in general, the author also courts Heather, a Scottish lass who, though she lives in the sport's mecca, has never swung a golf club; they eventually marry. The author, who has written for Golf Digest and is an ESPN soccer commentator, is refreshingly honest, admitting, for example, that his youthful obsession with score contributed to occasional lapses in sportsmanship; he's also been known to break a golf club in anger. A student of golf course architecture, Kilfara makes compelling and informed descriptions of Gullane, Carnoustie, Muirfield, Cruden Bay and the fabled Old Course, among others. His narration of a marathon golf holiday (18 rounds of golf on 14 courses in 12 days) is alone worth the read. While insightful, chock-full of golf history, inspiring and amusingly self-deprecating, its unfortunately banal title and some extraneous detail could put some readers off. (Oct. 26)