In his book Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer’s Quest to Play with the Pros, Tom Coyne strives to answer a question millions only wonder about – If you had no other considerations in life and could give golf you complete attention, would you be able to play with the big boys?
Tom Coyne's Golf Adventure
This true tale starts with telling Allyson, his (very understanding) girlfriend of eight years, that he is about to leave to go play golf for 365 days. He relocates from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Florida and embarks on a nightmare – the PGA Qualifying School.
Coyne takes his self-imposed challenge seriously with a swing coach (Dr. Jim Suttie), a personal trainer, a sports psychologist, a nutritionist and a multitude of teachers. He goes from worrying solely about making contact, to worrying about trajectory and ball flights and optimizing the spin of his clubface. Coyne reaches a point where, “a little white ball has become the only thing that can truly break your heart.” He does a stellar job of showing us what it feels like to be obsessed with golf.
Coyne travels to a few countries during his quest. He isn’t too thrilled with Canada, which he calls ”Yonder Ho”, and notes we are, “The land of impending hockey strikes and outrageous gas prices”. Touché! But he does love Australia with their strong beer, Aussie meat pies, cricket, and gambling. He played a course there filled with kangaroos, as many as twenty per hole.
We meet a plethora of interesting characters including Johnny White Hair with his bleach-blonde mullet, Randy the Roofer with his grease-smeared jeans and $600 driver, and Charles the Canadian.
Tom Coyne is Masterful
It is refreshing how Coyne pokes fun at himself; he mentions his “dollop of belly fat” and that he is the most useless caddy in the Southern Hemisphere. Like anyone who would undertake such an endeavour, Coyne does have his doubts and considers scrapping the whole idea to be a farmer. We readers are the ones to benefit when he doesn’t.
Tom Coyne is a writer and a professor of creative writing at St. Joseph's University. He has two other published books, A Gentleman's Game and A Course Called Ireland. A Gentleman's Game was made into a full length feature film starring Gary Sinise. Paper Tiger was published in June 2006 by Gotham.
This is the ideal read for those who breath, live, and sleep golf… and for those on a quest to understand them.
Coyne, Tom. Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer's Quest to Play with the Pros. New York: Gotham, 2007. ISBN # 978-1592402991.
Toby Welch - Toby is a full-time freelance writer who specializes in magazine articles, online writing, e-books, and manuscript editing.
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