Hooked: An Amateur's Guide to the Golf Courses of Ireland


Book Description

What makes playing a golf course a great experience? Kevin Markham travelled 6,800 miles in a 20-year-old camper van, walked 2,100 miles, lost countless balls, and wore out three pairs of golf shoes to find out. He played and rated every 18-hole course - all 350 of them. The result is the most comprehensive, best-researched guide to Irish golfs, from expensive, well-known courses to affordable little gems. Kevin assesses each course in a detailed review and from a novel perspective, rating the golfing experience using the same criteria for all courses. Courses are ranked out of 100, across 8 criteria, such as design, appeal and value for money. This concise, detailed book is for golfing tourists looking for great value courses; for golfing societies that want to go beyond their local area; and for Irish golfers searching for excellent but unsung courses in Ireland. Written from an amateur's perspective, reviews focus on the energy and excitement of playing each course to give a true representation of the golf experience, and provides all the information necessary to book your round.




The Story of Thomond Park


Book Description

'What's so special about Thomond Park? The crowd. Simply the crowd. The atmosphere is electric.' Donal Spring, one of Munster rugby's greatest. Since the first game played there in 1934, Thomond Park has become one of the world's iconic rugby venues. It is a magnificent stadium, famous for many great occasions, notably Munster's 1978 victory over the All Blacks and the 'Miracle Match' against Gloucester in 2003. It also has a worldwide reputation for tradition, wit and an outstanding sense of fair play. Here the history of Thomond Park is traced in a colourful and entertaining style, featuring some rare photos of Munster favourite Paul O'Connell, and highlighting great games played and great characters who have graced the arena.




Driving the Green


Book Description

Mark Twain had it all wrong: golf is not a good walk spoiled, golf is a journey. And when Ireland provides the map it becomes an 11,000km odyssey for one man in a camper van. Kevin plays every 18-hole golf course in Ireland in all kinds of weather and with all kinds of golfers. He deals with a leaky roof, potholes, born-again Christians and even an Irish mammy. Ireland's beauty shines through but the people encountered along the way, the golf clubs visited and the idiosyncrasies of a twenty-year-old camper van form the fairways on which this story plays. From tee-off to putting the final hole, this is a true Irish golfing adventure.




A Course Called Ireland


Book Description

The hysterical story bestseller about one man's epic Celtic sojourn in search of ancestors, nostalgia, and the world's greatest round of golf By turns hilarious and poetic, A Course Called Ireland is a magnificent tour of a vibrant land and paean to the world's greatest game in the tradition of Bill Bryson's A Walk in the Woods. In his thirties, married, and staring down impending fatherhood, Tom Coyne was familiar with the last refuge of the adult male: the golfing trip. Intent on designing a golf trip to end all others, Coyne looked to Ireland, the place where his father has taught him to love the game years before. As he studied a map of the island and plotted his itinerary, it dawn on Coyne that Ireland was ringed with golf holes. The country began to look like one giant round of golf, so Coyne packed up his clubs and set off to play all of it-on foot. A Course Called Ireland is the story of a walking-averse golfer who treks his way around an entire country, spending sixteen weeks playing every seaside hole in Ireland. Along the way, he searches out his family's roots, discovers that a once-poor country has been transformed by an economic boom, and finds that the only thing tougher to escape than Irish sand traps are Irish pubs.







Emerald Fairways and Foam-Flecked Seas


Book Description

A passionate advocate and a charming storyteller, Finegan combines a writer's eye, a historian's knowledge, and a golfer's sense of wonder to provide an impossibly ambitious grand tour of this beautiful land.




Rectors Remembered: The Descendants of John Jacob Rector Volume 1


Book Description

Volume 1 of 8, TOC and pages 1-504. A genealogical compilation of the descendants of John Jacob Rector and his wife, Anna Elizabeth Fischbach. Married in 1711 in Trupbach, Germany, the couple immigrated to the Germanna Colony in Virginia in 1714. Eight volumes document the lives of over 45,000 individuals.




A Course Called Scotland


Book Description

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * “One of the best golf books this century.” —Golf Digest Tom Coyne’s A Course Called Scotland is a heartfelt and humorous celebration of his quest to play golf on every links course in Scotland, the birthplace of the game he loves. For much of his adult life, bestselling author Tom Coyne has been chasing a golf ball around the globe. When he was in college, studying abroad in London, he entered the lottery for a prized tee time in Scotland, grabbing his clubs and jumping the train to St. Andrews as his friends partied in Amsterdam; later, he golfed the entirety of Ireland’s coastline, chased pros through the mini-tours, and attended grueling Qualifying Schools in Australia, Canada, and Latin America. Yet, as he watched the greats compete, he felt something was missing. Then one day a friend suggested he attempt to play every links course in Scotland and qualify for the greatest championship in golf. The result is A Course Called Scotland, “a fast-moving, insightful, often funny travelogue encompassing the width of much of the British Isles” (GolfWeek), including St. Andrews, Turnberry, Dornoch, Prestwick, Troon, and Carnoustie. With his signature blend of storytelling, humor, history, and insight, Coyne weaves together his “witty and charming” (Publishers Weekly) journey to more than 100 legendary courses in Scotland with compelling threads of golf history and insights into the contemporary home of golf. As he journeys Scotland in search of the game’s secrets, he discovers new and old friends, rediscovers the peace and power of the sport, and, most importantly, reaffirms the ultimate connection between the game and the soul. It is “a must-read” (Golf Advisor) rollicking love letter to Scotland and golf as no one has attempted it before.




This Side of Paradise


Book Description

This Side of Paradise is a novel about post-World War I youth and their morality. Amory Blaine is a young Princeton University student with an attractive face and an interest in literature. His greed and desire for social status warp the theme of love weaving through the story.




A Night to Remember


Book Description

A cloth bag containing eight copies of the title.