Ireland, revisited: A certain gift

Tom Coyne’s book, “A Course Called Ireland”

In May 2014, a friend gave me a get-well gift, a book titled, “A Course Called Ireland,” by Tom Coyne.

At the time, I was recovering from open-heart surgery, a quadruple bypass after a heart attack that came out of nowhere and, in fact, happened on a golf course.

I put the book on a stack and somehow never got to it.

Until this summer, when suddenly what had seemed a never-ever possibility, that I would actually play golf in Ireland, neared reality and I started to do some research.

I read Coyne’s book. In it, the author describes walking the entire perimeter of Ireland, carrying a backpack and golf clubs and playing famous and not-so-famous golf courses along the way. The book is excellent — funny, touching and informative.

I finished the book before our trip; Coyne had played every course that I would play, and I learned a lot. I took the book to Ireland and in the van on the way to each course I read Coyne’s descriptions aloud to my playing partners.

The book told us where we were going.

And the book reminded me where I’d been, just over a year ago. When I got a gift.

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