DARREN KILFARA HAD A SCHEME - to study abroad at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, allegedly to write a thesis on the history of golf. It was foolproof.
He would enroll at the school, attend a few classes, earn a year's worth of university credit, and thereby become eligible for a student pass to the golf courses of St. Andrews - including the Old course, arguably the most famous golf course in the world - for the low, low price of $150 for the year.
A perfect plan, so of course it went awry.
A Golfer's Education is the true story of a young man, once a member of Harvard's golf team and a former writer of Golf Digest, who began his year in St. Andrews as an intense, uptight golfer willing to do anything to play a great course and ended it a changed man and a better golfer in ways unmeasurable by a scorecard.
This charming and funny book chronicles Kilfara's year in Scotland playing the finest golf courses in the country; learning that the Scots see golf as a reflection of their democratic ideals; discovering the subcultures of Scottish golf (drunken bohemian street golf, homeless golf fanatics, betting parlors, and poetic BBC golf commentators); falling in love with a Scottish woman; and finally overcoming his obsession with scores and handicaps to love the simplicity of the game.
Kilfara possesses a substantial knowledge of the game and of golf course architecture and is a perceptive, insightful guide to the great golf courses of Scotland. At the same time, he has created a timeless story of an irreverent young man, realizing his dreams in the birth-place of his sport.
