Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer's Quest to Play with the Pros - Softcover

Coyne, Tom

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1592402992 ISBN 13: 9781592402991

Publisher: Avery, 2007

Synopsis

?Think country-club clinic meets Navy Seals training. I will pay any price, bear any burden, leave my home to follow the seasons, build my own swing studio in the basement, construct a practice green in my backyard. . . . Everything the big boys have access to, I want double.? Like most amateur golfers, Tom Coyne had often wondered whether the pros won because they were more talented or because they were more obsessed. Overweight and burdened by a 14 handicap, he decided to find out for himself what it takes to play like a pro.

Charting his journey?which included hiring top golf gurus such as Dr. Jim Suttie?Paper Tiger takes readers from the Michelob tournament (a win for Tom) to the Australian Tour, where forty-mile-per-hour winds and a driving rain scare off his Japanese partners. With each chapter, he tracks his weight alongside his handicap, pursuing his dream with a reckless abandon that comes to involve hardcore diets, pricey technology, even psychologists. With echoes of Dead Solid Perfect and Who?s Your Caddy? Tom brings his uniquely edgy, deeply human perspective to a game that can simultaneously bring out the best and the worst in everyone who tries to master it.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

"For anyone who's ever suffered the delusion they have enough game to go up against the professional killers who play golf for a living, here's the cold, hard, hilarious truth."
--Mark Frost, author of The Greatest Game Ever Played and The Grand Slam

"Tom Coyne is a standout among the next generation of talented young golf writers. His personal quest to make it in the brave new world of tournament golf with the help of Dr. Jim Suttie (one of golf's great unheralded teachers) is refreshingly candid and heartbreakingly funny-a brilliant new take on the secret ambition of millions. The unexpected payoff makes the pain of his journey all the more special, this memoir of golf obsession nigh unforgettable."
--James Dodson, author of Final Rounds, The Dewsweepers, and Ben Hogan: An American Life

"Paper Tiger races along with humor, suspense, and behind-the-scenes stories that will grab any golfer's heart."
--Bud Shrake, coauthor of Harvey Penick's Little Red Book

"In the tradition of George Plimpton, Tom Coyne takes us through the tiers and tears of competitive golf, with all the laughs and gaffes that accompany it. But he's no dilettante-Coyne commits, strives, and gets damn good. He emerges from the journey as one of our best golf writers. Astute and funny, Paper Tiger casts a critical eye at the golfer's Grail. This book is a double fist pump."
--Brian Doyle-Murray, co-creator of "Caddyshack"

"Paper Tiger is laugh-out-loud, read-it-out-loud-to-your-friends funny. It's also packed with unique insight and unexpected heart. This guy can really write!"
--Paul Azinger, 12-time Tour winner, including the PGA Championship and Tour Championship

"If you think you've heard every kind of golf story, well, think again. Paper Tiger is a hilarious, heart breaking, dead-honest look at what it means to be in love with this great game, in good times and bad. I have enjoyed Tom Coyne's insights more than you can imagine, and I think you will as well."
--PGA Tour and Ryder Cup Champion Chip Beck

"Commitment and effort-these are the two key qualities that Coyne demonstrates in his quest. It is hard not to be jealous of him, but it is a jealousy hard-earned...This is an experience readers will be able to enjoy vicariously."
--Library Journal

A Golf Book Worth Reading (David Granger, Editor-in-Chief, Esquire )

About the Author:

Tom Coyne is the author of the novel A Gentleman’s Game and cowriter of the screenplay for the novel’s film version, which starred Dylan Baker and Gary Sinise. He is a contributor to Golf Magazine and teaches creative writing at St. Joseph’s University.

About this edition

• Publisher: Avery
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1592402992
• ISBN 13: 9781592402991
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336