What do you think?
Rate this book
A Season in Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands: 25th Anniversary Edition
The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964, Herbert Warren Wind wrote, "It is the most natural course in the world. No golfer has completed his education until he has played and studied Royal Dornoch."
If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill.
Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He found a people shaped by the harshness of the land and the difficulty of drawing a living from it, and still haunted by a historic wrong inflicted on their ancestors nearly two centuries before. Rubenstein met many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two. And as he explored the empty, rugged landscape, he came to understand the ways in which the thorny, quarrelsome qualities of the game of golf reflect the values, character, and history of the people who brought it into the world.
A Season in Dornoch is both the story of one man's immersion in the game of golf and an exploration of the world from which it emerged. Part travelogue, part portraiture, part good old-fashioned tale of matches played and friendships made, it takes us on an unforgettable journey to a marvelous, moody, mystical place.
If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill.
Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He found a people shaped by the harshness of the land and the difficulty of drawing a living from it, and still haunted by a historic wrong inflicted on their ancestors nearly two centuries before. Rubenstein met many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two. And as he explored the empty, rugged landscape, he came to understand the ways in which the thorny, quarrelsome qualities of the game of golf reflect the values, character, and history of the people who brought it into the world.
A Season in Dornoch is both the story of one man's immersion in the game of golf and an exploration of the world from which it emerged. Part travelogue, part portraiture, part good old-fashioned tale of matches played and friendships made, it takes us on an unforgettable journey to a marvelous, moody, mystical place.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
33 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
December 31, 2022
If you’re into golf, history and the Scottish highlands, this may very well be up your street. If not, probably swerve it.
April 3, 2022
This is about a love story between a man, golf and Dornoch. It is well-written and a compelling read. Very enjoyable and will have you looking at flights to Scotland.
p. 80 Timothy Neat
p. 153: "Weather is just that, however. Weather. We think of it as good and bad, but maybe there's just weather."
p. 156: Scotland's Golf Courses
p. 220: Three fundamental questions: Where do you want your shot to finish? What sort of shot do you want to play? What club should you use?
p. 226: My Life And Soft Times
p. 80 Timothy Neat
p. 153: "Weather is just that, however. Weather. We think of it as good and bad, but maybe there's just weather."
p. 156: Scotland's Golf Courses
p. 220: Three fundamental questions: Where do you want your shot to finish? What sort of shot do you want to play? What club should you use?
p. 226: My Life And Soft Times
March 22, 2019
Captures completely the feel of Dornoch
Having visited Dornoch for four short days out of a love for golf I can say that this book captures the feel of and spirit of the town and links at Dornoch. I too cannot wait to return, and will return to this book when the longing becomes too great.
Having visited Dornoch for four short days out of a love for golf I can say that this book captures the feel of and spirit of the town and links at Dornoch. I too cannot wait to return, and will return to this book when the longing becomes too great.
October 5, 2018
One of golf's classics.
June 10, 2019
A great golf and travel story about Dornach that adds in some great history of the Scottish Highlands
June 28, 2020
Golf is more than a game and this is more than a book about golf. Magnificent. I only wished I was reading it in the Highlands.
March 24, 2023
An entertaining and well written tale of golf, Scotland and life itself. The Highlands and a wee dram beckon.
July 13, 2008
First, you have to be a golfer. Second, you have to have a 'thing' for Scotland. I've been to Dornoch since reading this book and, yes. It's awesome. The course is amazing, the town defines 'quaint', and the surrounding area is lovely. This guy spent a year living and golfing in Dornoch and writes about the course and the people. That said, the book is for a limited audience, of which I was one.
October 30, 2014
I read this before visiting Dornoch and thought the book was rudderless from about page 100.
I re-read after visiting Dornoch and had a greatly increased appreciation for this book -- especially the rudderless structure as a metaphor for the serenity Rubenstein achieved while in Scotland.
The audience is indeed very narrow -- golfers -- but for those have played Royal Dornoch and visitied the Highlands....it's a direct hit. Great book -- now one of my favorites.
I re-read after visiting Dornoch and had a greatly increased appreciation for this book -- especially the rudderless structure as a metaphor for the serenity Rubenstein achieved while in Scotland.
The audience is indeed very narrow -- golfers -- but for those have played Royal Dornoch and visitied the Highlands....it's a direct hit. Great book -- now one of my favorites.
June 6, 2010
The author engagingly chronicles a long summer spent in Dornoch, Scotland, learning to play golf with the heart not the head, biking and hiking around the countryside, and learning the history of golf and the people of the area.
September 4, 2014
Descriptions that coincided with my father's stories of visiting Dornoch. Sounds like a lovely normal Scottish town, that just happens to host one of the greatest golf courses in the world. Though to the locals, this is simply the local course. Will read again before we visit Dornoch.
September 22, 2010
Read this while staying in Dornoch however, the best way to experience Dornoch is to play Royal Dornoch as many times as possible.
July 12, 2016
A nice story about golf and life in the Scottish highlands. The book does not reach the same heights as some similar books did (Playing through by Curtis Gillespie or Final rounds by James Dodson).
July 13, 2010
My favourite golf book ever. Followed up by a trip to play Dornoch, what an experience!
December 27, 2013
For anyone who has been there, a great memory....for anyone who hasn't, a dream yet tone fulfilled!
April 29, 2017
This was an entertaining read, and is recommended for golfers and lovers of Scotland. The author and his wife spend a summer in Dornoch, a village in the highlands renowned for its golf course. Over the season spent there, the author, a single-digit handicapper and golf journalist, wrestles with his swing, the meaning of the game, the glory of links golf, and the magic of the Scottish Highlands and its inhabitants, a people scarred still by their history in relationship to the English. The book is a meditation on all of these things, well told by an accomplished writer and deep thinker. I was fortunate enough to travel to Dornoch twenty years ago, and to play the course there with a dear friend. I came away convinced that if God plays golf, it is at Dornoch. This year, after a return to Scotland, I came to believe that for variety, God plays at Carnoustie, but that is another story. The book made me eager to return to Dornoch, a trip that I hope I will take with my son in the not-too-distant future. Anyone who enjoys golf and/or Scotland will enjoy this tale.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews