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A Season in Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands: 25th Anniversary Edition
WHAT'S NEW IN THIS 25TH ANNIVERSARY
A FULL UPDATE FROM LORNE
Lorne has written a 20-page update, sharing what's happened in Dornoch over the past 25 years, while chronicling the life of the book. He shares his recent experience of being made a Honorary Life Member of Royal Dornoch.
A LIVELY ESSAY BY STEPHEN PROCTOR
This noted golf writer explains the magic of A Season in Dornoch, why readers keep coming back to it, and why it should be on everyone's bookshelf.
PHOTOS OF ROYAL DORNOCH AND TOWN
The first edition regrettably lacked photographs. We're adding a section of color photos from Lorne's visits to Dornoch. The golf course and town come to life in the professional photographs included as well.
TOM COYNE PUTS IT TOGETHER
An essay at the end of the book helps to contextualize the importance of A Season in Dornoch and its influence on golf literature over the past 25 years.
A REPRINT OF HERBERT WARREN WIND
We're including Wind's important (and hard to find) essay, "North to the Links of Dornoch" (1964), which put Dornoch on the world golfing map and has inspired many books, including Lorne's.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The town of Dornoch, Scotland, is a bit too small and remote to host a British Open, it has hardly diminished Royal Dornoch’s mystique or renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964 (and now included in this edition), 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.”
Lorne Rubenstein spent a summer in Dornoch to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he also 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 people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their life stories and a wee dram or two. He came to understand how golf reflects 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.
PRAISE FOR A SEASON IN DORNOCH
“Lorne Rubenstein gives the reader a feel for what makes the appeal of the Highlands so enduring. He brings the place and its people to life, and his descriptions and images of Dornoch show how golf is but a part of the town’s extraordinary fabric, though its strongest and most visible thread.”—Tom Watson, five-time British Open champion
“Rubenstein’s tone is what breezy, anecdotal, impressionistic, and easy on the metaphors. He wants golf to help him understand his life, not provide a substitute for it.”— New York Times Book Review
“It is the village life even more than the golf that imbues this memoir with its seductive that elusive quality we search for but rarely find in either our daily lives or our vacations. ... the prose breathes a kind of atmospheric calm that works on the reader like a mild summer breeze. ... Rubenstein opens the door to a linksland version of Brigadoon.
A FULL UPDATE FROM LORNE
Lorne has written a 20-page update, sharing what's happened in Dornoch over the past 25 years, while chronicling the life of the book. He shares his recent experience of being made a Honorary Life Member of Royal Dornoch.
A LIVELY ESSAY BY STEPHEN PROCTOR
This noted golf writer explains the magic of A Season in Dornoch, why readers keep coming back to it, and why it should be on everyone's bookshelf.
PHOTOS OF ROYAL DORNOCH AND TOWN
The first edition regrettably lacked photographs. We're adding a section of color photos from Lorne's visits to Dornoch. The golf course and town come to life in the professional photographs included as well.
TOM COYNE PUTS IT TOGETHER
An essay at the end of the book helps to contextualize the importance of A Season in Dornoch and its influence on golf literature over the past 25 years.
A REPRINT OF HERBERT WARREN WIND
We're including Wind's important (and hard to find) essay, "North to the Links of Dornoch" (1964), which put Dornoch on the world golfing map and has inspired many books, including Lorne's.
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The town of Dornoch, Scotland, is a bit too small and remote to host a British Open, it has hardly diminished Royal Dornoch’s mystique or renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964 (and now included in this edition), 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.”
Lorne Rubenstein spent a summer in Dornoch to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he also 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 people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their life stories and a wee dram or two. He came to understand how golf reflects 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.
PRAISE FOR A SEASON IN DORNOCH
“Lorne Rubenstein gives the reader a feel for what makes the appeal of the Highlands so enduring. He brings the place and its people to life, and his descriptions and images of Dornoch show how golf is but a part of the town’s extraordinary fabric, though its strongest and most visible thread.”—Tom Watson, five-time British Open champion
“Rubenstein’s tone is what breezy, anecdotal, impressionistic, and easy on the metaphors. He wants golf to help him understand his life, not provide a substitute for it.”— New York Times Book Review
“It is the village life even more than the golf that imbues this memoir with its seductive that elusive quality we search for but rarely find in either our daily lives or our vacations. ... the prose breathes a kind of atmospheric calm that works on the reader like a mild summer breeze. ... Rubenstein opens the door to a linksland version of Brigadoon.
- GenresSportsNonfiction
268 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
33 people are currently reading
97 people want to read
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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