"Paper Tiger": Playing his passion: a year devoted to golf

"Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer's Quest to Play with the Pros"
by Tom Coyne
Gotham Books, 336 pp., $26

Every golfer has pondered the same question that launched Tom Coyne on this book project:

"How good could I become if I devoted my entire existence to golf?"

Coyne finds out in a year by moving to Florida, hitting more than 100,000 golf balls, playing 5,418 holes, losing 38 pounds, getting superb instruction, getting better equipment, hiring a trainer, seeing a nutritionist and consulting with a golf psychologist.

This 14-handicapper takes the reader along on his personal quest to try to become PGA Tour-caliber. He becomes a competitive golfer but remains a better writer. This guy can crank out sentences you want to read out loud to the nearest friend with a discerning ear.

Comparing the slim talent difference between golfers who wind up as assistant club pros to tour pros, he writes:

"So, in the New Golf Order of pure golf athletes, the slimmest advantages — a half stroke here, two extra yards there — can be the difference between tour millions, and asking Mrs. Malone if she would like a cart or a caddy today."

Improvement comes fastest at the start of his odyssey, or as he puts it:

"Like a fat man who's found Atkins, those early pounds come off the quickest."

In "Paper Tiger," Coyne shares what he learns on his road to improvement. Much of his new-found knowledge, particularly on the mental game, can be useful to golfers reading the book. He also does an insightful job of describing the tiers in the world of competitive golf.

In the end, it's Coyne's talent as a writer that trumps the information. He loses a month to illness and describes his return with these words:

"Apparently, while I was at the doctor's office, my golf swing was at the bar. It came back to me like a drunk stumbling home at the end of the night, wild and unwieldy, uninterested in anything I had to say."

Coyne has a lot to say about golf, and he says it well.