Product Description

In every life, there are roads taken and untaken, choices made and dreams abandoned. And then there's golf. As a teenager, Tom Cox dreamed of sporting immortality. For four years he devoted himself to the game he loved. And then, one day, he walked away. But as he got older, those dreams kept coming back. Perhaps it was turning thirty, perhaps it was winning his local club's scratch championship, perhaps it was having his first hole in one, but he decided it was time to start again, to live the dream for real. So he switched off his computer, grabbed his checked trousers and headed for the golf course. To turn pro. There are two ways of becoming a full-time professional sportsman. The first and most favoured approach goes something like this: be born gifted; take up your chosen game early; practise incredibly hard; let nothing stand in your way. The second is more controversial. Just turn up. As long as you're wearing the right socks, you should be OK. Confident in the simplicity of this approach, Tom headed out for the course. What was eight years playing for England Boys and a lifetime of top-class coaching compared to his whippy wrist action and trusty 1980s putter! The Open Championship was only five of the best rounds of his life away and, given a few warm-up tournaments, how hard could it be? One physically and psychologically gruelling year later, Tom returns with the story of how he survived the world of professional golf. Are the pros really so much more gifted than the rest of us? Does an amateur stand a chance? And will he finally get a birdie? Find out, in this hilarious account of one man's pursuit of his dreams.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #70006 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-20
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Daily Mail - Peter McKay
'Tom Cox's book is funny. His self-proclaimed status as a golfing outsider provides edge to his story'

Metro
'Tom Cox embarks on a poignant and hilarious journey of self-discovery to see if he can make it as a pro over the course of a year.'

The Times
'He is a young, multi-talented and an accomplished writer'

Customer Reviews

Mr A. Allwright. Philistine. My advice - A MUST BUY.
Mr Allwright seems to have missed the point in its entirety (see his (weak) amazon review). He is clearly a (golfing, humour, general) philistine.

Managed to nick this literature from husband who was annoying me by laughing every page, per night, up until Chapter 3. So I swooped. It was mine.

I laughed until it was completed, and like the best books, looked forward to getting to bed to savour the next unfolding.

Cox depicts the soul destroying nature of life on (Europro.........if you say it quick enough it sounds like European.....) Tour heart wrenchingly and acutely. Cox is self depreciatingly honest throughout. His conclusions are appropriately respectful, but endearingly reassuring that real life exists above and beyond life on tour....... if that's what you want....

I think why this book appeals is rooted in the fact the challenges, magic, frustrations and joy of golf are the same whether you are Tiger Woods or Jim Bob Novice Amateur. This is why the book is so clever. It tells a story of golf at a very specific level, but anyone at all who has experienced any level of the game will empathise with the tale it tells - with all the up and downs along the way (no pun intended).

So buy it, and ignore Mr Allwright who has clearly had a personality and soul bypass.

MUST READ FOR ALL GOLF FANATICS
A great, great read. A real pleasant change from autobiographies and coaching manuals. Tom's year as a professional is a real emotional rollercoaster and the caracters in Tom's book relate to people in golf clubs the length and bredth of the UK. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I'm glad somebody did it for me, so I didn't have to!
A hugely enjoying and highly entertaining read from start to finish.

Once Tom got my interest in the opening pages of the book, my interest only intensified as I got further and further into the book. The anticipation of seeing what new mini disaster he could get himself into, coupled with the slight glimmer of hope that there would be some success for him towards the end, just meant that I couldn't put the thing down. Quite literally read in a day!

There is some success for him in the end, although not quite in the way you expect. I guess ultimately the real success to come from Tom's experiment is this brilliantly witty and self deprecating warts and all account of his trials and tribulations throughout his year of swinging with the big boys.

This comes highly recommended.