Friday, January 01, 2016

How to Play the World's Most Exclusive Golf Clubs - The Book

It has been exactly ten years since my first post. Hard to believe.

A couple of years into my quest I started writing this blog as a way to remember the places I visited. The pilgrimage was best summed up by the simple four-word tagline I gave it: “Pursuing Golf’s Holy Grail.”  Ultimately my blog has attracted a couple of million readers (which I am still amazed at), and many people along the way told me I should write a book about the experience, although I didn't give it much thought.

Now that the journey is complete, the most frequent question I am asked is, “How did you get on all these courses?” The other common query I get is, “How did you get on Augusta?”  Through my journey I have come to know ten people who have completed the same challenge and they all say the same thing, everyone wants to know how they were able to play Augusta.

Writing the blog was entertaining, but the idea of a book didn’t hold much appeal to me. Several people who have played top courses in the United States self-published books, but I wasn’t attracted to the genre since no one—well, maybe my mother— wants a blow-by-blow of my trips or cares what score I shot. I didn’t want to do another me-too book, but when an experienced publisher contacted me and came up with an interesting twist, I was intrigued. Why not write the book from the perspective of the reader: What’s in it for them? How can someone else play some of these courses?

The golf world is made up of generous people who are benevolent in many ways; now, it is my turn to give back to a game that has given me so much, by passing along the methods and techniques I used to play the world’s great golf courses.

How do you play at the upper-echelon of clubs in the world? In the end, it is simple. All you need is the time, the resources and the connections; although there are exceptions, since I played several top courses for free and without connections.

The focus of the book is insights into how I gained access to the clubs, and techniques you can use if you have a desire to play some of these world-class courses. It will include some wisdom I gained from the journey, and interesting stories about others who have pursued similar journeys. A condensed and expanded version of the blog at the same time, the best stories and pictures are shared to delight the itinerant golfer.

The book is available from Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com. Click on the image of the book below to order on Amazon:




I hope you will find it enjoyable and entertaining.

Because the game as given so much to me, as a small way of giving back I am donating my share of the profits from the book to charities supporting children.

11 comments:

Florian said...

Dear John,

I enjoy reading your blog for a couple of years now. Everytime when I was fortunate enough to play one of the top courses myself I also checked what you had to say about it.

Preordering your book was a no-brainer. I am already excited to have it in my hands soon. Congrats also to your interview for Golf Magazine.

Please continue to play some awesome courses and keep on blogging about them!

Taylor said...

That's a great book review. Hard to find good books on golf. Will definitely give it a read. Thank you so much for sharing!

Anonymous said...

John, have you all tried googling golf course names and adding the word Auction at the end of it? Sometimes a current charity outing shows up.

I found a trip to Merion Golf Club on a website called Auction@TFTCO, but it had already been sold. Can't speak from personal experience if it is legit, but its been around for over a year and it looks like they've sold outings to Merion, Seminole and Baltrusol before.

Anonymous said...

Well done chasing down the top 100. I'm about half way through!!! Looking forward to reading the book.

Unknown said...

HELP- I'm in the middle of my quest to play the top 100 and am going to England the first two weeks of April to knock off the courses in that country. I've got everything set but Wentworth which is proving to be difficult due to an ownership change that occurred mid 2015. Does anyone know a member at Wentworth who might be willing to host?

I'm an 8 handicap traveling from Southern California. I've played 42 of 100 and have 8 more scheduled on this trip but would prefer NOT to have to go back to pick up this one course. Help

Rob
robertwolken@gmail.com
mobile 310-710-7185

Jason Smith said...

Hey John,

I enjoy reading your blog since last some month's. it's amazing

Please continue to play some new awesome courses and keep on blogging about them, All the best :)

Take a look at Alberta golf courses

Criss said...

Long time follower of the blog. Pre-ordered my copy and it arrived this week from Amazon. Can't wait to go through it!

NickF said...

So many of these course are on my bucket list-can't wait to have a look. I'm still hoping to win the lottery so I can spend a year travelling around the world playing them all. Imagine going from the old Course one week to Pebble Beach the next-golfer heaven!

Denny said...

Awesome that your life work is compiled into a book. Wishing you best-seller status!

Mike said...

It's crazy that i hesitated about reading your book, and then ended up on your blog (thanks to google) . read all wonderful posts,fell in love with your writing style and read your book, and i'd recommend it to everyone.

Carl said...

Looks like an awesome book. It's also great that you're donating to children's charities!