A Season in Dornoch (Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands)

The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. Though the town is 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 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 many people of great thoughtfulness and spirit, eager to share their worldviews, their life stories, and a wee dram or two. He came to understand how the game of 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.