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| A Season In Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands | 
 enlarge | Author: Lorn Rubenstein
Publisher: Mainstream Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $16.50
Buy New: $11.58
You Save: $4.92 (30%)
New (4) from $11.58
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 1539488
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 4.9 x 1
ISBN: 1840187050
Dewey Decimal Number: 910
EAN: 9781840187052
ASIN: 1840187050
Publication Date: March 20, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
In 1977, Lorne Rubenstein, an avid golfer, travelled to Dornoch in the Scottish Highlands. Young and adrift in life, he was profoundly affected by the experience. As he writes, 'My week in Dornoch introduced me to a place with which I felt a connection. A week wasn't living there, but it was enough for Dornoch to imprint itself on my mind.' Twenty-three years later, in 2000, now an established golf writer, Rubenstein returned to Dornoch to spend an entire summer. He rented a flat close to the Royal Dornoch Golf Club and set out to explore the area on many levels. Rubenstein writes about the melancholy history of the Highland Clearances, which have left the beautiful landscape sparsely populated to this day. He writes about the friendly and sometimes eccentric people who love their town, their golf and their single malt whisky, and who delight in sharing them with visitors. But most of all he writes about a summer lived in a community where golf is king and the golf course is part of the common lands where townspeople stroll of an evening. Rubenstein is able to return to thinking of golf as play, as opposed to a game of analysis and effort. A Season in Dornoch is an affectionate portrait of a place and the people who live there, a fascinating look at golf and the spirit and skills it calls forth, and a perceptive and ultimately moving memoir of one man's quest to experience again the pure love of sport that he knew in his youth.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 Much more than just Golf. Another Golf Travel "Gem". August 12, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lorne Rubenstein has written a wonderful account of his stay in Dornoch , a tiny village in the Scottish Highlands, famous for its legendary golf course Royal Dornoch.
In superbly crafted prose, the Author tells of his Golfing experiences at this 'Holy Grail' of Golf Clubs, which along with St. Andrews, Carnoustie, Royal Troon, Royal Aberdeen, Turnberry, Muirfield and North Berwick is one of the most historic and revered courses in Scotland.
He and his non-golf playing wife Nell meet many warm and wise locals and form a strong bond with them and the community in Dornoch. The story is so well told, both in terms of pace and content, that it makes for very enjoyable and rapid reading.
Lorne is obviously already a very capable golfer but falls under the spell of golf in such a beautiful and remote location, rediscovering the shear joy of non-competitive play, the grandness and openness of the natural surroundings, the kindness and decency of Scotland's people and his own longing to reconnect with the pleasures and benefits of Golf as played in Dornoch.
A highly recommended read for the golfer who has traveled, or wishes to travel to the Homeland of Golf.
 Good Friend January 11, 2007
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
If golf is good friend of yours, you will enjoy this book. It certainly helps to have been in Scotland to understand better much of what is written.
A Wonderful Account of a Summer in Paradise November 2, 2006
When I picked up a "Season in Dornoch" I was expecting something different. However, Lorne Rubenstein, with his words, has painted a beautiful landscape of the people and place that is Dornoch. I had the privledge of playing there several years ago but was on a whirlwind tour at the time and was in Dornoch for less that a day. This book does a wonderful job in showing me what I missed.
Two things of which I would be critical. First, the focus on the Clearances. Obviously the Highlanders were hard done by this event but is was over 200 years ago. Time to put it in the past. Second, I would have liked to see better descriptions of the course itself. Many of the stories from the book are written while golfing, but there is not that much specific information on the course. One of the reasons for Dornoch's fame is it was the birthplace and training ground for one of the world's most respected course designers, Donald Ross. Showing how this course influenced Ross' later works would have added an excellent dimension to the book.
A definite read if you enjoy golf.
A wonderful read, much more than I bargained for May 14, 2004
I bought the book for a lesson in golf history, but was fascinated by the ecology, history and culture of the Scottish Highlands as desribed by the author. It is also a beautifully written travelogue, poetic and mystical, and has certainly changed the way I think about golf. This book could only have been improved by the addition of photographs.
Green Envy August 13, 2003
This is a lovely book about a lovely place. The author had the great good fortune to spend an entire summer in the north Scotland burgh of Dornoch, one of the hallowed locales for lovers of links golf. His stories of experiences with residents are charming, and along with reflections on the infamous Clearances of the 1800's, make this far more than a book about golf.As someone who cherishes the memory of a mere 2 days in Dornoch, I am green with envy, but the envy is tempered by the flood of good memories that Mr. Rubenstein brought back to me. So, I suggest: read this terrific book; also read Michael Bamberger's equally wonderful 'To the Linksland'; and finally, make it your mission to play Royal Dornoch, Cruden Bay, Macrihanish, and other splendid Scottish links. Ah..........
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