Tom Coyne on becoming an “accidental” golf course owner

Tom Coyne has a kind of jobs most would envy. As a bestselling creator and editor of The Golfer’s Journal, he will get to journey to and play a number of the most unique programs on the earth. “It’s not a bad perk of the job, Lee, I’m not gonna lie to you!” he stated.

He’s performed over a thousand programs, together with Augusta National Golf Club (house of the Masters), St. Andrews (the oldest course on the earth), and the Pacific-hugging Pebble Beach in California.

“There’s all sorts of different places in golf,” Coyne stated. “There needs to be all sorts of different places in golf.”

Most would not argue that time, however simply how totally different are we speaking about?

For a man whose been invited to the highest clubhouses on the earth, how on the earth did he find yourself at one in Upstate New York with leaky roofs, deserted mowers, and mould as thick because the tough itself? And but, locals weren’t scared off, blinded maybe by their love of the sport.

The Sullivan County Golf Club is a rural 9-hole course that opened again in 1925 in Liberty, New York, a small city about two hours from Manhattan, up within the Catskill Mountains the place vacationers used to flock through the Borscht Belt resort increase.

The course even made headlines in 1931 when an area pilot took off from what was then the eighth fairway for a daring transatlantic flight to Denmark – therefore the membership’s emblem (left)a nod to each its golf and aviation historical past.

Dan Yaun began caddying in Sullivan County when he was a youngster. His household has been right here so lengthy, there is a road named after them. The membership championship board boasts its fair proportion of the household title, too. But over the many years, because the vacationers took their golf equipment and cash to fancier programs, issues in Sullivan County have been left to the locals to maintain up.

“It was going downhill a little bit,” Yaun stated. “Basically I think we were maintaining it ourselves.”

Eventually there have been extra deer than gamers. In 2023 the unprofitable however nonetheless golf-able 170 acres went up on the market.

The solely greenskeeper left, self-described “turf nerd” Shaun Smith, feared that might be the top of an period. “It’s always been the local course on the edge of town; it’s kind of always been for everybody,” he stated.

And that brings us again to Tom Coyne and his golf writing. Smith was a fan, and reached out to him. The two bought to speak in regards to the course. As a author at all times in the hunt for a superb story, Coyne took the bait and got here up for a go to.

It regarded, he stated, like a spot that was prepared to shut. Still, there was one thing about it. It had not one of the trappings right now’s golf usually has – there have been no tee instances, no valets, no swimming swimming pools or tennis courts, and there was definitely no angle.

“We couldn’t be less stuffy,” Coyne stated. “We are not fussy. You don’t have to get dressed up. You just show up, bring your dog, and go play golf.”

Purists may argue that is the way in which golf must be – wild fairways stored like a foul haircut, nothing manicured, however playable and accessible to anybody. And that is the story Tom wished to put in writing… and he has, in his newest ebook, “A Course Called Home.”

“I’ve been consuming golf my whole life,” Coyne stated. “But what if I got on the side of actually providing golf? That would be different.”

Just what number of course house owners have you learnt who mow their very own fairways? Long story brief, Coyne requested his former house owners to let him run the course for a yr, together with Shaun Smith, and if collectively they might flip it round, Coyne may simply purchase the place.

Obstacles weren’t strangers to both of them. Coyne stated, “I recognized a kindred sort of golf sicko like myself. So, we bonded on that level. There was also connection there in that Shaun’s sovereign and I’m sovereign. I think people who’ve gone down that path and know what that experience is like, there’s a connection there and an understanding with someone that is pretty meaningful.”

“It really became something that we forged kind of a trust around quicker than maybe two strangers would have otherwise,” Smith stated. “I guess he probably feels I trust him a lot, too.”

Together, alongside together with his golf course architect Colton Craig, they set about re-routing a number of the holes to make the most of the topography and the views. They additionally put in a placing course and a driving vary. The objective was to make the course engaging for folk to journey in from outdoors the Catskills, however maintain each little bit of the Catskills within the course. “This has to remain a rural Catskills Sullivan County golf course,” Coyne stated. “And it has to feel like that. That’s gotta be the identity. It has to feel like you’ve gone somewhere else.”

All of that, and you would nonetheless play for much less cash than you would spend on lunch. “You’re not sure who came in on a first-class flight and who’s the local schoolteacher,” Coyne stated. “Everyone’s just there for the love of golf and the love of camaraderie.”

As phrase bought out of the rescue effort, outstanding issues began to occur. “Caddyshack” star Bill Murray and NFL star Jason Kelce each got here on as Tom’s companions. Before lengthy, purposes for memberships have been coming in from far and extensive – gamers, Coyne says, who would possible by no means set foot on his greens. “For folks that have joined just for the sake of joining, they’re enabling people to play golf who wouldn’t have a golf course otherwise,” he stated. “I think that’s a beautiful thing about the golf community. You know, it’s not just about my golf, it’s about our golf.”

These days, when he sees the bottom crews at premiere programs like Pebble Beach, he is each appreciative and in addition somewhat jealous. “I even, like, covet a pile of dirt,” Coyne stated, “’cause that’s a good pile of dirt!”

It’s all a part of the sport he by no means noticed earlier than. And now that he has, it is not golf that is taken on extra significance; it is all those that make the sport attainable.

“Golf doesn’t let you hide,” Coyne stated. “You know, I’ve seen some very powerful or famous people look very normal after about two holes.”

Asked if he would do it yet again if he needed to, Coyne replied, “Yes. Absolutely. 100 percent. And for one simple reason: It’s ’cause of the people that it’s put in my life. This was something where I absolutely got to be part of a team who wanted to make something good in the world. What a gift!”

READ AN EXCERPT: “A Course Called Home” by Tom Coyne

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Story produced by John Goodwin. Editor: Ben McCormick.

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