The Old Course at St. Andrews is to golfers what St. Peter's is to Catholics or the Western Wall is to Jews: hallowed ground, the course every golfer longs to play -- and master. In 1983 George Peper was playing the Old Course when he hit a slice so hideous that he never found the ball. But in looking for it, he came across a For Sale sign on a stone town house alongside the famed eighteenth hole. Two months later he and his wife, Libby, became the proud owners of 9A Gibson Place.
In 2003 Peper retired after twenty-five years as the editor in chief of Golf magazine. With the younger of their two sons off to college, the Pepers decided to sell their house in the United States and relocate temporarily to the town house in St. Andrews. And so they left for the land of golf -- and single malt scotch, haggis, bagpipes, television licenses, and accents thicker than a North Sea fog. While Libby struggled with renovating an apartment that for years had been rented to students at the local university, George began his quest to break par on the Old Course.
Their new neighbors were friendly, helpful, charmingly eccentric, and always serious about golf. In no time George was welcomed into the local golf crowd, joining the likes of Gordon Murray, the man who knows everyone; Sir Michael Bonallack, Britain's premier amateur golfer of the last century; and Wee Raymond Gatherum, a magnificent shotmaker whose diminutive stature belies his skills.
For anyone who has ever dreamed of playing the Old Course -- and what golfer hasn't? -- this book is the next best thing. And for those who have had that privilege, Two Years in St. Andrews will revive old memories and confirm Bobby Jones's tribute, "If I were to set down to play on one golf course for the remainder of my life, I should choose the Old Course at St. Andrews."
Autorentext
George Peper
Inhalt
1 The Slice of My Life
2 Transatlantic Landlord
3 An End and a Beginning
4 Dogged Pursuit
5 Arrival
6 Two Andrews
7 Round One
8 Molishing
9 The Saint Hood
10 Perfect Golf
11 In at Last
12 Gordon
13 Show Me Your Papers
14 Window Office
15 The Club
16 Tescoid Anthropology
17 Wooing the Old Lady
18 A Special Experience
19 Pedo-phile
20 Playing Backwards
21 Having a Wee Flutter
22 21 Ways to Get on the Old Course
23 A Different World
24 Happy Anniversary
25 Other Courses, Other Charms
26 Rifts and Schisms
27 A Matter of Trust
28 Did It -- with Sir Michael!
29 Nice Measurements
30 Victoria's Vase
31 On His Majesty's Secret Service
32 The Night I Kissed the Captains' Balls
33 The Wedge-Away
34 The Partisans
35 Reunion
36 Winter Wonderland
37 Stalking Prince William
38 Dazzled by a Puffin Crossing
39 Two Trips Home
40 Herbicide
41 Summer Son
42 50,000 People in Our Backyard
43 Home
Acknowledgments
Index