As preparations go it's been fairly thorough ...
and possibly a bit mad. From deepest Kent to the Outer Hebrides, the American author, Tom Coyne, has shoehorned over 100 courses into a fevered itinerary spanning 57 days. His golfing adventure began on April 26 and will conclude today at Bruntsfield Links in Edinburgh.
There is a point to this final destination of course. Bruntsfield is one of the host venues of regional qualifying for next month's Open Championship and Coyne will join a giddy mix of amateurs, clubs professionals and former European Tour players in the scramble for a place in next week's final qualifying shoot-out, where only 12 players from four different courses will earn a tee-time for the St Andrews showpiece. The road to the Open is long and arduous but this scratch golfer likes nothing better than a stout challenge.
Coyne's odyssey started at Royal Cinque Ports in the south east of England and over the last few weeks, Coyne has battered and clattered his way around a variety of major championship venues while treading the fairways and greens of courses as far and as wide as Barra, Wick, Colonsay, Dunaverty, Eyemouth and Asta.
Coyne enjoys setting himself ambitious targets. In one of his books, he played 548 days in a row as he spent over a year trying to make it in the professional game. This latest literary project, titled 'A course called the Kingdom', has certainly given him plenty to write about. "The biggest golf dream I never dreamed," is how this assistant professor of English from Philadelphia has described it.
Today's 18 hole contest at Bruntsfield is one of 13 regional qualifiers taking place around the UK and Ireland. Given his intrepid escapades recently, Coyne probably fancied playing in all of them.
"If I can make it to the final qualifier, that would be my Open Championship," he said.
The journey goes on.
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