Sean Connery Book:

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Editorial Review:

The town of Dornoch, Scotland, lies at nearly the same latitude as Juneau, Alaska. A bit too far removed for the taste of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, the Royal Dornoch Golf Club has never hosted a British Open, but that has hardly diminished its mystique or its renown. In an influential piece for The New Yorker in 1964, 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."

If any town in the world deserves to be described as "the village of golf," it's Dornoch. You can take the legendary links away from St. Andrews, and you'll still have a charming and beautiful university town with great historic significance; take the links away from Dornoch and it would be as little noted or known as its neighbors Golspie, Tain, and Brora. (The town is forty miles north of Inverness, generally thought of as the northernmost outpost of civilization in Scotland.) The game has been played in Dornoch for some four hundred years. Its native son Donald Ross brought the style of the Dornoch links to America, where his legendary, classic courses include Pinehurst #2, Seminole, and Oak Hill.

Lorne Rubenstein decided to spend a summer in Dornoch to clear the muddle from his golfing mind and to rediscover the natural charms of the game he loves. But in the Highlands he found far more than bracing air and challenging greens. He 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. And as he explored the empty, rugged landscape, he came to understand the ways in which the thorny, quarrelsome qualities of the game of golf reflect 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.

A Season In Dornoch: Golf and Life in the Scottish Highlands Reviews:
Much more than just Golf. Another Golf Travel "Gem".
2007-08-12 - 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
2007-01-11 - 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
2006-11-02 - 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
2004-05-14 - 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
2003-08-13 - 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..........