Spend a year in St. Andrews writing about golf? The year that the 150th Open Championship is being played at the Old Course, the literal Home of Golf? Any golf writer you can name would trade rounds at Pine Valley, Cypress Point and Seminole for that opportunity (well, maybe not Cypress…) – and in 2022, as the pandemic wound down and the Saudi-based revolution in men’s professional golf started to wind up, Sean Zak of Golf magazine did just that. The result is the book Searching in St. Andrews, a pleasant-enough read about an interesting and eventful year in the world of golf.
If you follow golf with more than a minimal level of interest you will already be aware of the big events of that year: Rory McIlroy fading in the stretch to let a mulleted Aussie with his eyes on Saudi millions and a tendency to pass the buck to his “team” steal the Claret Jug from his grasp, and LIV Golf erupting onto the scene with flashy dramatics and huge infusions of cash while some of the biggest names in men’s professional golf bailed on the professional tour that had already made them multi-millionaires for a chance to become extra-big multi-multi-millionaires. Against that background, a newly-single and newly-turned-30 Sean Zak took up residence in a 400-square-foot guest flat converted from an underused corner living room in a modest house in the Auld Grey Toon, and settled in to learn his way around the most famous city in the game of golf, in the country that invented the game.
The pages of the book are replete with the expected stories of interesting characters met, courses played, and libations consumed (maybe a few too many libations, in some cases); as well as some interesting behind-the-scenes looks at the genesis of LIV Golf’s disruptive entrance into the world of men’s professional golf. The latter is content that I don’t think you will find anywhere else, especially given that Zak was, on at least one occasion, one of only two golf media people present at a big LIV event – their flashy, over-the-top (and ultimately pointless) “draft” for the teams in their “Chuckles-the-Clown-puts-on-a-golf-tournament” event format.
Overall, Searching in St. Andrews is diverting read, treading the line between a notable exploration of an eventful year in men’s professional golf* and a boy’s-own tale of a freewheeling (but not without responsibilities) kid-in-a-candy-store year in a golfer’s dream world. The tales of boozing get old after a while, to be honest, and I was wielding my personal red pencil and a stack of sticky-note tabs noting places where, were I editing the book, I would be having a word or two with young Sean – but I think that most golfer-readers will enjoy both aspects of the book, and I think that it is a good choice for that golfing dad’s Father’s Day present come June.
* (I have specified “men’s professional golf” several times because, despite their protestations of “growing the game” the LIV Golf disruption is really only affecting the men’s professional game.)
