“As I stepped off St. Patrick’s final green, my mind still trying to make peace with the mirage that was its 17th green, I found myself not replaying the holes I’d just traversed—I’d do that later, in my sleep—but recalling the route that had brought us here, keenly aware that it was about to become a well-worn path.”

“One after another, Norman rips every ball. His swing appears short, his hands high, in front of his eye line. But it’s the sound that catches the attention most. WHOOSH! Every shot is absolutely pured.”

“Pro tip: Should you ever encounter a back-right pin, your best bet is to come up short, hit two Tour-level touch shots to get up and down, then sprint down the hill as fast as possible.”

“We could not hit our putts fast enough. As the last ball rolled in, we heard a man shouting, ‘You! Stop right there! Nobody plays the Old Course on Sunday!’”

“The soul of a golf course is not only its fairways and greens. It’s the people who play it every day, the people who tend to its needs in the darkest of winter when the tourists do not come. The people who love it so much that they cannot bear to leave it.”

“When most people imagine the Vineyard, they see one endless summer of sailboats and lobster rolls, Cape Cods and Black Dogs, private planes and private beaches, former presidents and sons of former presidents. These people are right and they are wrong.”

“‘What we all enjoy is the journey,’ said one fan. ‘The tangents and the trials and tribulations. We play golf, and the fellowship is why we do this.’”

“The stripping of ego, an acknowledgment of a bigger picture, an overwhelming sense of life’s fragility and a sudden disregard for things that divide a unified whole are just a few of the reported reactions associated with the overview effect.”

“What’s generally accepted is that while the Wanamaker looks majestic in photos, it is a pain in the ass to drag to nightclubs. So Hagen, ever the strategist, hailed a taxi, put the Wanamaker in the back, peeled off $5 from his bankroll and told the cabbie to deliver it to his hotel.”

“It is also a tale of love, loss, friendship, life and death. It is, after all, a story about golf.”

“I’ve witnessed enough fistfights, rock-filled bunkers and shirtless men showering in bathroom sinks to confidently proclaim that the overwhelming majority of public golf in America stinks.”

“Once I visited a few private clubs, the old anxiety returned: Where do I go? Where do I not go? Can I text my host to ask? Can I even text?”

“The smell of fuel mixed with freshly cut grass adds an extra layer of satisfaction when you stripe a fairway with some crisp mow lines.”

“Jake approached the hole and, like a giraffe checking to see if its toenails need trimming, bent straight down from the waist to look in.”