Ireland, Scotland and England
For the past four summers, we have traveled to a new venue annually to hold The Coyne Cup, our tournament that features Ryder Cup-style competition, great camaraderie and, most of all, unforgettable craic! We travel to marvelous destinations and include full days for non-golfers so that golfing participants can attend with spouses and even kids!
We teamed up with golf historian and author Tom Coyne to create this affair that bears his name. Tom has published two New York Times bestsellers. A Course Called Scotland: Searching the Home of Golf for the Secret to Its Game (2018) chronicles Tom’s quest to play every links course in Scotland. It was a follow up to his book A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee (2009) that maps his journey walking and golfing the whole of Ireland. Another of his books, Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer’s Quest to Play with the Pros (2006) was an editor’s pick in Esquire Magazine and USA Today, and a summer reading selection by The New York Times. Tom is also the author of the novel A Gentleman’s Game (2002), which was named one of the best 25 sports books of all time by The Philadelphia Daily News. He wrote the film adaptation of the novel, which starred Gary Sinise, Philip Baker Hall and others.
As you might guess, Tom is a golfing encyclopedia, and his tales are magical. In addition to captaining one of our Coyne Cup teams, he adds to the merriment by sharing with everyone a wide collection of stories and anecdotes in his uniquely humble style.
In 2019, we traveled to the Highlands of Scotland to play four of the top 100 courses in the world – we played one round at each course, with the final round at Royal Dornoch. Opened in 1877, Royal Dornoch, is a natural links course that is both highly challenging and fun to play, placing a premium on controlling shots and managing the wind. Royal Dornoch is both isolated and beautiful. The town of Dornoch itself is a quiet seaside community with settlements reportedly dating back some 4,000 years. We stayed at the four-star Royal Golf Hotel located at Royal Dornoch’s first tee (not an exaggeration) and known for both its comfort and its selection of thirty different malt whiskies, including those from three local distilleries, Glenmorangie, Balblair and Dalmore. It gave us something to look forward to after we finished our round.
After giving Tom a few months off to work on his next book, A Course Called America, we travel in 2020 to the south of Ireland. We begin with a warm up round at Dooks Golf Club, one of the ten oldest courses in Ireland. Dooks is a true links course located on the corner of Dingle Bay in County Kerry and surrounded by Slieve Mish Mountains, the Dingle Mountains and MacGillycuddy Reeks.
Next we will head to Ballybunion Golf Club’s Old Course (#16 in the Top 100 Golf Courses of the World), universally recognized as the top course in Ireland, followed by one round of golf at Tralee Golf Club, (#6 ranked in Ireland), and a round at Waterville Golf Links (#5 ranked in Ireland). Lodging each night will be at the magnificent Great Southern Killarney.
For those desiring to play more golf, we have an option to extend to play a round at Dingle Golf Club, Ceann Sibheal, one at Old Head Golf Links (#1 most photographed golf course in the world) and, finally at Adare Manor (future home of the 2026 Ryder Cup). Our group will stay two additional nights at the four-star Dunraven Arms Hotel in the heart of Adare.
It’s hard to describe how much fun this group trip is. We hope newcomers will join us for another memorable Coyne Cup tournament.
