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The Fine Green Line: My Year of Adventure on the Pro-Golf Mini-Tours
What happens when a man obsessed with golf leaves home for a year to pursue his dream? This is the story of that journey.
One day when John Paul Newport was in his mid-thirties, he attended a corporate outing at a golf course. He had hacked around on the fairways for a couple of summers as a kid, but had always found other sports, especially football, more compelling. Golf was a game he had played only a handful of times in the past twenty years. But that day on the course he more or less accidentally nailed a drive more than 300 yards.
The feeling he had as he watched the ball soar was incredible—grace, power, and purity combined. Much to his surprise, he was hooked.
Within a month he had bought a set of clubs—the first he'd ever owned—and discovered he had a knack for the game. With practice, his scores improved steadily, until one day two years later, he miraculously shot a three-under-par 69. This amazing experience triggered all sorts of questions in his mind: How was such a round possible? Having shot 69 once, what prevented him from shooting 69 every time? In golf, as elsewhere in life, why is one so consistently incapable of fulfilling one's clearly established potential? Projecting into the world of professional golf, he wondered what was it that allowed some pros to stay at the top of the PGA Tour golf rankings year after year while others with seemingly just as much talent got stuck in the bush leagues?
In pursuit of some answers, John Paul Newport spent a year playing in the bush leagues himself, the dark, comic underbelly of professional golf. This is a world in which even highly talented players sometimes live out of their cars, sneak food from country clubs, and gamble away their meager earnings in an attempt to stay afloat. But it is also the world many top pros—including John Daly, Paul Azinger, and Tom Lehman—first had to conquer before becoming the stars they did. Newport's year culminated in a bold, some might say ill-advised effort to make it through the PGA Tour's infamous Q School.
Traveling and competing throughout Florida, the Northeast, the Dakotas, and California, refining his game and consulting numerous "head coaches" and psychologists, Newport realized his number one goal was to solve the mystery of what he calls the Fine Green Line—that infinitely subtle yet critical difference that separates golf's top players from their nearest pursuers, but that also applies to golfers all up and down the ability spectrum. He also struggled to find meaning in the game that had become his obsession. As he questioned the people he encountered—from Eastern consciousness guru Michael Murphy to successful young Tour players like Kevin Sutherland—about practicing better golf, Newport realized that the answers he was given were also about practicing better life.
A compelling personal journey that captures many of the fears, frustrations, and elations of midlife, both on and off the course, The Fine Green Line is also a rich, honest, rollicking narrative set in a golf world few people know. It will appeal to anyone either afflicted or confounded by golf's mysterious tug.
One day when John Paul Newport was in his mid-thirties, he attended a corporate outing at a golf course. He had hacked around on the fairways for a couple of summers as a kid, but had always found other sports, especially football, more compelling. Golf was a game he had played only a handful of times in the past twenty years. But that day on the course he more or less accidentally nailed a drive more than 300 yards.
The feeling he had as he watched the ball soar was incredible—grace, power, and purity combined. Much to his surprise, he was hooked.
Within a month he had bought a set of clubs—the first he'd ever owned—and discovered he had a knack for the game. With practice, his scores improved steadily, until one day two years later, he miraculously shot a three-under-par 69. This amazing experience triggered all sorts of questions in his mind: How was such a round possible? Having shot 69 once, what prevented him from shooting 69 every time? In golf, as elsewhere in life, why is one so consistently incapable of fulfilling one's clearly established potential? Projecting into the world of professional golf, he wondered what was it that allowed some pros to stay at the top of the PGA Tour golf rankings year after year while others with seemingly just as much talent got stuck in the bush leagues?
In pursuit of some answers, John Paul Newport spent a year playing in the bush leagues himself, the dark, comic underbelly of professional golf. This is a world in which even highly talented players sometimes live out of their cars, sneak food from country clubs, and gamble away their meager earnings in an attempt to stay afloat. But it is also the world many top pros—including John Daly, Paul Azinger, and Tom Lehman—first had to conquer before becoming the stars they did. Newport's year culminated in a bold, some might say ill-advised effort to make it through the PGA Tour's infamous Q School.
Traveling and competing throughout Florida, the Northeast, the Dakotas, and California, refining his game and consulting numerous "head coaches" and psychologists, Newport realized his number one goal was to solve the mystery of what he calls the Fine Green Line—that infinitely subtle yet critical difference that separates golf's top players from their nearest pursuers, but that also applies to golfers all up and down the ability spectrum. He also struggled to find meaning in the game that had become his obsession. As he questioned the people he encountered—from Eastern consciousness guru Michael Murphy to successful young Tour players like Kevin Sutherland—about practicing better golf, Newport realized that the answers he was given were also about practicing better life.
A compelling personal journey that captures many of the fears, frustrations, and elations of midlife, both on and off the course, The Fine Green Line is also a rich, honest, rollicking narrative set in a golf world few people know. It will appeal to anyone either afflicted or confounded by golf's mysterious tug.
- GenresSports
336 pages, Hardcover
First published May 9, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 18, 2023
Golf, an adventure shared.
One year in the life of a 3 handicapper, learning and testing with the goal of Q school at the end. Funny and heart wrenching account with incite on what it really takes to become one of the best in the field. Today is my first round after reading this….of course I expect great things….or will at least just have fun!
One year in the life of a 3 handicapper, learning and testing with the goal of Q school at the end. Funny and heart wrenching account with incite on what it really takes to become one of the best in the field. Today is my first round after reading this….of course I expect great things….or will at least just have fun!
May 17, 2013
John Paul Newport decided to take a year off and live the life on Golf's Mini-Tour Circuit. Like most of us passionate golfers we have lofty goals of what we'd like to achieve but not many of us take the chance and try to make our dreams come true. The Fine Green Line is a great example of what will probably be the outcome when you take a decent (but not great) golfer and put them under the pressure of trying to make a living on golf's minor circuit.
I enjoyed reading The Fine Green Line because I could see myself in John's footsteps throughout the book. I understand the frustration of trying to succeed when the skill set isn't there. Humiliation can saddle us all. And I'm certainly glad to see that John Paul Newport has a writing career awaiting him after golf.
I enjoyed reading The Fine Green Line because I could see myself in John's footsteps throughout the book. I understand the frustration of trying to succeed when the skill set isn't there. Humiliation can saddle us all. And I'm certainly glad to see that John Paul Newport has a writing career awaiting him after golf.
May 1, 2014
The author lived one of my fantasies and lived to tell about it. Good descriptions of the various mini-tours as well as a look into the inner world of the expectations we lay upon ourselves and the consequential joys and sorrows. I found myself rooting for him and grew discouraged with his seemingly inevitable self-destructions. But at the same time I was on the verge of winning my first tournament on Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 and blew up on 16 and 17 to finish tied for third. Arghhh!!
August 27, 2015
Entertaining read if you like golf. I also like how the author was able to parlay his status as a writer/golfer to gain access to athletes, golfers, clubs and equipment. He does a nice job describing his endeavors at several minitour campaigns but unfortunately his lack of tournament golf success became the overriding theme of the book. I guess I was hoping for a Cinderella, rags to riches story but it didn't happen here.
July 23, 2008
A funny account of one man's efforts to see how much he can improve at golf if he takes one year to focus solely on the sport. Easy read and entertaining.
August 12, 2012
Wow! Is this a funny book!!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews