Volume Eighteen: Tom Coyne

Dropping Keys

My Dropping Keys co-conspirator is Tom Coyne

Tom is an award-winning and New York Times bestselling author who has been publishing golf stories since 2001. His first book was the novel A Gentleman’s Game, 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, Dylan Baker, and Mason Gamble. His second book, Paper Tiger: An Obsessed Golfer’s Quest to Play with the Pros was released June 2006, and was an editor’s pick in Esquire Magazine and USA Today, and a summer reading selection in The New York Times. His third book, A Course Called Ireland: A Long Walk in Search of a Country, a Pint, and the Next Tee, was published by Gotham Books in February, 2009, and it chronicles his quest to walk and golf the whole of Ireland. The book was a New York Times, American Booksellers Association, and Barnes & Noble bestseller, and won a silver medal from the Society of American Travel Writers in the category of Best Travel Book of the Year.

His anticipated follow-up to A Course Called Ireland was released by Simon & Schuster in 2018: A Course Called Scotland was an instant New York Times bestseller, and chronicles Tom’s quest to play every links course in Scotland, searching the highlands for the secret to golf and a tee time in the oldest championship in sports. Tom’s travel trilogy reaches its conclusion with the release of A Course Called America from Avid Reader/Simon & Schuster in May of 2021. The story follows Tom as he plays his way across all 50 states, searching for the great American golf course, and it landed on the New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestseller lists in its first week.

Tom is Senior Editor and podcast host at The Golfer’s Journal, and has written for Golf Magazine, Golfweek, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and numerous other publications. His Golfer’s Journal story, “The Lucky Ones” was named the best feature story of 2020 by the Golf Writers Association of America. He is also a host and writer for the travel television series, “The Links Life.” Tom earned an M.F.A. in fiction writing from the University of Notre Dame, where he won the William Mitchell Award for distinguished achievement.

He lives outside Philadelphia with his wife and two daughters.
You can find Tom at

Website: www.tomcoyne.com

Instagram: @coynewriter