Growing up as a young golfer and caddy, Tom Coyne could hit towering drives from the tee, and wondered if the pros succeeded because they were more innately talented or just because they were more obsessed. But after self-destructing in a freshman tryout for his college golf team, he resigned himself to a playing career on the scramble-and-kegger charity circuit. Now, on the cusp of turning thirty, overweight and saddled with a 14 handicap, Coyne makes the dramatic decision to embark on a yearlong quest to doing everything he can to elevate his game—and discover if he has what it takes to make it through the PGA Tour Qualifying School.

In Paper Tiger, Coyne takes you along on his rollicking, riotously funny ride into the beer-gutted underbelly of semipro golf—a world of crash diets, punishing workout regimens, high-flying sports shrinks, cutting-edge club technology, and obscure satellite tournaments. The journey begins in Florida, where he spends the winter hitting balls from sunup to sundown at a golfing resort community (his geriatric neighbors suspect their playing partner is a dot-com millionaire), and where he meets the Golf Digest Top 50 Teacher who can show him the way to a subzero handicap. With his girlfriend as caddy, Coyne traverses the country from Miami to Chicago to Philadelphia to stack up against the competition, triumphing at a Michelob Tour event and spectacularly flaming out in a Public Links tournament where a fellow competitor is Michelle Wie. But as he approaches his goal, and the pressures take tolls on his body and mind, Coyne ultimately must choose between the love of a fickle game and the love of the long-suffering woman who has stood by him throughout all the shanks, hooks, yips, and chili-dips.

Brimming with humor and insight about the world’s most beautiful and maddening game, Paper Tiger is the story of a weekend golfer who lived the dream, sure to delight both golf addicts and the sane people who love them.