In this entertaining, endearing account of one of the greatest road trips the human mind has ever devised, Kevin Price and John Gardner take you from Pebble Beach to Bethpage Black and from Harbour Town to Piñon Hills with tales of adventure on and off the golf course. Bouncing back and forth between the misery of steamy summer nights in a little orange tent and the luxury of world-class resorts, Kevin and John drove almost 14,000 miles through 36 states to play 42 rounds of golf in 71 days. Their story exposes the soul of the game in the people who play it. From stroke victim Rico Paris to beach bum head pro Keith Stanzel, from the exuberant Bob Svihus to the goofy J. Traylor Johnson III, a colorful cast of characters brings this story to life. Beginning with the first blush of an idea and ending in an improbable, incredible conclusion, Fairways and Highways moves as briskly as the guys’ Honda Civic. Wish you could have joined them? Try the next best thing: Come along for the ride as Kevin and John search for the Perfect Drive.

In 1996, the author threw his clubs in the trunk of his car and started on a pilgrimage down Route 1, playing the public golf courses all along the East Coast of the United States. As he tells the story of his journey, he introduces a new set of partners with each round and opens a window into each new locale.

In golf the playing field is also landscape, where nature and the shaping of it conspire to test athletic prowess. As golf courses move away from the “big business, pristine lawn” approach of recent times, Bradley S. Klein, a leading expert on golf course design and economics, finds much to contemplate, and much to report, in the way these wide-open spaces function as landscapes that inspire us, stimulate our senses, and reveal the special nature of particular places. A meditation on what makes golf courses compelling landscapes, this is also a personal memoir that follows Klein’s own unique journey across the golfing terrain, from the Bronx and Long Island suburbia to the American prairie and the Pacific Northwest. Whether discussing Robert Moses and Donald Trump and the making of New York City, or the role of golf in the development of the atomic bomb, or the relevance of Willa Cather to how the game has taken hold in the Nebraska Sandhills, Klein is always looking for the freedom and the meaning of golf’s wide-open spaces. And as he searches, he offers a deeply informed and absorbing view of golf courses as cultural markers, linking the game to larger issues of land use, ecology, design, and imagination. Purchase the audio edition.