2026年53日 / 美国东部时间上午10:23 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
汤姆·科因拥有一份大多数人都会羡慕的工作。作为畅销书作家兼《高尔夫杂志》编辑，他得以环游世界，打上一些最顶级的私人球场。“这可不是什么糟糕的工作福利，李，我可不会骗你！”他说道。
他已经打过超过1000座球场，其中包括奥古斯塔国家高尔夫俱乐部（美国大师赛举办地）、圣安德鲁斯（世界最古老的球场）以及加州毗邻太平洋的圆石滩球场。
“高尔夫领域有着形形色色的不同场地，”科因说，“高尔夫确实需要各式各样的场地。”
大多数人都不会反对这一观点，但我们所说的“不同”，究竟能有多离谱？
对于一个受邀出入全球顶级高尔夫俱乐部的人来说，他究竟是怎么最终落脚在纽约州北部一座屋顶漏雨、割草机废弃、长草区都发霉的球场的？然而，当地居民并未被吓跑，或许是出于对这项运动的热爱而心甘情愿留下。
沙利文县高尔夫俱乐部是一座乡村风格的9洞球场，1925年在纽约州自由镇开业，这座小镇位于卡茨基尔山脉，距离曼哈顿约两小时车程，曾是“罗宋汤带”度假热潮时期游客蜂拥而至的地方。
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这座球场甚至在1931年登上过新闻头条：当时一名当地飞行员从当时的8号球道起飞，完成了前往丹麦的大胆跨大西洋飞行——因此该俱乐部的标志（左图）既是对其高尔夫历史的致敬，也是对其航空历史的纪念。
丹·尧恩十几岁时就开始在沙利文县球场当球童。他的家族在这里定居已久，甚至有一条街道以他们的姓氏命名。俱乐部锦标赛积分榜上也不乏他们家族成员的名字。但几十年来，随着游客带着球具和资金前往更高档的球场，沙利文县球场的运营只能依靠当地人勉强维持。
“球场状况每况愈下，”尧恩说，“基本上我们只能自己动手维护。”
最终，球场里的鹿比打球的人还多。2023年，这座虽无盈利但仍可正常使用的170英亩土地被挂牌出售。
沙利文县高尔夫俱乐部1925年开业。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
当时仅剩的一名草坪管理员、自称“草坪爱好者”的肖恩·史密斯担心，这将标志着一个时代的终结。“它一直是小镇边缘的本地球场，始终面向所有人开放，”他说。
这就回到了汤姆·科因和他的高尔夫写作生涯。史密斯是他的粉丝，于是联系了他。两人就此聊起了这座球场。作为一名始终在寻找好故事的作家，科因动心了，前来此地探访。
他说，这里看起来就像一座即将关门停业的球场。尽管如此，这里仍有某种特别之处。它完全没有当今高尔夫球场常见的那些浮华装饰——没有预约开球时间，没有代客泊车，没有游泳池或网球场，当然也没有那种高人一等的傲慢态度。
“我们一点也不刻板，”科因说，“我们从不挑剔。你不必盛装打扮，只要到场，带上你的狗，就能开打高尔夫。”
汤姆·科因带着记者李·考恩参观他在纽约卡茨基尔山脉接手运营的这座170英亩高尔夫球场。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
高尔夫纯粹主义者或许会争辩说，高尔夫就该如此——野趣横生的球道虽略显杂乱但仍可打球，无需刻意修剪，对所有人开放且触手可及。这正是汤姆想要撰写的故事……而他也确实在最新著作《名为家的球场》中完成了这个故事。
“我一生都在体验高尔夫，”科因说，“但如果我能站在实际提供高尔夫运动服务的一方，那就不一样了。”
你认识多少球场老板会自己修剪球道？长话短说，科因请求前所有者让他和肖恩·史密斯一起运营球场一年，如果他们能共同扭转局面，科因或许就会买下这座球场。
汤姆·科因在沙利文县高尔夫俱乐部修剪球道。 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
两人都对障碍赛并不陌生。科因说：“我发现他和我一样，都是痴迷高尔夫的家伙，所以我们在这一点上一拍即合。还有一点，肖恩清醒 sober，我也清醒 sober。我认为，经历过这条道路、了解这种体验的人之间，会有一种非常有意义的联结和理解。”
汤姆·科因和肖恩·史密斯。哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
“我们很快就建立起了信任，这比两个陌生人之间的信任来得更快，”史密斯说，“我想他大概也觉得我非常信任他。”
他们和高尔夫球场设计师科尔顿·克雷格一起，着手重新规划部分球道，以利用当地地形和景观。他们还增设了一个推杆果岭练习区和一个击球练习场。目标是让这座球场对从卡茨基尔山脉以外地区前来的游客具有吸引力，但同时也要完整保留球场的卡茨基尔乡村特色。“这里必须始终是卡茨基尔沙利文县的乡村高尔夫球场，”科因说，“而且必须让人有这种感觉。这必须是它的特质，要让游客觉得自己来到了别处。”
所有这些改造完成后，在这里打球的花费仍比一顿午餐还要便宜。“你根本分不清谁是坐头等舱来的，谁是当地的学校老师，”科因说，“大家来这里只是为了热爱高尔夫，为了享受同伴情谊。”
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随着拯救球场的消息传开，奇妙的事情开始发生。《疯狂高尔夫》的主演比尔·默里和NFL球星杰森·凯尔西都成为了科因的合作伙伴。没过多久，来自各地的会员申请纷至沓来——科因表示，这些球员中很多人可能永远都不会踏上这座球场的果岭。“对于那些只是为了加入而加入的会员来说，他们是在资助那些原本没有球场可打的人参与高尔夫运动，”他说，“我认为这是高尔夫社区最美妙的地方。这不仅仅关乎我的高尔夫，更关乎我们大家的高尔夫。”
如今，当他看到圆石滩这类顶级球场的场地维护团队时，他既心怀感激，又略带一丝羡慕。“我甚至会觊觎一堆泥土，”科因说，
Tom Coyne on becoming an “accidental” golf course owner
May 3, 2026 / 10:23 AM EDT / CBS News
Tom Coyne has one of those jobs most would envy. As a bestselling author and editor of The Golfer’s Journal, he gets to travel to and play some of the most exclusive courses in the world. “It’s not a bad perk of the job, Lee, I’m not gonna lie to you!” he said.
He’s played over a thousand courses, including Augusta National Golf Club (home of the Masters), St. Andrews (the oldest course in the world), and the Pacific-hugging Pebble Beach in California.
“There’s all sorts of different places in golf,” Coyne said. “There needs to be all sorts of different places in golf.”
Most wouldn’t argue that point, but just how different are we talking about?
For a guy whose been invited to the top clubhouses in the world, how in the world did he end up at one in Upstate New York with leaky roofs, abandoned mowers, and mold as thick as the rough itself? And yet, locals weren’t scared off, blinded perhaps by their love of the game.
The Sullivan County Golf Club is a rural 9-hole course that opened back in 1925 in Liberty, New York, a small town about two hours from Manhattan, up in the Catskill Mountains where tourists used to flock during the Borscht Belt resort boom.
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The course even made headlines in 1931 when a local pilot took off from what was then the 8th fairway for a daring transatlantic flight to Denmark – hence the club’s logo (left), a nod to both its golf and aviation history.
Dan Yaun started caddying at Sullivan County when he was a teenager. His family has been here so long, there’s a street named after them. The club championship board boasts its fair share of the family name, too. But over the decades, as the tourists took their clubs and money to fancier courses, things at Sullivan County were left to the locals to keep up.
“It was going downhill a little bit,” Yaun said. “Basically I think we were maintaining it ourselves.”
Eventually there were more deer than players. In 2023 the unprofitable but still golf-able 170 acres went up for sale.
The Sullivan County Golf Club opened in 1925. CBS News
The only greenskeeper left, self-described “turf nerd” Shaun Smith, feared that would be the end of an era. “It’s always been the local course on the edge of town; it’s kind of always been for everybody,” he said.
And that brings us back to Tom Coyne and his golf writing. Smith was a fan, and reached out to him. The two got to talking about the course. As a writer always in search of a good story, Coyne took the bait and came up for a visit.
It looked, he said, like a place that was ready to close. Still, there was something about it. It had none of the trappings today’s golf often has – there were no tee times, no valets, no swimming pools or tennis courts, and there was certainly no attitude.
“We couldn’t be less stuffy,” Coyne said. “We are not fussy. You don’t have to get dressed up. You just show up, bring your dog, and go play golf.”
Tom Coyne shows correspondent Lee Cowan around the 170-acre golf course he began running in New York’s Catskill Mountains. CBS News
Purists might argue that’s the way golf ought to be – wild fairways kept like a bad haircut, nothing manicured, but playable and accessible to anyone. And that’s the story Tom wanted to write … and he has, in his latest book, A Course Called Home.
“I’ve been consuming golf my whole life,” Coyne said. “But what if I got on the side of actually providing golf? That would be different.”
Just how many course owners do you know who mow their own fairways? Long story short, Coyne asked its former owners to let him run the course for a year, along with Shaun Smith, and if together they could turn it around, Coyne might just buy the place.
Tom Coyne mowing the fairway at Sullivan County Golf Club. CBS News
Obstacles weren’t strangers to either one of them. Coyne said, “I recognized a kindred sort of golf sicko like myself. So, we bonded on that level. There was also connection there in that Shaun’s sober and I’m sober. I think people who’ve gone down that path and know what that experience is like, there’s a connection there and an understanding with someone that is pretty meaningful.”
Tom Coyne and Shaun Smith. CBS News
“It really became something that we forged kind of a trust around quicker than maybe two strangers would have otherwise,” said Smith. “I guess he probably feels I trust him a lot, too.”
Together, along with his golf course architect Colton Craig, they set about re-routing some of the holes to take advantage of the topography and the views. They also put in a putting course and a driving range. The goal was to make the course attractive for folks to travel in from outside the Catskills, but keep every bit of the Catskills in the course. “This has to remain a rural Catskills Sullivan County golf course,” Coyne said. “And it has to feel like that. That’s gotta be the identity. It has to feel like you’ve gone somewhere else.”
All of that, and you could still play for less money than you might spend on lunch. “You’re not sure who came in on a first-class flight and who’s the local schoolteacher,” Coyne said. “Everyone’s just there for the love of golf and the love of camaraderie.”
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As word got out of the rescue effort, remarkable things started to happen. “Caddyshack” star Bill Murray and NFL star Jason Kelce both came on as Tom’s partners. Before long, applications for memberships were coming in from far and wide – players, Coyne says, who would likely never set foot on his greens. “For folks that have joined just for the sake of joining, they’re enabling people to play golf who wouldn’t have a golf course otherwise,” he said. “I think that that’s a beautiful thing about the golf community. You know, it’s not just about my golf, it’s about our golf.”
These days, when he sees the ground crews at premiere courses like Pebble Beach, he’s both appreciative and also a little jealous. “I even, like, covet a pile of dirt,” Coyne said,
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