No Tie Required is an entertaining journey across Britain, celebrating the wonderful, eccentric and historical public courses where no club membership is required. Not for Chris Cairns the member s door and the pink gins of the 19th hole. Instead the author has sought out the country s pay-and-play courses in order to experience how non-members get their golfing fix. Public courses in Britain come in just about every shape and size: from picturesque honesty box courses in the Highlands, to converted potato fields in Essex and over-crowded city parks in London. At all these courses there are regulars who play in all weathers and who are happy to tell their stories. Behind the author s journey apart from the joy of playing and sharing a pint or two with the locals is the desire to trace the history of why the game s origins have been so badly relegated in status. Today a handful of highly exclusive private members clubs seem to dominate the image of golf. Is this justified? Or is the 'them and us' approach a fiction in today s Britain?
Author Biography
Christopher Cairns is a freelance writer and journalist based in Edinburgh. He has had numerous pieces published in the "Sunday Times", the "Sunday Herald" and trade magazines. Before going freelance, he was a news reporter and then environment correspondent at the "Scotsman".
