As a teenager, Cox dreamed of sporting immortality. For four years he devoted himself to the game of golf. And then, one day, he walked away. But as he got older, those dreams kept coming back. Perhaps it was turning thirty, perhaps it was having his first hole in one, but he decided it was time to start again, to live the dream for real.
So he switched off his computer, grabbed his checked trouser and headed for the golf course. To turn pro. The Open Championship was only five of the best rounds of his life away, and given a few warm-up tournaments, how hard could it be?

Tom Cox's writing has appeared in the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Observer, Mail on Sunday, Guardian and Golf International magazine. He has written several books on animals and sport, and is the author of Nice Jumper, which was shortlisted for the 2002 National Sporting Club Best Newcomer Award, Educating Peter and The Lost Tribes of Pop, a collection of his columns for the Observer Music Monthly magazine. He is founder of The Society of Secret Golfers. He was born in 1975 and lives with his wife in Norfolk.