Distant Greens travels to the highest golf course in the world, where breathless Tibetan precepts come face to face with the Indian military. To a golf course in the Amazon jungle, near the source of rubber, which revolutionised the game. To the Middle Kingdom, to examine claims that that it was the Chinese, and not the Scots, who invented golf. And what's happening at the active volcano of the home course of the Sultan of Yogyakarta, where his consort, the Mermaid Queen, ensures the rain never falls when he plays and that lava never damages the course?

Distant Greens also travels into the soul of golf, the rituals, the belief that a tetrachaidecohedron dimple pattern can make a difference. Why can throwing junkshop 4-irons provide an insight into the soul? What does a Zen priest in Japan hope to teach his acolyte golfers? Why do people cheat? And why is golf more important, to some folks, than sex? What is the future of golf? Can golf and nature support each other? What can golfers do to ensure that their golf course in environmentally and socially responsible? And what happened when Jesus, Moses and Mohammed played a round?