Paul Daley's concept of having 42 people from around the world contribute a chapter to a book on golf course architecture has proven to be a big time winner for several reasons.
First, there is no overriding theme or message that is being hammered home - i.e. there is no overt bias. Secondly, if you don't agree with a contributor's point of view or find a chosen subject matter of minimal interest, so what? Go to the next chapter and you'll likely find something of great interest. Thirdly, Paul selected people from (seemingly) all points on the globe so there is a wonderful geographic diversity/perspective found from chapter to chapter that is virtually impossible for any one writer to capture.
Of course, if the book was poorly produced, it would lose much of its luster. Thankfully, Paul has established his own publishing company and in this case, the finished product mirrors the quality of the content.
SelfishIy, I was delighted to contribute a chapter regarding this web site to the book - given the book's worldwide marketing, we can rightfully hope that GCA.com will pick up a few new contributors to the site/discussion group as a direct result of our mention in Paul's book. Thanks Paul!
Also, the tie in between his new book entilted Golf Architecture - A Worldwide Perspective and this web site is impressive with many shared contributors - Doak, Hanse, Moran, Mingay, Whitman, Eckenrode, Klein, Shackelford, Liddy, Brauer, Glenn, Mandell, Crafter, Clayton and others. If you like one (be it the book or the web site), hopefully you'll like the other as they are both about the free exchange of ideas over a wide variety of subjects within the field of golf architecture.
On a last note, this web site attracts people who have an interest in writing and at the request of several such people, some of the questions center around the process of how an individual turned an idea into a published book. Hope everyone enjoys this, our third, Feature Interview with Paul.
Cheers,