Golf Course Architecture Magazine

[Brian Phillips]

This is a new publication in England coming out in June if I remember correctly.  The only way to ensure that the magazine survives is our support.

It will be a quarterly magazine based purely on Golf Course Design and Modification of golf courses.  The publishers are Tudor Rose Publishers and the responsible publisher is a guy called Toby Ingleton.

He can be contacted here:

Tudor Rose, Tudor House, 6 Friar Lane, Leicester LE1 5RA, UK
Tel: +44 116 222 9900; toby.ingleton@tudor-rose.co.uk

If you would like to submit writing, opinions etc drop him a line.

If you would like to subscribe to the magazine the website is here:

www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Cheers,

Brian.

[BCrosby]

I think the magazine is an excellent idea.

I also think there is a place for it. The quite significant tourist industry that UK golf has become ought to be willing to support the magazine with its advertising dollars. It is a much more focused way for the applicable tourism boards to use their golf promotion budgets.

Bob  

[Philip Gawith]

I would hate to be a curmudgeon - and will probably be a subscriber - but the heart slightly sinks at Celtic Manor being given prominence on the front page of the website.

I will hold up my hand and admit to not having been there, and maybe it is ( will be?) a fine course, but it is hard to warm to a course that has been so corporate in its conception.

Still, I look forward to the first issue.

[Marty Bonnar]

This is a new publication in England coming out in June if I remember correctly.  The only way to ensure that the magazine survives is our support.

Presumably NOT available in SCOTLAND then, Mr Phillips!?!?!?!

 
FBD.

[Brian Phillips]

Martin, Martin, Martin,

The Publishing company is in Leicester....and as far I can remember that is in England...so yes it is being published in England....and you guys in Scotland are too tight to buy it anyway.

No wonder the Scottish Paliament Building went over budget...first bit of responsibility with your own money and look what happens....

Brian

[Tom_Doak]

Brian:

It would be nice to see a real issue first and see whether they have a real interest in pursuing the topic.  I haven't heard of anyone I know being asked to contribute ... which probably isn't a good start.

They have a ways to go to equal the quality of Neil Crafter's annual, that's for sure.

[lesueur]

The publishers have teamed up with The European Institute of Golf Course Architects.

This is from a recent press release:

"Golf Course Architecture, the new quarterly journal of golf course design and modification, has entered in to a partnership with the EIGCA. The partnership will see the EIGCA providing editorial guidance for the publication, ensuring that the content addresses the issues that are of most importance to the industry. The first issue will be published on June 30th 2005.

EIGCA president, Mark Adam will write a special foreword for the launch edition. He Says "The EIGCA is delighted to be partnering with Golf Course Architecture. The new publication provides the industry with an excellent opportunity to share expertise and information, and helps the Institute to meet its objectives to advance the study of golf course architecture, planning and development."

Publisher, Tony Ingleton says: "The announcement of Golf Course Architecture has been met with great enthusiasm throughout the industry. The Institute and its members have been very supportive in the preparatory phase and this partnership will be instrumental in enabling us to deliver a publication of interest and genuine value to golf course architects, developers and managers".

EIGCA members Ross Mc Murray and Howard Swan will sit on the magazine's Editorial Advisory Board, and will be instumental in defining its editorial features list.

The partnership also sees Golf Course Architects journalists having access to EIGCA's extensive library of related books and periodicals and all members of the EIGCA receiving a free subscription to Golf Course Architecture."


Like Philip, I will probably be a subscriber. I have the utmost respect for Howard Swan and Ross McMurray, I just hope this doesn’t mean that all the writings will be focussed solely on EIGCA members. I’ll eagerly await the first edition to find out.

[Andy Levett]

This is a new publication in England coming out in June if I remember correctly.  The only way to ensure that the magazine survives is our support.

It will be a quarterly magazine based purely on Golf Course Design and Modification of golf courses.  The publishers are Tudor Rose Publishers and the responsible publisher is a guy called Toby Ingleton.

He can be contacted here:

Tudor Rose, Tudor House, 6 Friar Lane, Leicester LE1 5RA, UK
Tel: +44 116 222 9900; toby.ingleton@tudor-rose.co.uk

If you would like to submit writing, opinions etc drop him a line.

If you would like to subscribe to the magazine the website is here:

www.golfcoursearchitecture.net

Cheers,

Brian.

I subscribed and got the first issue on Saturday. Articles include Bruce Critchley and Martin Hawtree on Colt, David Kidd on his new St Andrews course (sample quote "We want people to say 'what were those guys on?' "), Geoff Shac on technology, Kyle Phillips' changes to Morfontaine, site reports including  the Carrick at Loch Lomond and a heathland course in Portugal, ecology and golf etc. If they keep up the same level I will definitely renew.
Online subscription worked smoothly and they are currently offering 4 issues for price of 3.

[cary lichtenstein]

I subscribed

[Jonathan Davison]

 Excellent first issue.
Only disappointing thing was Brian Philips in a kilt - page 14. Keeps the kids away from the fireplace.

[Yannick Pilon]

Saw the first two issues in the past few weeks.

I felt the quality was pretty good, but definitely not as good as the aussie counterpart....

Am I the only one who feel the sponsors get a little too much content?  It feels as though the magazine is a big promotional brochure for the major sponsors who not only get a full page ad, but also get to promote their courses in long articles....

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice start and I am interested in getting the upcoming issues.  I just feel the magazine would be better off promoting golf architecture, as opposed to a small number of golf course architects....

Again, am I the only one feeling this way?

[Brian Phillips]

Yannick,

You are not alone and this is something the magazine apparently is working very hard to correct.  It is also up to us 'second' tier companies to come up with photos and articles for the magazine as well.

They are trying but it takes time.

Brian.

[Yannick Pilon]

Brian,

I don't think it would make me feel any better if any of the so called second tier companies would come up with photos and articles for the magazine as well.

The australian magazine does it very well IMHO.  They just get contributors to talk about what inspires them.  Yes they can talk about specific courses by such and such architect, but at least its not the architect himself tying to push is own stuff to promote himself regardless of the quality of his project....

I am not saying that the courses mentionned in the first two issues I saw were not worth it, I just feel that most of the magazine looks like a promotional brochure made by a couple architects to showcase whatever they are working on at the time.

I know its a great way to make yourself know by a bigger public, but I don't think it serves the right purpose, which again, IMHO, should be golf course architecture in general.

Glad to know they are working on the issue, though!

[Neil_Crafter]

Yannick
Certainly I would agree that has been the reaction of all the people I know who have seen the new magzine. What you have to understand is that they are endeavouring to be far more commercially minded than our SAGCA who publish Golf Architecture. As a result there are far more adverts and there is a bias to the advertisers to get editorial space. Additionally, they are attempting to publish 4 times a year compared to our once. Accordingly they feel compelled to include a lot more 'news' about courses on the go etc. Unfortunately this will tend to date the magazines when they are re-read in the future.

With our magazine being an annual, we have taken the approach to try and be a bit more 'timeless' in our choice of articles, so that the issues can be read again at a later date and not appear dated. I think we can also afford to run much longer articles - see Tom MacWood's essay on Tom Simpson in the last issue as an example. The GCA magazine ran an article on Mackenzie that went only a couple of pages and barely brshed the surface as a result. Hope this helps in understanding the differences in our two magazines.

cheers Neil

Neil Crafter
Editor - Golf Architecture
www.sagca.org.au

[Tony_Muldoon]

Neil touches on what I've found most disappointing about the magazine.  So far we've done Colt and Mackenzie and what have I learned? 3 pages including photos could easily sit in one of the regular magazines.  

Who is this aimed at?  Certainly not the crowd on here, it would have been far more interesting to us if they had written about one aspect of these important figures.  At the moment the chance of me renewing my subscription is about the same as the likelihood of me making the cut in an LPGA tournament.



PS do you think Jack reads it? It contains more details of new work than he see's elsewhere

[Tom_Doak]

I've just contributed an article for their next issue, or maybe the one after that.

Anyway, I had the same reaction as described above to what's been published so far.  They also asked me to consider advertising to support the magazine, which presents a dilemma.  On the one hand, I want to encourage them and that's why I've contributed an article, but on the other, I don't really want to be seen as being a quid-pro-quo advertiser.  (Nor do we really need to advertise right at the moment!)