[Patrick Hodgdon]

Forgive me if there is a thread on this already but the search didn't pull one up...

What are the 10 best books on GCA available? I would like to start a GCA library and would love to here from everyone what there top-10 would be and why.

[Sean_A]

While not strictly all GCA, these are the ten I would choose off the top of my head.

World Atlas of Golf -  a great cross section of courses represented and the maps are wonderful

Classic Golf Links of GB&I - again, a great selection of courses and maps are included

A Round of Golf Courses - the best "travel" book ever written

Golden Age of Golf Design - a great starter for the classic archies

The Golf Course - monumental work

British Golf Links - great for the pix alone

Life of Dr Mac - a wonderful look at the man and his work

Discovering Ross - ditto

Evangelist of Golf - ditto

Evolution of TOC -  A great look at golf as seen through the changes at golf's greatest shrine

Ciao

[Robert_Ball]

Patrick,

Here are some of my personal favorites in no particular order:

- Golf Architecture in America by George Thomas
- Scotlands Gift: Golf by CB Macdonald
- Golf Architecture by Alister Mackenzie
- Spirit of St. Andrews by Alister Mackenzie
- The Links by Robert Hunter
- The Golden Age of Golf Design by Geoff Shackelford
- Grounds for Golf by Geoff Shackelford
- Anatomy of a Golf Course by Tom Doak
- The Architectural Side of Golf by Simpson and Wethered

And a great place to procure them: http://shop.classicsofgolf.com

Robert

BTW, nice blog.

[John Sheehan]

Patrick,
My personal preference is to find books written by the architects themselves in their words.  Secondly, architects writing about other architects.

The one exception I would make would be to first suggest Geoff Shackelford's terrific, "Grounds for Golf."  It is quite possibly the best primer on GCA ever.  I wish I had written this book.  Among other things, especially for those who like visual cues, he lays out very well the different schools of architecture, by taking a single hole and showing how a designer from each school might design that hole.  It's a solid place to start.

My list would be very similar to Robert Ball's. 

To that list I would add:

"Golf has Never Failed Me," Donald Ross

"The Course Beautiful," A.W. Tillinghast

 "The World Atlas of Golf," various authors (the section on the golden age is worth the price of admission)

Any of James W. Finegan's fine books.  Though not strictly about golf architecture, and sometimes more like a travel book, his writing is very good and immensely pleasurable, while providing wonderful detail on the courses he covers.

[Phil_the_Author]

Richard Mandell's book on Pinehurst and Forrest Richardson's and Mark Fines book on Bunkers and Other Hazards should be on the book shelf of anyone interested in golf course architecture...

[Phil McDade]

I've enjoyed Wexler's "Missing Links" and "Lost Links," which provide some comprehensive details on courses (and holes) NLE.

[Jason Topp]

Off the top of my head:

Hunter- The LInks
Daley - Links Golf
Shakelford -Grounds for Golf
Doak - Anatomy of a Gol Course
Whethered and Simpson - The Architectural Side of Golf
Mackenzie - Spirit of St. Andrews
Birdy - book on Augusta
Daley - Golf Course Architecture - A Worldwide Perspective Vol. 1
World Atlas of Golf
Doak - Confidetial Guide

[Matt MacIver]

Off the top of my head:
Daley - Golf Course Architecture - A Worldwide Perspective Vol. 1

There is also Vol. 2, and I think a 3rd as well.  They are compilations of essays from various sources on nearly every GCA-related topic.  It's a great introduction into all of the numerous important areas comprising GCA, and one can expand from there based on what you're most interested in. 

[john_stiles]

and now Volume Four as well  !

and I second Matt's recommendations

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

             For me no library is complete without:

      "How I Designed Merion," by Charles Blair Macdonald

[Bill Shamleffer]

I think the only book I would list in my top 10, but not yet listed above is The Golf Course by Geoffrey S. Cornish.

[Rich Goodale]

             For me no library is complete without:

      "How I Designed Merion," by Charles Blair Macdonald

I've got that one, Anthony, along with an extremely rare copy from the same author:

"Scotland's Gift--Me!"

[ANTHONYPIOPPI]

Mr. Richard Farnsworth Goodale:

Does that book contain the chapter, "How I Won the First U.S. Amateur Fair and Square?"


Anthony Constantine Xavier Harold Pioppi, IV

[Jason Connor]

I have many of these, but I learned more from Tom Doak's "Anatomy of a Golf Course" than any others.

Even though  read it after many others, it still taught me the most.

[Allan Long]

Mr. Richard Farnsworth Goodale:

Does that book contain the chapter, "How I Won the First U.S. Amateur Fair and Square?"


Anthony Constantine Xavier Harold Pioppi, IV

Anthony,

Was the subtitle to that, "Third Times a Charm"?

For those who have read Hunter's "The Links" what was your impression? It is one of the few listed so far I haven't read. I thought I had read on other threads that some considered it a tough read, and I was curious if that was the case.

[Matt_Ward]

I can't say for sure what my top ten books would be but one of them most certainly would be Doak's CG. It's candor alone cut through all the baloney that's been fed to the golfing audience for way too long.

Opened up the door that no course is beyond criticism provides the case can be made.

CG does that even when I disagree with some of its findings.

More of this type are needed.

[Bill_McBride]

My first two golf architecture books were "Driving the Green" by John Strawn and "Golf Courses of the British Isles" by Bernard Darwin.  I still recommend both very highly.  Strawn's book is a great inside look at what an SOB it is to build a golf course today.

Others I have and would have to include in any golf architecture (or golf in general) library:

Scotland's Gift - MacDonald
The Evangelist of Golf - Bahto
all of Geoff Shackleford's books
The Links by Robert Hunter
Golf Architecture in America by Thomas
Following Through by Herbert Warren Wind (don't miss The President's Putter!)
Letters to a Golf Club Secretary and its sequels

and of course Rich Goodale's books on The Old Course and Dornoch!

[Peter Wagner]

Letters to a Golf Club Secretary and its sequels

Bill,
What sequels?  I didn't know there were sequels?  Was there more than just the one book?
- Peter

[Bill_McBride]

Letters to a Golf Club Secretary and its sequels

Bill,
What sequels?  I didn't know there were sequels?  Was there more than just the one book?
- Peter

All I have is the second and don't recall the title.  Portland's Peter Pittock has all three, maybe he will see this and chime in.  I first found that delightful little first book in the reading room in the R&A clubhouse and almost choked on my G&T, the book is so funny it verges on hilarious.

I think the second has General Fortescue in the title (one of the golf club secretary's several nemesises). 

[David Stamm]

Patrick,

Here are some of my personal favorites in no particular order:

- Golf Architecture in America by George Thomas
- Scotlands Gift: Golf by CB Macdonald
- Golf Architecture by Alister Mackenzie
- Spirit of St. Andrews by Alister Mackenzie
- The Links by Robert Hunter
- The Golden Age of Golf Design by Geoff Shackelford
- Grounds for Golf by Geoff Shackelford
- Anatomy of a Golf Course by Tom Doak
- The Architectural Side of Golf by Simpson and Wethered

And a great place to procure them: http://shop.classicsofgolf.com

Robert

BTW, nice blog.

I'll second all of RB's recommendations and would add a couple more:

Some Essays on Golf Architecture- Colt and Alison

British Golf Links- Horace Hutchinson

The Golf Courses of the British Isles- Bernard Darwin (for the narratives)

The Evangelist of Golf- George Bahto ( a great way to get an introduction to CBM/Raynor/Banks and definitions of the template holes)

[Rich Goodale]

Allan and Pope Anthony IV

You got it!

Bill

How soon you forget Carnoustie.   Not only does it get no repsect, neither does my book on it........

Rich

[Peter Pallotta]

Rich - it's part of a larger phenomenon. At some point in the 1950s, the clarinet disappeared from jazz, men stopped wearing fedoras, and the remarkable image of Ben Hogan slogging up Carnoustie's fairways in bandaged legs, head down and cigarette in hand on his way to a bogie-free round faded from memory.

Peter 

[Pete_Pittock]

Peter Wagner, Bill
The second book by George C Nash is General Forcursue & Co. The third book is Whelk's Postbag. Never knew about them until I heard McB chuckling in the R&A. They are not really GCA.

The Augusta book is by Byrdy, not Birdy.

[Bill_McBride]

Allan and Pope Anthony IV

You got it!

Bill

How soon you forget Carnoustie.   Not only does it get no repsect, neither does my book on it........

Rich

If I had ever played Carnoustie I would remember it.  You wrote a book about Carnoustie?.........................??

[Bill_McBride]

Peter Wagner, Bill
The second book by George C Nash is General Forcursue & Co. The third book is Whelk's Postbag. Never knew about them until I heard McB chucking in the R&A. They are not really GCA.

The Augusta book is by Byrdy, not Birdy.

What do you mean, "not really GCA?" 

One of the books has a routing of the Old Course at whatever the course is, the original course that was abandoned for the new course.  Many of the older members were very unhappy when this happened.  The routing shows why.  There is the clubhouse with bar at the first tee and ninth green.  There are also pubs at the third, fifth, seventh and eighth tees.

This is considered by many to be outstanding golf course architecture! 

These three books have probably the best whimsical golf writing ever.  What a riot.

The author is George C. Nash, the golf club is the Roughover Golf Club outside London, and the three titles are Letters to the Secretary of a Golf Club, General Forcursue and Co., and I forget the third.  Peter Yagi Golf Books sells reprints (email pete@moneytolend.com).  Most of the letters originally appeared in Punch magazine in the '30s.

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