The World Golf Atlas (New Version) Bigger-Better-Beautiful!

[Craig Disher]

I just ordered one from Barnes & Noble for $11; member's price is $9.90. Free shipping if you can raise your order to over $25.

[PCCraig]

The list price is $40 now. Perhaps they came to their senses? Oh well I still can't wait for it to be delivered!

[Rob Rigg]

Amazon need to update the basic "supply and demand" algorithm in their system. Maybe TWGA is so far off the run nobody notices until they get out of stock.

Bloody hilarious if you ask me - $12 for a book that should cost us something around $40 based on the FX rate to the pound (and is worth significantly more to the reader)

Brilliant!

[Philip Gawith]

I have just got my hands on a copy - great looking book.

The RRP on the cover in the UK is £30 and it is cheap at the price. The RRP in US is $39.95 (according to dust jacket). Echoing Noel, I must confirm that in the course of his researches for this volume, GMBP also suffered a humbling defeat at Royal St George's, though he did enter the winner's enclosure at Woking!

[Jon Heise]

Just purchased through Barnes & Noble.  ~$16 shipped!  I can't wait to get my hands on that big boy no matter the price!

[Sean_A]

I had a look at the book yesterday in a book shop.  It looks very impressive and sufficiently different from the previous editions to warrant the purchase.  Having said that and keeping in mind how many courses are mentioned from GB&I, I am astonished that Huntercombe didn't get a mention - at least I couldn't find a mention.  To a lesser degree, but still somewhat surprising was the omission of Kington - especially since nothing in that general area on the map gets a mention.  Perhaps the editors could have been a bit more bold in their choices. 

Ciao

[Philip Gawith]

Maybe we have to summon Mark, Ran et al for punishment session at Huntercombe!!

[Rich Goodale]

Sean and Philip

There is a brief discussion of Huntercombe in Tom Doak's introduction.  As for Kington, it will have to wait in line after Painswick!

Rich

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Philip, What a good suggestion! Errors are relatively easy to spot (and there will be some, as GCAers will be eager to point out) but omissions are less easy - because you think you've mentioned it you don't notice its absence. There's a musical parallel - any wrong note sticks out like a sore thumb, but it is sometimes very difficult to spot an omission. I'll send for the sackcloth and ashes now. Whipple's ecclesiastical outfitters, do you think? Mark.

[Peter Pallotta]

I'm looking forward to enjoying my copy. And all this talk led me to dig out my old edition. In the essay on Oakmont, on the rake they used to furrow the bunkers there, Jimmy Demaret says "If they'd raked North Africa with it, Rommel would have never gotten past Casablanca".  An out-of-date reference I know, even in 1987, but man I would've loved to hang out with Demaret.

Peter

[Daniel_Wexler]

Peter Pallotta:

You are a man of taste!

I too love that Demaret quotation.  So much so, in fact, that of the 34 course entries I wrote for this edition (including Oakmont), those were the ONLY words recycled from 1976.  As I told Mark R. at the time, this is indeed an entirely new volume with completely new prose - but that quotation was way too good to drop simply because it had appeared before...

DW

[Peter Pallotta]

Daniel - that's terrific! I know you're not kidding me, but I'm thinking 'you must be kidding me' -- as good as that line is, I thought there was no way it would survive the new edition (but I didn't want to be a pest and write something like "I hope that line survives...'). Good for you, and Mark R., for keeping it.  The 'voice' that Jimmy D represents, i.e. that of the good-natured, wise-guy American golf pro always ready with a snappy quip is something that should be celebrated...especially since it seems to be disappearing fast (though I think JES does a good job here of carrying on the tradition....)

Congrats on the book. I do look forward to buying a copy

Peter 

[Sean_A]

Sean and Philip

There is a brief discussion of Huntercombe in Tom Doak's introduction.  As for Kington, it will have to wait in line after Painswick!

Rich

Rich

I apologize to the editors as it seems Huntercombe did get a mention. 

So far as Painswick is concerned, yes, it probably should have got a mention even though it isn't in the same class architecturally or turf wise as Kington.  There is something special about the place even if it is only a window into how golf courses might have looked all those years ago.

Ciao

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Sean, Wait till you see the picture of Henties Bay - makes Painswick look like a meadow.

[Deucie Bies]

I just received my copy and it looks unbelievable.  I can't wait to sit down and read it and learn!

[Ian_L]

For those of you who purchased on Amazon.com , I asked whether the price of my book would go up (I purchased it at $12.95), and it looks like it will not:

"Thank you for writing to Amazon.com.

The discounts we offer on items on our web site do vary from time to time.  I've checked your order, and please be assured that $12.95 is the price you will be charged for this item "World Atlas of Golf: The Greatest Courses and How They are Played (Hardcover)" when the order ships.

On the date of shipment, you should receive an e-mail message confirming the date, contents, and method of your shipment.

Thanks again for shopping at Amazon.com.

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question"

I guess I should have bought more copies...

[PCCraig]

Awesome...I can't wait!

[JMorgan]

Very well done.  Fabulous job, Mark et GCA.com al. Loved the introduction and succinct regional summaries, course profiles, call-outs.

I even feel a tinge of guilt (albeit just momentarily) for getting my copy for under $10. 

Only disappointment -- and this should most certainly be taken as a compliment:  number of profiled non-UK/USA courses (eg. Asia, Nordic Countries, Africa, etc.).  If one must proportionally include more courses from Scotland/England/Wales/Ireland-N.Ireland and US in the bargain of influence next time around, so be it.  Give us more.

[Dan Herrmann]

Thanks to amazon.com, my $12.95 copy of The World Atlas of Golf arrived Friday.  WOW!  This is one beautiful, big, meaty book that any member of the treehouse should own.

I can't believe amazon honored the price, because it was obviously wrong.  They now have it listed for $25.44, but have none left in stock.    Other online bookstores are charging >$50.  A company called Alibris has it for >$90!

[Tony_Muldoon]

Wonderful, really a new book forget the old.

Is there any chance that whoever did the Italian course could identify themselves to me via IM.  I may have something that might interest the club but then again ...

[Noel Freeman]

Very well done.  Fabulous job, Mark et GCA.com al. Loved the introduction and succinct regional summaries, course profiles, call-outs.

I even feel a tinge of guilt (albeit just momentarily) for getting my copy for under $10. 

Only disappointment -- and this should most certainly be taken as a compliment:  number of profiled non-UK/USA courses (eg. Asia, Nordic Countries, Africa, etc.).  If one must proportionally include more courses from Scotland/England/Wales/Ireland-N.Ireland and US in the bargain of influence next time around, so be it.  Give us more.

I would have liked to have added a Kawana or Tokyo Golf Club essay.  I do not believe Tokyo GC should have made the cut but do think Japan deserves another course but alas there were space restrictions.  Our hope is that Mark is able to put back some full essays upon the next edition... There were some of us that had written full profiles that are instead showing up as shorter pieces of commentary.  Mark did a wonderful job  and was an extremely encouraging editor.  I look forward to reading the interview that he and Dan Wexler do with Ran to talk about the process..

[Mark Bourgeois]

This edition has gotten much closer to the notion of "atlas."

The maps are far more detailed and fill a sorely-needed gap in available, or at least accessible, knowledge. Trip planning just got a whole lot easier!

This is particularly true outside the US and the UK. (For the latter we have M Rowlinson and The Times to thank.)

It is not yet at the level of the World Atlas of Wine but getting there.

I agree with Noel re Japan and would like to see broader coverage in Asia ex-Japan too.

Mark

[Rob_Waldron]

Amazon has the "Hardcover" edition of the book listed for $25.44. Wasn't the less expensive edition paperback??

[Tom_Doak]

I just returned from a long trip to find three copies of the book on my desk, which is fortunately very sturdy.  According to the shipping documents these books weigh almost 2.5 kg each, so it is very hard for me to imagine that Amazon is still going to sell them for $25 each ... you could get almost as much for them as scrap paper!

[Chip Gaskins]

again.  i ordered ten (10) of these for $12 with free shipping! 

$120 for 10 books dropped on my door step.