Confidential Guide errors

[Garland Bayley]

Anthony,
I have to confess that the sign on my desk reads "Got Grammar?" 

Grammar is right there beside Risa in lots of Anthony's pictures. So Anthony does have grammar.

[Scott Warren]

Whatever floats your boat, David.

Good to see you continue to play the man, not the ball.  An apology would have been quite simple, I would have thought. 

A public apology?! Who am I? Tiger Woods?!

Attacking my occupation was you playing the ball?

[David_Elvins]

Attacking my occupation was you playing the ball?

Sorry if you misunderstood, Scott, it was intended to be an attack on you, not your occupation.  Like I said earlier, I was surprised that somone of your occupation would be so blase with regard to copyright laws. 

[Kevin_Reilly]

Confidential Guide is rock solid regarding errors or inacurracies in comparison to another golf book that made a smaller splash a number of years ago.

Johnny Miller's I Call the Shots had dozens (literally) of factual errors, including him getting the year wrong on his US Open comeback win, the number of Majors won by Tom Watson, and many other very simple mistakes.  it was appalling to read.

You mean you didn't like his comment about the 110 yd 8th hole at Pebble Beach?   

[Andrew Thomson]

I thought only Is of the lower case variety (i) got a dot?

[Ulrich Mayring]

Well, I have Deal at 8+ and Sandwich at 9 (although I have to say my scale is a bit compressed at the top). Played Deal a number of times, it does grow on you

Ulrich

[Bill Rocco]

If anyone wants to get rid of their Confidential Guide because of the errors I will take it.....

[Andrew Thomson]

No need Bill, you can get a free pdf

[Sean_A]

Well, I have Deal at 8+ and Sandwich at 9 (although I have to say my scale is a bit compressed at the top). Played Deal a number of times, it does grow on you

Ulrich

Ulrich

Looking at your site it seems you are very generous with some ratings.  While I love both West Cornwall and Perranporth, I can't see how they merit an 8 - although I am not quite sure how your scale works.  I think Perranporth at 6 and West Cornwall at 5 are more like it.  Doak is very hard on West Cornwall giving it a 3, but the more I look at his ratings the more convinced I am that with few exceptions he gives a boost to well known and much written about courses and a knock to the wee courses.  

Others I see where you and I have a huge disparity

Saunton 9
St Enodoc 9 - probably my favourite course in England, but 9?
Littlestone 7
Westward Ho! 7 - though you are closer to Doak on this than I am

To put it in perspective I have Merion, Sandwich and  Ballybunion at 8 and I think they are the best courses I have ever seen - mind you I am stingy with the numbers and imo there is no such thing as a10.  There is no way Deal hangs in this company.

Ciao

[Ulrich Mayring]

It's not generous, it's just a different scale, explained here:

http://sites.google.com/site/gcexpose/ratings

I think from a practical point of view it works better than the Doak scale, which is more geared towards academic discussion.

To give you an example: in architectural research it makes a lot of sense to differentiate sharply between Deal and Sandwich. But as a golfer looking for a course to play, they are almost equal. Anyone will jump at the chance to play Deal and not worry for a second whether Sandwich might be smidgen better.

In an architectural discussion, where such things as "championship merits" come into play, it is different. And I believe that is what the Doak scale is after.

But I submit, if Sandwich and Deal were two hours apart, most people would not make the journey, if they were in Deal! Provided they know both courses and their replay value, they'd happily play Deal.

From the perspective of an average golfer (and I'm not necessarily saying "average UK golfer"), both Deal and Sandwich are just about the greatest courses they are ever going to play.

Ulrich

[Joel Zuckerman]

Confidential Guide is rock solid regarding errors or inacurracies in comparison to another golf book that made a smaller splash a number of years ago.

Johnny Miller's I Call the Shots had dozens (literally) of factual errors, including him getting the year wrong on his US Open comeback win, the number of Majors won by Tom Watson, and many other very simple mistakes.  it was appalling to read.

You mean you didn't like his comment about the 110 yd 8th hole at Pebble Beach?   

Kevin--the fact is I can't put my hands on the book, which I actually bookmarked with post-it notes a few dozen times.  The two examples I used I cited from memory...there are many other blatant ones of course, including his less-than-accurate memory of Pebble Beach, as you point out!