Tony
As for value for money only you can decide.
As for potential information I would say seek it out first via the British Library and try and obtain a copy. I have done this on many occasions sometimes waiting up to a year before receiving the library’s copy.
As for information, much can be found in many a book so do not discard them out of hand. The information by itself may not be ground breaking but may add support to other sources. An example that springs to mind being Askernish. In the early days when the club was seeking real confirmation that Old Tom designed the course, Ralph came across a book called ‘A School in South Uist’ – Reminiscences of a Hebridean Schoolmaster 1890-1913 by F G Rea. To cut a long story short it confirmed the existence of the course and that a famous Professional from St Andrews had designed the course. A few days later I furnished more proof from the newspapers and Golfer Guides that the course existed and was by Old Tom. So the book just proved that the Schoolmaster played the course and gave a few lines over to the course, yet enough to confirm that something was there and that it had been undertaken by a famous St Andrews golfer.
The point is that all no fiction books on the subject are of some value be it in just reading and understand the mind set of the players back then or for some small bits of information. Is it worth that amount of money, perhaps if I would like to see the BL copy first but the choice is down to you.
Melvyn