Not all the editions are going to please some of you GCA hard-liners. Even in the first edition there were a number of questionable courses and there seemed to be an overemphasis on RTJ. On the various subsequent editions on which I worked very often I was commissioned to clear out mistakes, and update facts and figures (adjusting the text where necessary), but I didn't always have an editorial handle on those courses newly introduced. New editions were not prompted by my suggesting to the publishers that we ought to have this or that. The drive for a new edition came from the sales teams and very often they were being leant on by the co-publishers in other countries. An example was Germany where Club zur Vahr represented the country in the main entries and Hamburger and Frankfurter in the gazetteer. The Germans were very proud of all their new, state-of-the-art courses. We put in the Faldo course at Sporting Club Berlin. The Irish were desperate to see Druid's Glen, Mount Juliet and Fota Island in there. When the K-Club was awarded the Ryder Cup the Palmer course found its way in. Ballybunion was only retained as a main entry (it wasn't a main entry in the 1st edition) because, by luck, it hosted a single Irish Open.
What led to the all-new 2008 edition was the fact that the original artworks had been lost and they couldn't be altered easily to reflect the many changes that had been made to almost every course in the book. In the gazetteer in particular there was a mess with illustrations of all sort, shape and size. There was no consistency and it looked like a child's scrapbook. Trevor Davies, the commissioning editor, listened to my comments about the book and went away to consult. It was such a joy to learn that a completely new edition was to be commissioned and that I would be involved. He was great. He didn't interfere. We set up a small group of potential authors across the world and put together wish lists. We argued heatedly about this and that and eventually came to some sort of concensus. Inevitably there were compromises, but nothing too serious. One or two writers pulled out and others came on board, but we were not pressured on our selection. There are lots of countries (China, for instance) where golf development is racing ahead. The country is mentioned, but no course is featured.
The content of the book is driven by golf course architecture at what GCA regulars might consider its finest. I bet the ordinary golfer is puzzled! Where are Gleneagles PGA Centenary, The Belfry, Celtic Manor, The K-Club? Haven't the authors heard of the Ryder Cup? But we did it and we've made our point.