Tom Doak's Little Red Book

[Bill Brightly]

I can't believe the book has been out for a couple of days and there in not yet a thread!


I'm 80% done with the book and it is an absolute pleasure to read. I can't believe how much Tom's opinions have been shaped by mine! 


On a serious note, I found myself wanting to copy many passages and send them to my low-handicap architecturally challenged buddies at my club.


If you are a member of this website and have not ordered the book yet, do it now!

[Bill Brightly]

Here's a teaser for GCA.COM newbies:


Tom openly discusses the merits of the par 5 13th and 15th holes at Augusta.

[Rob Marshall]

Bill, is this a good book to start learning some of the basics of architecture?

[Bill Brightly]

Hard for me to think the book is not mandatory if you care about golf course architecture.


When you say "basics" there may be other books that go into greater detail about the nuts and bolts of building golf holes. (TD wrote one and there are many others.) But you'll enjoy this and it is presented in a series of short essays on a wide variety of topics. Easy, light reading but entirely on point.


Here is one "chapter" :


Smoothing Out Humps and Hallows

In America, and perhaps elsewhere, the main reason humps and hallows get smoothed out is so people driving golf carts don't get upset.


It drives me crazy that my course's fairways are flat as a pancake. When I go to Scotland or Ireland, I am shocked at the contour of the fairways!

That's just one of the shortest essays. I don't feel like typing any more!

[David_Tepper]

"I can't believe the book has been out for a couple of days and there in not yet a thread!"

Bill B. -

In fact, there was a thread about this topic here over 2 weeks ago.

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,64501.0.html

DT

[Niall C]

I can only assume my copy is winging its way across the Atlantic as I write this. I look forward to receiving it.


Niall

[Jim Franklin]

Mine came in yesterday. Read a little while helping my son with homework. So far so good.

[PCCraig]

I can't wait to read it!

[Charles Lund]

My copy will be waiting when I return from Ireland, where I have been happily navigating the humps and hollows on foot with other players who mostly walk. 

Besides the issue of players not relying on carts, at many of the Ireland courses, there were so many natural humps and hollows  that with donated labor and low tech equipment, the humps and hollows remain.

Charles Lund

[Dave McCollum]

I’m intrigued.  This seems like a real labor of love from our esteemed editor Bob Crosby.  Given the high quality of his posts and contributions, as well as Tom’s in all his work, I’d expect something extraordinary, although it seems a monumental editing task to me.  It’s difficult to imagine how so many random conversations can be melded into a book. Since I’m about to be cut up to fix some geezer stuff and won’t be playing golf for the foreseeable future, I’ll read it as I do anything from these two participants, people who justify spending time here.

[Bill Brightly]

Dave,


Best wishes for a full and speedy recovery! You've been on GCA.COM long enough to recognize many of the concepts/opinions that Tom has expressed over the years, but it is great to have them organized in one book. Bob did a great job organizing the book into a fun, easy to read format. For those who have been hanging out here for many years, it is a walk down memory lane.


But most importantly, taken together, I think the book is a powerful essay on what's good and bad in golf course architecture. The book makes a powerful case against the "make it long, make it hard" school of thought that permeates most single digit handicap golfers; those who have had FAR too much influences at golf clubs in the US. Tom knows the business from the perspective of the architect/owner/committee level. I know it from the club member/board member/restoration committee level.


In other words, I found myself wanting to make the book required reading for the powers that be at my club... 98% of whom have never logged on to GCA.COM but "know a good track when they play one." I honestly think if I could get these guys to read the book, it would have a positive impact. But it will be a "tough read" for them because Tom effectively shatters many of their firmly-held beliefs.

[Stewart Abramson]

I received my copy yesterday and  just finished it. The amazing thing to me is that if I hadn’t known that the content was taken from GCA threads I would have never guessed that was the case.  It speaks well of Tom’s prose and perhaps even more of  Bob’s “tweaking”  (his word) that these bits and pieces are each so good on their own. The book has a similar feel to Harvey Penick’s book of the same name and I think I’ll keep them next to each other on my golf bookshelf.

[Matthew Essig]

I received my copy yesterday and  just finished it. The amazing thing to me is that if I hadn’t known that the content was taken from GCA threads I would have never guessed that was the case.  It speaks well of Tom’s prose and perhaps even more of  Bob’s “tweaking”  (his word) that these bits and pieces are each so good on their own. The book has a similar feel to Harvey Penick’s book of the same name and I think I’ll keep them next to each other on my golf bookshelf.

[Brad Engel]

Just received my copy in the mail today, looking forward to knocking it out on the long haul flight from LA to Auckland next week!

[Dave McCollum]

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words.  I have two terrible ones for us:  rotator cuff.  Screw it up and one is done with golf.  As for TD, not to be a butt boy, but I believe almost totally with his views about the game.  Does that mean I follow them?  No, I don’t.  That 98% of golfers is a powerful force that can’t really be ignored and still is influential in running a golf business.  I wish I could be more of a benign dictator and set up my course as I think it should be played.  However, in our market, it wouldn’t be good for business.  We have adjusted to the principle of trying to provide the most pleasure to the most people.

[Carl Rogers]

Just got through reading it.  Will probably re-read in the years to come.


Only one critique, I wish that the passages had the date of post on them.


It would not matter to me that the chronlogy would be all mixed up.

[Tom_Doak]

I didn't ask Bob but I don't think he kept the dates of all the posts.  There are probably twenty or thirty where we combined two similar posts into the same heading to avoid unnecessary repetition.  And we did edit others for clarity, such as when I was responding to a question and the context needed to be established.


Found my first typo yesterday

[BCrosby]

A note about my work on the book. My main goal was to present each entry in the book as a comment from Tom that stood on its own. Because Tom's entries were each pulled from threads, references in his posts to other persons or comments in a given thread had to be eliminated and Tom's language smoothed out. But other than those "tweaks" (and editing out a bit of Tom's throat-clearing from time to time), the book is all Tom's.

I initially kept track of dates, but given the voluminous number of posts and the fact that many were combined from different dates, it became a bit of a chore for what I think is of marginal interest to readers.

The earliest of Tom's posts in the book date back to 2003. The latest were from a few of weeks before the book went to press. I'd guess that Tom has written a couple of thousand posts at GolfClubAtlas over about 15 years. There were a large number of very good posts that we had to cut. Some were hard to give up.

Obviously I was impressed with Tom's comments at GCA, hence the work in collecting them and/or tracking them down using a cumbersome (I'm trying to be kind) GCA archive program. I was motivated by the fear they would someday simply disappear and thought they merited a better fate. See my introduction for more on that.

I should note that part of what impressed me was how little repetition I found in Tom's posts over all those years. Particularly when you consider that he was in each case talking about a fairly narrow subject matter. I was/am amazed.

Being James Boswell to Tom's Samuel Johnson was great fun. I am pleased with what we were able to do. I hope others are too.

Bob     

[Josh Tarble]

Bob/Tom,


I would just like to say thank you for this book.  I think it's excellent and I've actually given 4 copies to several of my friends.  I think it may be an excellent primer to the study of architecture for many people.  It's very approachable and enjoyable to read.  Very well done.

[Colin Macqueen]

This poor wee tragic is in Oz and still awaiting delivery of his copy. Sob! Sob!


Cheers Colin

[Niall C]

Being James Boswell to Tom's Samuel Johnson was great fun. I am pleased with what we were able to do. I hope others are too.

Bob     

hmm... if I recall correctly, Johnson wasn't too enamoured with Scotland and Boswell couldn't wait to get out. I hope that doesn't show in Tom's Little Red Book 

Like Colin, my copy hasn't arrived yet either so I suppose I'll just have to be patient to find out.

Niall

[Colin Macqueen]

Aye Niall,


Between Boswell and Johnson they concocted up the idea that the best thing about Scotland was the road tae England!


By gad mon,  Colin

[Joel_Stewart]

Received mine yesterday as a gift from a fellow architectural buff.


I didn't realize the restoration business began after Fazio screwed up Inverness and Oak Hill and Tom Weiskopf called for a society to preserve Donald Ross courses. God forbid the ASGCA would do something.
 (That's my comment not Tom's).


Still waiting to see if a comment made by Tom many years ago is included. To paraphrase,  80% of classic courses aren't worth restoring.

[Bill_McBride]

Bill,

Thanks for the kind words.  I have two terrible ones for us:  rotator cuff.  Screw it up and one is done with golf.  As for TD, not to be a butt boy, but I believe almost totally with his views about the game.  Does that mean I follow them?  No, I don’t.  That 98% of golfers is a powerful force that can’t really be ignored and still is influential in running a golf business.  I wish I could be more of a benign dictator and set up my course as I think it should be played.  However, in our market, it wouldn’t be good for business.  We have adjusted to the principle of trying to provide the most pleasure to the most people.

Dave, I think you are in a unique position. You own a golf course and therefore have to appeal to a wide spectrum of golfers, most of whom could care less about the definition of a Redan.  You also have a solid appreciation of golf architecture so would like to see your patrons appreciate the fine points of golf design.  One thing I know for sure - I have loved playing the great courses around the world, but I had a wonderful time last summer playing a nice municipal course in Portland, Oregon.  I guess this is Tom Paul's "big world" theory of golf. 

[Tom_Doak]

I didn't realize the restoration business began after Fazio screwed up Inverness and Oak Hill and Tom Weiskopf called for a society to preserve Donald Ross courses. God forbid the ASGCA would do something.
 (That's my comment not Tom's).


Still waiting to see if a comment made by Tom many years ago is included. To paraphrase,  80% of classic courses aren't worth restoring.

I don't believe that quote is in the book.


The ASGCA has done something about restoration ... they have gladly accepted all the work they can.  It's preservation they don't champion.