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Mark_Rowlinson

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Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #25 on: September 11, 2006, 11:32:57 AM »
Rich,  To the best of my knowledge all original production material was lost in the transfer from Mitchell Beazley to Hamlyn.  It would be a question, I presume, of getting hold of a pritine original.

Tom,  It's not in my gift, but in the gift of anyone who takes this on, but I'm sure we'd all support your kind suggestion.

Mark

BCrosby

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Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #26 on: September 11, 2006, 12:36:22 PM »
I have to think that a well done update would be a great success. There is much more travel and interest in far flung courses than in the '70's. The patina of classic older courses is brighter now than ever. All the forces that made the original successful are still around and stronger than ever.

An update ought to do well.

One of the things people forget about the WAofG is that much of the commentary is a rejection of the monster courses built in the 60's and 70's before its original pub date. HWW, Price and others wrote pioneering pieces on the glories of older, Golden Age (they didn't use that term) courses. All that came as a surprise to me at the time. It had not occurred to me that there were ways other than sheer difficulty to assess a course.

WAofG was book that made me ask for the first time whether Butler National was really a better course than NGLA  because it was more resistant to scoring.

And once you start down that road, of course, there's no turning back. You end up as a poster at golfclubatlas, for example.  ;)

Unless I miss my bet, I think the main contributors to WAofG thought they were doing something radical. They were, among other things, trying to recover an appreciatation for many older courses that had been forgetten by the golfing public by the '70's. I think that - and not its comprehensiveness - is the reason for its enduring popularity.

Bob
« Last Edit: September 11, 2006, 01:27:12 PM by BCrosby »

Mark_Rowlinson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #27 on: September 11, 2006, 01:23:55 PM »
Bob,  Let's leave WAOG to develop in its own way, driven by the brief of its editor (NOT me).  Let's instead between us try to put together a proposal to put before a suitable publisher (not Hamlyn, I've already tried it on them) for something which does open our eyes, so that Beau Desert and Delamere, The Addington and Pennard (to cite four British courses) are there alongside Yale and Creek as well as Cypress Point, Royal Melbourne, Hamilton and Barnboogle.  it's got to be groundbreaking in terms of its illustrations.  They were the illustrations which made WAOG stand out probably more than their writing.  The one thing that has not been discarded in updates is the nature of those 3-D course maps.  

So how do we find a new graphic way of getting over to a reader who has never been there how the ground, grass, atmosphere and even the smell of the soap in the locker room at St Enodoc, say, differs from that at Cruden Bay.  It's already becoming rather a large book.....  

henrye

Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #28 on: September 11, 2006, 03:19:24 PM »
There's a golf club in Karen, Kenya?  Is it new?

Willie_Dow

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #29 on: September 14, 2006, 03:49:38 PM »
Back from a great study type of trip looking at Boston Golf, Eastward Ho, and The Kittansett Club, and it's great to find there is interest in another update possibility.  Tom's "confidential" understanding of things sound like a perfect beginning.  Mark, your willingness to keep it all alive is more than encouraging !

I'll have to get all my editions together, and make a study.  'Picking the latest up today !

Tommy Williamsen

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #30 on: September 14, 2006, 04:05:23 PM »
Mark, here a few thoughts

OUT:  Poppy Hills, Doral, Shoal Creek, NCR South, TPC Scottsdale, Dunes golf and Beach club
IN:  Desert Forest—prototype for desert courses,  Riviera, Plainfield, East Lake, Congressional, Ocean Course at Kiawah  
England:  Royal North Devon.  It used to be included in the Gazeteer


Where there is no love, put love; there you will find love.
St. John of the Cross

"Deep within your soul-space is a magnificent cathedral where you are sweet beyond telling." Rumi

Willie_Dow

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #31 on: September 14, 2006, 05:20:25 PM »
Another thought, or two, after seeing the correction to the sixth hole on Merion West, is that we here on GCA would have a chance to contribute our "local knowledge", maybe, before the next edition comes around.  I guess that would be the eighth !

Mark_Rowlinson

  • Karma: +0/-0
Re:World Atlas of Golf as it stands
« Reply #32 on: September 16, 2006, 06:15:41 AM »
Willie,  I'd welcome any input from GCAers in ensuring eradication of errors and updating.  In the end it comes down to money - we didn't have the budget, for instace, to redraw the map of Hoylake, to update that of Augusta or to rebunker Southern Hills, to name but three.