World Atlas of Golf

[Brett_Morrissy]

Quick question - Mark you can probably help....

I want to by a copy, is their a new addition available? Is there any reason to buy an old used edition, of absolutely buy the latest version?

Cheers

[Will Lozier]

Brett,

I found a copy 15 or so years ago that I believe is a very late 70's edition ('79) and it is great.  Obviously try to get your hands on the latest edition for maybe the greatest number of courses - I believe many have been added - but an older copy I find to be a bit more nostalgic.  Good luck!

Cheers

[Mark_Rowlinson]

1976 was the first edition and it's the one to get for nostalgia. There are mistakes - the Dornoch map has the 1st tee in someone's garden, it's the wrong course at Cascades!

A group of us from GCA wrote a completely new World Atlas in 2008. That's the other one to get. I have just been sent a 2012 reprint in a slightly smaller format which is available in the USA and Canada (US $19.99, Canada $21.99).

There were lots of editions between the 1980s and 2005 - avoid those, they are full of courses that no one today (or at least on GCA) rates.

[Mike Nuzzo]

The GCA group includes Mark, Doak, Clayton, Ran + Ben, Wexler, Goodale, Hawtree, Noel Freeman and Ulrich - pretty cool.

Mark is there much difference between my 1986 copy and the original?

Brett
For nostalgia you can always find the version with the most Matt Ward!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

This thread on TWAOG might answer some of your questions:

http://www.golfclubatlas.com/forum/index.php/topic,50354.0.html

[Rich Goodale]

I just got my complimentary copy today, and the new printing is much more user friendly (i.e. more compact, but with all the content there) and priced more competitively (£12.99) than the original 2008 printing.  Buy early and buy often!

[Brett_Morrissy]

Thanks guys, looks as though here are at least two must haves!

[Tom_Doak]

Brett:

I'd just like to redouble the recommendation for the original book.  I saw Ran mention in his note about Tommy Naccarato's interview how both of them fell in love with golf course architecture by reading that book.  It had the same effect on me ... it was really one of a kind, and I still have my dog-eared original copy here in the office.  The original book was written by Pat Ward-Thomas, Charles Price, and Peter Thomson, with smaller contributions by Donald Steel and Herbert Warren Wind ... and while we have some fairly good writers about golf courses here on Golf Club Atlas, I think we would all have been benchwarmers on that team.

That said, it was a privilege to try and update the original introduction to the book, and an honor to have a couple of my own courses included in the text for today's students to look over, though all the maps are now trumped by the wonders of Google Earth.

[Will Lozier]

Brett,

Here looks to be an '86 reprint of the original:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golf-Book-THE-WORLD-ATLAS-OF-GOLF-/220281537474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3349cd83c2

This one is a 1st edition:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-World-Atlas-of-Golf-1st-ed-hbdw-/220603456004?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item335cfd9a04

Cheers

[Ivan Morris]

I still enjoy my 1987 version!

[Chris Buie]

I'd just like to redouble the recommendation for the original book.  I saw Ran mention in his note about Tommy Naccarato's interview how both of them fell in love with golf course architecture by reading that book.  It had the same effect on me ... it was really one of a kind, and I still have my dog-eared original copy here in the office.  The original book was written by Pat Ward-Thomas, Charles Price, and Peter Thomson, with smaller contributions by Donald Steel and Herbert Warren Wind ... and while we have some fairly good writers about golf courses here on Golf Club Atlas, I think we would all have been benchwarmers on that team.

Tom Doak, which piece in this book would you say was the most brilliantly written? I love to go through truly great writing almost as much as I do playing the game so I will be delighted to read the parts that are so clearly above the "fairly good" work we do on here on GCA.

[Brett_Morrissy]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

mark:
1976 was the first edition and it's the one to get for nostalgia. There are mistakes - the Dornoch map has the 1st tee in someone's garden, it's the wrong course at Cascades!

A group of us from GCA wrote a completely new World Atlas in 2008. That's the other one to get. I have just been sent a 2012 reprint in a slightly smaller format which is available in the USA and Canada (US $19.99, Canada $21.99).

There were lots of editions between the 1980s and 2005 - avoid those, they are full of courses that no one today (or at least on GCA) rates.

I am of the mind to get an old used 1976 edition and also the latest edition - so is that a 2008 ? is the 2012 a reprint without updates to the 2008 edition - apart from smaller format? Do you know is it released in Australia?

Cheers

[Colin Macqueen]

Brett,

I'm pretty sure that I got my 2008 edition here in Oz a couple of years ago (It doesn't have any of the bashed corners associated with the books I get delivered from overseas!)

By sheer luck I happen to have both the editions of World Atlas of Golf that are being discussed. Having revisited them over the last few days I have realised that if I use them in conjunction with the debates about the classic as well as the modern golf course here on GCA I will get a much better idea of what the protagonists are rabbiting on about as I have not played the majority of the courses being discussed!

I hadn't realised how good they were. The two editions really do complement each other very well. The older edition seems to have more of the raconteur aspect to it as the courses are discussed and of course the new one is superb.

Cheers Colin
 

[Bart Bradley]

Brett,

Here looks to be an '86 reprint of the original:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golf-Book-THE-WORLD-ATLAS-OF-GOLF-/220281537474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3349cd83c2

This one is a 1st edition:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-World-Atlas-of-Golf-1st-ed-hbdw-/220603456004?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item335cfd9a04

Cheers

Will:

Thanks.  I bought it!

Bart

[Will Lozier]

Brett,

Here looks to be an '86 reprint of the original:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/Golf-Book-THE-WORLD-ATLAS-OF-GOLF-/220281537474?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3349cd83c2

This one is a 1st edition:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/The-World-Atlas-of-Golf-1st-ed-hbdw-/220603456004?pt=Non_Fiction&hash=item335cfd9a04

Cheers

Will:

Thanks.  I bought it!

Bart

The first edition?  Well done lad!  Well done!  To many hundred hours of fun and interest...wherever you may read it!

Cheers

[Willie_Dow]

My collection of the early editions was prefixed by my regard for Charles Price 1964 editiom of "The World of Golf".

Mark, I'll never forget your reference to the sixth hole on the Merion West as a par four, a missprint from O.B. Keeler's "Down The Fairway", Chapter Four.  I had a fun hole in one there some years ago, and always refer to this passage when I explain the shot.

Willie

[Willie_Dow]

It would be great if we had an update on the course changes at Merion East as memorialized by your documentation, Mark.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

I would love to be involved in a facsimile of the 1st edition with additional notes on what has happened since, similar to Daniel Wexler's afterword to Hutchinson's British Golf Links. It was Tom Doak who pointed out that the changes made in the 25 years since the first edition of WAoG appeared are greater than those made in the previous 75 years.

I have discussed this with Hamlyn, publishers of WAoG, and they are not interested as sales would be insufficient. They might be willing to play ball with a small specialist publisher, but unlikely during the lifetime of the current edition. There is also the problem that none of the original artwork survives, so it would have to be a photocopy of an original in excellent condition.

[Greg Taylor]

Put me down as someone else whose interest in GCA was piqued by the World Atlas of Golf.

I must get the updated version. And the graphics in the original were great - please don't ever put in a google earth photo - it will take all of the romance away....!