Tom Doak, why that picture on the cover...

[Chris Cupit]

Tom Doak,

I enjoy reading and re-reading "The Anatomy of a Golf Course"
particularly the chapter on Esthetics in Golf Design.

Having read other articles and books of yours I must say I am surprised at the picture on the cover of your book.  It is a very beautiful picture, but in a hundred years if someone dropped a bunch of pics and said, "which one belongs on the cover of a Tom Doak book", I would have never picked that one.

I understand you began work in the business with Pete Dye and I myself am a member of a Pete Dye course that I have enjoyed for 16 years, but I am still surprised by the cover since it seems the opposite of the more naturalistic or minimilisitic work that most associate with you.

Just curious as to why that picture.  

[Dan Herrmann]

Here's the pic:


Let me hazard a guess.  Other than being a beautiful picture that would attract a buyer in a bookstore, it illustrates a fine green complex surrounded by water and fine bunkering.

Golf course architecture to me is as much art as science.  Just as there are many different genres of art, there are a wide variety of effective styles of GCA.

While minimalism is embraced here, a more "agressive moulding of ground" can be just as effective if done well.

Plus, continuing in my personal observation - if it weren't for Mr. Dye, today's architecture could well have been a continuation of the dark ages of the 50's and 60's.

Somebody should draw a family tree of architecture someday..  I think you'd find most of the greats of today to be on the Dye branch.

[Dan_Callahan]

The picture was probably selected by an art director  

[Chris Cupit]

Dan,

I agree with what you said.  Again, I did not mean to suggest that I don't like the hole or anything like that.  I am a member of a Dye course and love it and respect that he helped lead us "out of the dark ages" in many repsects.  I am just saying that it seemed an odd choice to me--I'd have never matched that picture with Tom Doak and I suspect some others may not have either.

Please don't think I was trying to criticize PGA West.  I believe that great art (and architecture) does not have to be enjoyed by everyone to be great--it is just that it may not be someone's "cup of tea".

[Dan Herrmann]

Chris,
The pragmatic answer is the same reason magazines put pictures of attractive women on the cover.  People buy them

My favorite golf hole in the world is Pacific Dunes #11.  Now - THAT would be a great cover picture!

[Robert Mercer Deruntz]

There's a pretty good chance that he was involved in the construction of that particular hole.

[Tom_Doak]

Chris:

Most of the responses are close.

I submitted about ten different possible cover photos from my collection.  (One of the other possibilities was a photograph of the 8th at Cruden Bay, which later made it onto the cover of The Confidential Guide.)  Sadly, the eleventh hole at Pacific Dunes didn't exist back then.

An art director looked at the various photos and picked the PGA West hole as his first choice.  The publisher liked it because he thought it had all the elements of a golf course which I had talked about in the book (water, bunkers, green, psychology, esthetics, etc.).  I was a novice and went along with their instinct.

I did not work on the construction of the Stadium course at PGA West, but I did draw the original plan for the course for Mr. Dye in 1983.