Feature Interview No. 4 with Tom Doak now posted

[Jud_T]

So when can we order the damned thing already?  Just take our money now and ship 'em whenever...

[Tim Liddy]

Ran,

Thanks for another great interview. Always good to read TD's insightful comments.

[Tom_Doak]

So when can we order the damned thing already?  Just take our money now and ship 'em whenever...

Now.

[Ed Tilley]

US orders only

Can you ship to the UK and how much? Maybe we can arrange a bulk ship for people in the UK on this site who want copies and then send out from here? Happy to facilitate if that helps.

[Thomas Dai]

US orders only
Can you ship to the UK and how much? Maybe we can arrange a bulk ship for people in the UK on this site who want copies and then send out from here? Happy to facilitate if that helps.

Good idea.
atb

[Jim Franklin]

Tom -

Do you include courses you designed in each book?

Jim:

Yes, my own courses will be included in the books, and by the time we get there I'll have at least one course in each volume.  Possibly a couple of them will even make the Gourmet's Choice, though I did not score that honor in the very competitive field for Volume 1.

I will offer Doak ratings for each of my own courses, but I think most people will pay more attention to Ran and Darius and Masa's scores for those courses.

Thanks. I hope RCCC makes the Gourmet's Choice because it made mine. And the last time I was there, it was soft and still awesome. Can't control Mother Nature I guess.

[Tom_Doak]

Thanks. I hope RCCC makes the Gourmet's Choice because it made mine. And the last time I was there, it was soft and still awesome. Can't control Mother Nature I guess.

Ran was there last week, and loved it. Trying to figure out which of my courses will go in the front of Volume 3 will probably be the hardest decision I have to make for these books.  Pick one:  Pacific Dunes, Old Macdonald, The Sheep Ranch, Rock Creek, Ballyneal, Dismal River, Sebonack, Forest Dunes, Lost Dunes. 

[Mike Bowen]

Green E from Sheep Ranch gets my vote.

[Stephen Davis]

Green E from Sheep Ranch gets my vote.

What a great green! One of the best greens in the world, that very few people know about. I would say it would have to be Pacific Dunes. It maybe (maybe) Tom's best course, but it is definitely the one that put him on the map (at least for most of the golfing public).

[Mike Bowen]

Green E is relatively unknown but what's interesting is how thought provoking that green site is in regards to playing to it from different directions.  It's the most fun green I've ever played and I think largely due to the fact that you play to it from various directions.  It's almost like foreshadowing. 

[Ross Harmon]

Thanks Tom and team! Just ordered the whole series.

P.S.: I vote green "E" from Ballyneal 

[Jim Nugent]

Thanks. I hope RCCC makes the Gourmet's Choice because it made mine. And the last time I was there, it was soft and still awesome. Can't control Mother Nature I guess.

Ran was there last week, and loved it.

So maybe we can look forward to a GCA course profile of RCCC in the near future.

Hope you and the team rate all your top courses in the US and abroad.  Any chance for your new New Zealand course to make the cut?   How about the course(s) in China? 

[Ally Mcintosh]

Green E from Sheep Ranch gets my vote.

What a great green! One of the best greens in the world, that very few people know about. I would say it would have to be Pacific Dunes. It maybe (maybe) Tom's best course, but it is definitely the one that put him on the map (at least for most of the golfing public).

A photograph, perhaps?

[Bill_McBride]

Green E from Sheep Ranch gets my vote.

If that's the one that hangs dangerously over the 80' bluff, agreed.   The only green I've ever been on where I stayed away from the edge!  

[Ulrich Mayring]

I think it would be a fitting gesture to put one of David Kidd's courses on the cover

Ulrich

[John Cowden]

Stone Eagle, aka (at least to me) Pacific Dunes in the desert!

[Dónal Ó Ceallaigh]

Tom,

You wrote that "quite a few courses in Ireland have recently made their courses longer and more difficult, to try to attract Americans to pay higher green fees to subsidize the locals".

While I don't disagree that courses have been lengthened, I'm of the opinion that magazine rankings have a bigger part to play when it comes to clubs outside the south-west. The more isolated clubs very much depend on Irish visitors, and maintining a high position in the rankings is one way to promote their course. I've seen clubs in the GD Ireland Top 100 list displaying their ranking very prominently in their clubhouses. The Kerry and Clare courses are very dependent on American visitors, but I don't think American visitors are a big factor as you head north of Galway, especially not in the north-west.