Recommendation best book to learn about course architecture?

[Rob Marshall]

What book would you recommend for someone to read get get a basic understanding of course architecture?

[Ian Mackenzie]

1. "Dr. MacKenzie's Golf Architecture" - by the good doctor


2. "Anatomy of a Golf Course" - by Tom Doak


3. "Methods of Early Golf Architecure" Volumes i and II - by the "ODGs" of the Golden Era.

[Jason Topp]

I think Doak's book is the best architecture 101 book out there.


Shackelford's "Grounds for Golf" and Robert Hunter's "The Links" would be my other options

[Greg Smith]

If it's one book, it has to be Tom Doak's book. 


But it should be many books.  In that case, I would start with a book called "The Art of Golf Design".  It's full of Michael Miller's paintings and it has some essays by Shackelford that relate to the paintings.  But it also contains a number of essays and short remarks by the ODGs, and especially important amongst those are writings by Max Behr.


If you have that book, then sitting close by should be the Big Four 1920s books (Golf Architecture, The Links, GA in America, The Architectural Side of Golf) because the references in the Miller book point one to the full material.  Anatomy of a Golf Course would still be essential.


If you've gotten that far, then you're ready to think more about what was and what is.  Use Wexler's two Lost Links books.  On my shelf they get a lot of wear.


My kids aren't too interested in golf architecture right now, but they may be more so later.  I've left instructions on how to care for/dispose of my GA library after I am gone.  But in case they want to learn without my help, I took a volume of Miller's book, labeled it "START HERE", and annotated the interior with notes on how to refer to the books in the rest of my library.  That volume is a good catch-all for concepts and the paintings will get the layman interested.


And we shouldn't forget the old World Atlas of Golf -- many of us got a start there!

[Phil McDade]

Start, absolutely, with the World Atlas of Golf -- don't go anywhere else. If you want a solid, basic, first-step understanding of golf architecture, you can't do any better than the World Atlas. Doak's book, while I'd recommend it, is like Calculus 2 in college; the World Atlas is a solid HS AP class: not overwhelming, but thoughtful and written with great depth, and gives you a great variety of history, courses and countries to serve as the best introduction to GCA.

[Rob Marshall]

Thanks for the reply's. I ordered Tom's book and then I'll go from there.

[Mike Hendren]

I was going to recommend John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

Bogey

[Mike_Young]

Anatomy of a Golf course by Tom Doak
I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow Cause I get Better Looking Each Day by Joe Namath
and
Pick Me, Choose Me, Hire Me. by ASGCA. and Ron white.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=148&v=78pFgGuBnIY

[MCirba]

That George Thomas guy wrote a pretty good one.   Something about Golf Architecture in America. 

[Mike Hendren]

Mike, I keep The Captain's book at work just so I can stare at the photographs.  At times his thoughts are a little radical, including fairways beyond the green and tees as an extension of the fairway - so called fairtees.  My favorite paragraph is this gem:

Too often you must either give up one promising hole or another, as you will frequently find it impossible to bring these together; and to arrive correctly at your solution you should work out problems on your contour map and on paper, and decide which has the most superlative worth.  Unless the solution comes with reasonable quickness on the ground, you will soon be marking up maps at a great rate, and a little trick taught me by Willie Tuckie, Jr. is a wonderful aid.  Your map is. of course, contoured to scale, and you can cut out of blotting paper miniature fairways, making them also to the same scale as the map; it is easy to place them on your contour map with thumb tacks, first having your map on a board.

I just can't see Doak playing with paper dolls.

Mike

[Emile Bonfiglio]

I think Doak's book is the best architecture 101 book out there.


Shackelford's "Grounds for Golf" and Robert Hunter's "The Links" would be my other options

I second that, great read that made me laugh out loud multiple times.

[Tom_Doak]

Unless the solution comes with reasonable quickness on the ground, you will soon be marking up maps at a great rate, and a little trick taught me by Willie Tuckie, Jr. is a wonderful aid.  Your map is. of course, contoured to scale, and you can cut out of blotting paper miniature fairways, making them also to the same scale as the map; it is easy to place them on your contour map with thumb tacks,

I just can't see Doak playing with paper dolls.

Mike

The only time I ever tried that was for the Olympics bid - we had to do the routing very quickly, and they were clearly more fixated on hole lengths than I usually am.  It just felt wrong to me, and if you’ve got interesting topo to work with, you don’t want the cutouts to obscure the topo lines.  So I have never done it that way again.

[Niall C]

I think Doak's book is the best architecture 101 book out there.


Shackelford's "Grounds for Golf" and Robert Hunter's "The Links" would be my other options

I second that, great read that made me laugh out loud multiple times.

I'm actually about 80% of the way through this book at the moment. While Hunter is very eloquent and at times evocative, he does tend to ramble on and at times contradicts himself. There also didn't seem to be anything particularly ground-breaking for the time which makes me wonder how it came to be considered a classic. Celebrity endorsements I guess.

If I had to choose I'd pick Tom's Anotomy book every time. 

Niall

[BCrosby]

Golf Architecture 101 - Doak, Anatomy of a Golf Course.


Golf Architecture 201 - Doak, The Little Red Book of Golf Architecture. 


Bob

[Mark_Fine]

I would choose mine 


Actually, Anatomy of a Golf Course is one of my favorites and was a early read for me when it came up.  I have loaned my copy out often. 

[Jim Sherma]

+1 - one of, if not the book that got me hooked into something I didn’t even know was a thing.

Start, absolutely, with the World Atlas of Golf -- don't go anywhere else. If you want a solid, basic, first-step understanding of golf architecture, you can't do any better than the World Atlas. Doak's book, while I'd recommend it, is like Calculus 2 in college; the World Atlas is a solid HS AP class: not overwhelming, but thoughtful and written with great depth, and gives you a great variety of history, courses and countries to serve as the best introduction to GCA.

[PCCraig]

I think Doak's book is the best architecture 101 book out there.

I think it is, and it isn't.


For a person who is just getting into the subject, I think it may read a bit too much like a text book? The original Confidential Guide did a great job illustrating what makes certain golf courses special, and not so special, which may help a new student of architecture begin to learn more about the subject generally.


Frankly, today I'm not sure the best way to learn about architecture is through books?! Some of the best stuff is all on Podcasts...Andy Johnson talking to Geoff Ogilvy or Tom Doak...the Feed the Ball podcasts...all great stuff and what a terrific way to learn from masters of the craft.


One of the best things I've listened to in a long time was the podcasts Andy Johnson/Fried Egg did with Geoff Olgilvy on all 18 holes at Augusta. While not an architect, him verbally taking you around the course talking to the different strategies and what makes each hole unique was just fantastic.