Sean W:
Mate, you're really getting into this golf-course architecture caper! I recall a green young lad just three years ago sipping cappuchino's asking about me about courses you could now recite in your sleep. I do believe you are hooked! Better inform Rachel.
Mark F:
I'm glad you mentioned the Ballybunion paintings, they were done by one of the town's favourite sons, Kevin Frost, who also happens to be Tim Weiman's great Irish buddy and golfing companion when TW travels across the pond. A style all his own, Kevin has reduced emphasis away from the traditional shades of green and brown, instead using more purple, blue and other combos. The richness really jumps out, as does Tim's essay, for he conveys a long-standing love of the Ballybunion golf experience and its people. His combination of architecture and the human element makes it a super essay.
Greg R:
G'day Young Turk, trusting that Barnbougle Dunes is firing and attracting golfers to the links. Can't wait for my next round over its crumpled linksland.
Knowing it was the last volume in the series, I was keen to gain access to the best photography. The Picture Credits reads like a Who's Who: Dick Durrance; David Scaletti; Kimbal Baker; Larry Lambrecht; Russell Kirk; Woody Sabold; Richard Castka; Ron Crawley; JoAnne Dost; Gary Lisbon; Gerard Warrener; Evan Schiller; to name some. Outside of Tasmania, perhaps not too many have heard of Jeff Jennings and Greg Willson, but that will change when golfers clap eyes upon their work at Barnbougle Dunes. Stunning job!
Terrific work with your Ratho Golf Links essay, and the story of its revival. I like its link to the Scottish heritage. People will enjoy reading about the 363rd generation of greenkeepers - the sheep, and their role in course maintenance. The piece also works as a history lesson!
You've mentioned two great essays by Mike DeVries and Jeff Mingay - excellent and valued contributors over the course
of the three-volume series. MDV outlines many of the key elements that lead to the rythym and flow of a golf course.
Jeff Mingay has penned "Preserving the World's Great Golf Courses" and he highlights the divesity of the world's best courses, and the growing trend toward uniformity. He pinpoints how Alister Mackenzie and Donald Ross changed their bunker styles in accord with the inherant site characteristics. And good info on Pete Dye courses, too.
Cousin Dick:
Thank you for donating a great image of Wild Horse in GAV-3; I wish the course was just down the road, what with it's burnt toast rough flapping in the breeze and super looking Bunker Hill Design-greens.
Sorry about you and Mrs D requiring a crowbar to prise open the parcel. Six years ago, I recall sending out my first copy of Links Golf, and, back then, I could hardly tie my shoe laces. A couple of sticky adhesions, and I thought I'd done the deed. Well ... if I didn't get the rudest letter back from one irate purchaser saying it was the sloppiest slapdash job he'd ever seen. Perhaps, I've gone too much the other way.
Brian P:
You put that well about Amazon. It is one of those win-loss situations. As buyers, we all want a bargain. But as a publisher, it kills one's business to have too many sales via Amazon. The only way it is sustainable if one prints 20,000 plus copies. Teeny 4,000 niche works can sink on this scenario.
Chris K: Yep, spot-on. Pelican Publishing in Gretna, Louisiana, has declined my offer to publish GAV-3, and so it will not be with Barnes and Noble. Trust that handicap of your is still tumbling.
Carlyle R:
Thanks for your interest; the book is out, but not in the States. I know someone who can supply directly!
Thomas D:
Nice going with your text that accompanied Wood Sabold's incredible imagery of Bandon Trails. Your copy went several days ago, so it won't be long. You'll enjoy reading the book's Acknowledgements.
Dunlop W 111:
Your two essays in Golf Archie Vol. three are well-written, provocative and instructive. "Armed with visual challenges" presents several viable alternatives to the mundane approach of merely adding length to a course. Instead, bringing in optical illusions, depth perception issues, constant contrasts, backdrop (of greens) variety, and visual ambuguity, all make for good reading. I also think clubs will find "Golf Course Accessories" worthwhile, as you urge them to throw out the artificial, yet incorporate what is natural habitat, such as the Iron horseshoe (tee markers) at Wild Horse, along with utilising cattle skulls as 150-yard markers. And other beaut examples, too. Also, thanks for posting the Contents. That version was a little out of date; indeed two of the contributors didn't get a gurnsey, through no fault of their own.