Neil Crafter's 'Golf Architecture'

[Andy Hughes]

I am not sure if this is old news to this group or not, but I received my first issue of Crafter's 'Golf Architecture' several weeks ago, and it is extraordinarily good.  
It is full of interesting articles devoted to architecture, as varied as the Making of Barnbougle (written by Doak and Clayton) to An Absence of Greed, about the beginning of golf communities in England, to a photo essay of Friar's Head, and a profile of Eric Apperly.
But even if all the words were removed, this magazine would have been worth the purchase price.  It is full of interesting pictures.
Also of note, several GCA folks have written articles: Noel Freeman and Paul Turner submitted a piece on Southerndown, Jeff Mingay has written on Blackhawk, and George Bahto and Gib Papazian wrote about the Cape Hole.

[David_Elvins]

If you liked it, I think you are in luck because the next issue should be out any day now.  And don't forget to order the back issues.  From volume 5 on are particularly good.

[Neil_Crafter]

Thanks Andy - glad you enjoyed it

And by the way, its not Neil Crafter's 'Golf Architecture'. I am co-editor with Paul Mogford and we produce it on behalf of the Society of Australian Golf Course Architects. Paul is also my partner in our golf course architecture business, Golf Strategies. So the production of the magazine is very much a team effort.

David, our next issue #9, will be out in April and we have a pretty interesting contents list underway. Some of the highlights include:

> Nicklaus and Doak in a Q&A session on Sebonack.
> Tom MacWood on Hutchison, Campbell and Hotchkin.
> George Bahto on the Bottle Hole
> Geoff Shackelford on the Innocence of Links Golf
> Brian Curley on Mission Hills, China.
> GA Reviews on Oakland Hills and Newcastle GC
> Naccarato and Freeman on Deal's Sandy Parlour
and many more.

For those who do not subscribe and are interested in finding out more, go to www.sagca.org.au

cheers Neil

[Kelly Blake Moran]

I still need to get the latest issue, but judging from all the other issues I have it is by far, way above any golf publication that is produced anywhere in the world.  They do an extraordinary job, and this is somewhat due to publishing one issue a year, I think that helps make the higher standard possible.

[ed_getka]

Bumping this up since the next issue will be coming soon.

[JohnV]

Ed,

Thanks for reminding me, I've got issues 1-8, but I don't think I'm subscribed for #9.  I'll get my form in.

For those who are tempted to use the online form, note that it is not an SSL protected link.  This means that your credit card information will be sent in plain text across the world.  I wish they would fix that, but for now I'll just mail the form in.

[Neil_Crafter]

Thanks Ed for bringing this back up. We are in the design stage for issue 9 currently, which is the fun stage for us as we have done all the hard slog assembling the articles from the various authors and putting together the photographs and illustrations, as well as the necessary evil of the advertisements. Now we get to see how the articles look graphically once our graphic designer Grant Jorgensen does his stuff. That should be done by first week of April and then its off to the printers and we hope to have copies in hand late April.

We have increased the szie of the magazine this year from the 80 pages (plus covers) we had for issues 6, 7 and 8 up to 88 pages plus covers - so our biggest issue yet.

John
We will endeavour to fix the credit card issue regarding our website order page as soon as we can. Thanks.

cheers Neil

[Paul_Daley]

Neil Crafter and Paul "Moggy" Mogford do an outstanding job on this annual publication, so I urge GCA regulars and floaters, alike, to subscribe and support their efforts.